A clip from MSNBC went viral last week in which Heidi Przybyla of Politico laid her finger on the perceived hallmark of Christian Nationalism—”The one thing that unites all of them as Christian Nationalists,” she explained, “is that they believe our rights as Americans don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress. They don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God.”
Now, this is the kind of moment for which we thank God. It is wonderfully clarifying. While Ms. Przybyla seems shockingly unaware that it is purely American to acknowledge that our rights come from God and not the state, she has, nevertheless, done us quite a service. She has been more honest than many Christian leaders. I’m talking about those Christian leaders who, disregarding the crown rights of King Jesus, look like a disheveled band of Anglo-Saxons eager to pay the raiding Vikings the Danegeld. Yes, I know that she attempted to paint the notion that our rights come from God as fringe. For this, she is rightly ridiculed. Yes, you can find clips of Joe Biden saying our rights come from God. Yes, our nation’s founding fathers said something about men being endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. So do respond to the clip with a good hearty laugh that bubbles up from somewhere in the nether regions. But, as you do, don’t miss what Heidi has done for us. She has actually set the table quite nicely.
The first thing that we must grasp with both hands, and I mean grasp it, hold tight, shake it around a bit, and fasten it down with a couple of lag bolts, is that the time for dancing in the middle is over. We are all Christian nationalists now. As Abraham Kuyper said many years ago, “The conflict has always been and will be until the end, Christianity or Paganism; the idols or the living God.” There was a time in American society when the average man could carry on with his business, reaping the benefits of a Christian society, while oblivious himself to the Christian structure behind his nation’s laws, customs, and traditions. Momentum is a thing, after all. But you eventually have to stop coasting on the gains of your grandfathers and start pedaling if you don’t want to be eaten by Rousseau and his horde of bandits.
Heidi is not simply an ill-informed MSNBC panelist. She is that, indeed. But that is not all she is. She is a sign of the times. Do you really think that here in the year of our Lord 2024 that anyone left of center would hear what she said and reply with, “Now, Heidi, don’t you know that our nation has a long tradition of common sense people acknowledging that our rights come from the triune God? Don’t you know that in 1892 the Supreme Court, in a case called Holy Trinity v. the United States, stated that we were a Christian Nation? Haven’t you heard that the Treaty of Paris which ended the war for Independence and officially recognized the United States as an independent nation, opened with these words, ‘In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity?’ And, Heidi, has it escaped your attention that fifty of the fifty-five men present at the Constitutional Convention were orthodox Christians?” No, you can’t picture that at all. For that matter, you can’t picture more than about three people right of center informing Heidi of this perfectly sound history. Welcome to the new world, my friend. Here is what we are going to do about it.
We will not, yea, we must not let the left define any more terms, not even Christian nationalism. And, yes, some of the reactions from conservatives have permitted the left to do just that. I’m talking about those reactions that run along the lines of, “What do you mean you have to advocate some Christian structure to our national identity, traditions, leadership, and laws in order to hold that our rights come from God? Silly, Heidi, you don’t have to do any of that in order to believe our rights come from God! For Pete’s sake, don’t go calling me a Christian nationalist just because I stand with Thomas Jefferson.” That response is the kind that is no longer permissible. Just take a look around after you say it. MSNBC and Politico are not impressed. They look upon your qualifications and still think you are worthy of the gulag. Your fellow Christians are equally nettled, wondering why you’re so quickly dissenting from that 1892 Supreme Court ruling.
I said before that Heidi has been more honest than most, and poor lady, her honesty has got her in a heap of trouble. What do I mean? Well, she said the secret thing out loud. She admitted that the “rights come from God” thing is indeed a Christian thing. And come to think of it, if our civil rights come from God, then maybe we owe Him something. She stepped out of line. She stopped marching in the silly parade we have been marching in for too long. That parade is the one where we pay vague lip service to a vague deity about some kind of rights that we get from Him. Poor Heidi essentially said, “But, guys, if we get our rights from the Christian God, doesn’t it follow that we owe Him some kind of allegiance? My goodness, if we say our rights come from Him, we may need to get our laws from Him, our leaders from Him, our customs from Him, and where will it stop?”
With Heidi cracking up the party this way, her leftist friends can’t do anything but agree with her, denounce that rights come from God, and haul Russell Moore off to the recalibration camps for his Christian nationalist ways. And this is not the most troubling part. The real trouble was that when the music stopped after Heidi let the cat out of the bag, many Christians have replied, “Oh, Heidi, don’t worry, we can have the ‘rights from God’ thing with very little ramifications for our nation. Really, look at how we have been carrying on since the sixties. Fret not.” But Heidi is not so sure about these reassurances. She has good reason not to be. Consider the logic.
