What Would Jesus Do for Christmas? Certainly Not This | Opinion

For Christians across the country, December is a time when we tell and retell the story of Christmas. The familiar tale begins with the journey to Bethlehem—which can lead us to reflect on our own personal and communal journeys toward grace and love.

Unfortunately, more than a few Christian-nationalist leaders have wandered off that path to focus on their own power this season, distorting the Gospel and sowing violent conspiracy theories. It’s a spiritual and moral detour that is dangerous for the church and our democracy. Thankfully, it’s one that the vast majority of Christians in this country reject. But we must be more forceful in our rejection.

Only a week before Christmas, a who’s who of MAGA celebrities, far-right pastors and insurrectionists gathered in Tulare, California, for the latest stop of the pro-Trump ReAwaken America Tour with Michael Flynn, Eric Trump, and Roger Stone. It was a repugnant showcase of political violence, hatred, and reckless disinformation, all perpetrated in the hijacked name of Jesus.

Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images

At the stop in Tulare last Friday and Saturday, with Flynn standing at his side, event organizer Clay Clark accused former President Donald Trump’s 2024 opponents of wanting to scientifically merge humans and animals, while also referring to other targets of his conspiracy theories—particularly the World Economic Forum—as “Luciferian, Godless, Marxist, globalists.”

Another speaker, Liz Crokin, revived the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory from 2016 that even Alex Jones has apologized for, baselessly accusing reporters not just of “covering it up” but also of being “pedophiles” themselves—all because they sometimes use the word “pizza” in leaked emails, and apparently anyone who talks about pizza is a groomer because “Pizza is a pedophile codeword.” Clark proclaimed, “Liz Crokin was right, by the way.” (That’s bad news for pizza lover Donald Trump.)

One wishes this was a fringe event, but there were 3,000 people in attendance and, according to an unverified claim from Clark, two million more watching online—and all of it wrapped up with Christmas hymns and assertions of God’s favor.

By twisting the Gospel and misappropriating the language of faith, these speakers routinely attach their extremist political views to religion, the thing their audiences hold most dear. Listeners learn to treat far-right politicians with the same reverence they treat the Bible. Small political criticisms suddenly feel personal and blasphemous, and to oppose former President Donald Trump is to defy God.

This weaponization of religion has been a classic tactic of fascist leaders throughout history. Mussolini relied on Pope Pius XI to provide moral legitimacy for his violent street gangs terrorizing Rome. The Third Reich used Reichsbischof Ludwig Müller and the Deutsche Christen to spread Nazi propaganda. Russian President Vladimir Putin has poisoned opponents and bombed Ukrainian homes with the blessings of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. And now Trump has enjoyed the support of Franklin Graham, Tony Perkins, Lance Wallnau and other conservative pastors and self-proclaimed prophets as he foments violence to seize power and undermine elections.

In this vein, the ReAwaken America Tour originally stopped in megachurches. It continues to blend baptisms and praise music with pro-Trump rallies and QAnon rants and offers 50 percent-off tickets to pastors. The goal is to expose Christians to a steady stream of lies, distorted Scripture, and dog whistles that they can keep spreading in church long after ReAwaken leaves town, while also creating a permission structure for more Jan. 6-style bloodshed in Jesus’ name.

Speakers raise the stakes to apocalyptic proportions, literally proclaiming “God is on our side” while demonizing their opponents as “Team Satan.” They call their politics a mission from God while taking divine-sounding violent imagery like “armor of God” and “spiritual warfare” out of context, allowing the audience to connect the dots to violence.

Some speakers get far more explicit. In Nevada in August, speaker Stew Peters bragged about MAGA plans to execute both Dr. Anthony Fauci and Hunter Biden, even going on about the rope he wants to use for the hanging. At Trump Doral in May, Mark “Trump’s Top Pastor” Burns bragged “the Bible says the violent take it… and we take it by force.” And in January 2022, pro-Hitler bodybuilder Scott McKay said, “This is war. It’s gonna get bloody,” threatening to put “balls and bullets” in pro-vaccine nurses and doctors “in the name of Christ.” The list goes on and on.

ReAwaken has been criss-crossing the country with an unholy message of religious hate for two years. So it’s no surprise that recent data from PRRI demonstrates a dramatic increase in support for political violence over that same time period. The same survey also finds that Republicans who view Trump favorably are nearly three times as likely as the few Republicans who don’t support him to believe in the necessity of resorting to violence.

So far, the tour has announced only one stop for 2024—perhaps because it’s now struggling to find new venues willing to platform its lies and hatred. This is good news, but by no means a reason for complacency. Other Christian-nationalist events like Franklin Graham’s tours and Turning Points USA Faith continue in full swing. ReAwaken itself even lives on via its prominent affiliate “Pastors for Trump,” which organizes so-called “prayer calls” that feature more political figures than pastors while spending barely any time in actual prayer.

This abuse of faith is all a means to an end: Power. It’s about using Jesus, not following him.

Where ReAwaken America preaches hatred, Jesus teaches love. When MAGA preachers endorse QAnon lies and election denial, Jesus says the truth shall set us free. And when Christian nationalism calls for violence, Jesus tells us to put away the sword.

History also reminds us that whenever fascism has tried to corrupt church denominations, Christians in those very same denominations always pushed back. In Nazi Germany alone, the Dachau concentration camp filled a bunk with thousands of Catholic priests, while clergy like Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Blessed Cardinal Clemens August von Galen lifted a bold public witness.

Pope Pius XI ultimately recanted his support for Mussolini on his deathbed. Decades later, we can hope and pray that Trump’s violent court pastors will also realize how far they’ve gone on their detour. May they find that they are not just out of step with history and the majority of American Christians, but with God. We will welcome them home like the Prodigal Son.

However, we cannot wait for them to course correct. Local clergy and members of the Christian organization Faithful America have opposed every recent stop of ReAwaken America, including in Tulare this past weekend. Christians of goodwill must keep speaking out, for this blasphemy and fascism isn’t just bad for America’s multi-faith, multiracial democracy—it is also quite simply not what Jesus wants.

The Rev. Nathan Empsall is a priest in the Episcopal Church and the executive director of Faithful America.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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