In this OpEd which ran in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News, I critique NBC, Meet the Press, and local Moscowan detractors.
As most Daily News readers know, Moscow’s Christ Church was highlighted for twelve minutes on national television in a recent segment of “Meet the Press.” NBC titled it “Christian Nationalism on the Rise.”
There were some humorous moments, like when one local detractor said that Christ Church women were not allowed to wear pants. An NBC videographer immediately cut to a scene of an outdoor Psalm sing with all the women wearing pants. Or when the local Unitarian Universalist priestess charged a historically confessional Trinitarian congregation as being unorthodox. It’s as if NBC asked Wilson to choose the individuals to critique him.
One of last century’s leading intellectuals, Irving Crystal, said that modern conservativism rests on three pillars: religion, nationalism, and economic growth. The opposite of a nationalist is a globalist. The contemporary view of globalism as one worldwide liberal empire goes by many names: democratic socialism, liberal internationalism, progressive imperialism, and neo-Marxism.
A Christian who identifies with Crystal’s three pillars is a Christian nationalist, as opposed to progressives who espouse atheism, globalism, and “democratic” socialism.
In August 2019, I wrote an Op-Ed praising nationalism. Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul were all Christian nationalists, yet no one described them as fascists. For them, being a nationalist meant wanting their countries to be free to do things their own way, not under the boot of an atheistic global empire with socialistic ideology dictating how the conquered would think, believe, and live.
Meet the Press focused on Christ Church’s stated goal to make Moscow a Christian town. Nancy Chaney wrote a letter to the editor in which she argued “Wilson deems Moscow strategic and feasible for religious takeover by means akin to warfare.”
A common misconception assumes Christianity to be an anemic, naive, feel-good-do-good religion that stays within the four walls of its church ghetto. Far from it. NBC and Chaney clearly don’t realize that the New Testament is replete with military metaphors in discussing Christianity. In Philippians 2:25 and Philemon 1:2, the Apostle Paul describes Christians as “fellow soldiers.” Ephesians 6:10–18 discusses faith, righteousness, and other elements of Christianity as the armor of God. John Bunyan picks up on this military imagery in The Pilgrim’s Progress, as have many other Christian writers throughout history. The same imagery appears in many church hymns such as “The Son of God Goes Forth to War;” “Onward, Christian Soldiers;” “Soldiers of Christ, Arise;” etc.
Chaney describes “Wilsonites” as manipulative, without the best interests of the town at heart, though “other faiths have coexisted here for generations.” Is Chaney upset about the thriving new businesses, or the beautified atmosphere of the college-central downtown? Most likely, since during her mayoral reign she is remembered for trying to create a progressive utopia by shutting down Walmart and running businesses out of town.
The weapons of the church, the ‘takeover’ according to Chaney, include “anti-science rhetoric.” This is perhaps the most amusing, given the nationwide post-pandemic regret of how the US swallowed up Fauci’s claims and spent two years smothering any sort of actual discussion and data stating otherwise. And what sort of anti-science talk is Christ Church’s statement that there are two biological genders? Such shocking propaganda!
Look at the Christ Church website:
“Our desire is to make Moscow a Christian town through faithful and robust covenant renewal worship on the Lord’s Day, through proclamation of the gospel to unbelievers, while training additional evangelists who will continue proclaiming that gospel.”
What are the weapons they will use for this alleged “religious takeover?” Worship, preaching the gospel, and sending missionaries: the same weapons that have been used for the last 2,000 years of church history.
The Christ Church mission statement continues from there with instructions on how to live like Christians. You can read it for yourself: https://www.christkirk.com/our-church/our-mission/
Biblical Christianity is not privatized. High-octane Christianity is visibly on display in Moscow and elsewhere in America.
Historically, we Christian nationalists believe the world is best governed when nations are allowed to pursue their own interests and traditions according to their own understanding. This allows for the greatest freedom and individual liberty and has nothing at all to do with a faux superiority of a country or ethnicity.