If our civil rights come from the triune God, does it not follow that civil allegiance must be paid to Him? We might stamp “in God we trust” on our money. We might declare that we are one nation under God. We might structure our civil affairs such that on the one day in seven which God has deemed holy, we rest from our work and worship Him. This civil and public acknowledgment should certainly be formalized in our governing documents. How could we do any other if our rights come from Him?
But it is not going to stop there. If our rights come from God, then won’t it follow that our laws must come from Him? It would be quite strange if our rights came from God, but then the law of our land paid no regard to what He has revealed. I dare say that the God-given rights might collide with the laws of our land if those laws went rogue and didn’t pay attention to the Rights-Giver.
Moreover, if our rights come from the triune God, then does that not mean that we would need leaders from Him as well? What good will it do if our rights are from God but our leaders are not? Won’t they disregard the rights that are freely given us by God? Right about now is when some mid-management evangelical leader comes along and puts his hand around a young Johnny who is reading this post. This young man is thinking that the logic thus far holds. But his boss at the seminary says something like, “Listen here. This is sounding a bit too theocratic, dogmatic, and nationalistic.” Stringing together a few more scary words, he adds, “Our rights come from God, indeed. But our laws come straight out of the ole noggin here. Our leaders come from the voting booth. That’s just how it goes. Fret not, if these leaders get out of line, we will take care of them in the next election. When we do, we will get some sane men—some competent Turks as they say—back into the halls of power who will restore sanity, repeal the bad laws, and get some better ones on the books.”
That is, that’s at least how things used to go. But thanks to COVID, both young Johnny and his superior have spent a good deal of time thinking through Romans 13. All of the questions are not answered yet. But there is a clear consensus forming around this much: (1) Civil authorities are ministers of the triune God (Romans 13:6). (2) They have been appointed by God, for “there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1). (3) They must not be a terror to good works but to evil (Romans 13:3). The implications are not difficult to trace. In the name of some vague civic theism, do we really want to argue that unbaptized men who care not for God’s revelation are fit to be His ministers? Do we really want to claim that a man can serve as a servant of God, establish laws that He approves of, and execute His wrath while publicly and plainly paying Him no reverence? You know grandma is not going to abide that nonsense. Don’t make her wash your mouth out with soap.
Since we are all Christian nationalists now, we should build upon our Romans 13 observations. Moving forward, be it resolved we take a closer look at what God means when He says to His covenant people, “kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers” (Isaiah 49:23). For now, three teams present themselves to you. And the only option for faithful Christians is team C. You can wrestle around with your brothers in team C. But team B never was a faithful option, and thanks be to God that it is crumbling to pieces.
Team A (the atheists): We reject both that our rights come from God, as well as the notion that our civil order (traditions, laws, leaders, etc.) should be ordered from, through, and to Christianity and the Christian God.
Team B (the blighters): We believe our rights come from God but reject the notion that our civil order (traditions, laws, leaders, etc.) should be ordered from, through, and to Christianity and the Christian God.
Team C (the Christian nationalists): We believe our rights come from God, and also the notion that our civil order (traditions, laws, leaders, etc.) should be ordered from, through, and to Christianity and the Christian God.
Once we establish that our civil laws must be ordered “from Christianity and the Christian God,” it follows that we must decide how He orders them. In a longer version of the clip, Heidi went on to reference natural law, which signals the need for Christian civil reformers to hammer out the role of both natural law and biblical law in human law. Thomas Aquinas, an old school Christian nationalist himself, grounds human law in divine law. In one of my favorite lines from the Summa, he writes, “Now both these conditions are verified of human law: since it is both something ordained to an end; and is a rule or measure ruled or measured by a higher measure. And this higher measure is twofold, vis., the Divine law and the natural law.”
It follows that if you are going to install legislators and judges in your nation, they must establish human law and rule according to the higher measure, which includes both natural and biblical law. Should such men be educated in that higher measure? Of course they should be.
Now someone is going to ask, “Are you really saying that civil authorities must study the Bible in order to be fit for their office?” Well, I didn’t say it. Aquinas did.
Listen to the angelic doctor: You will serve God or Baal. You will have Christian Nationalism or Molech Nationalism.
