Exposing the good lie about 'MAGA Christianity' — and the reality elites hate

[ad_1] <img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="532213cf948ebd502cc5f264528c4bff" id="620de" src="https://www.conservativereview.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS9tZWRpYS1saWJyYXJ5L2V4cG9zaW5nLXRoZS1ncmVhdC1saWUtYWJvdXQtbWFnYS1jaHJpc3RpYW5pdHktYW5kLXRoZS10cnV0aC1lbGl0ZXMtaGF0ZS5qcGc_aWQ9NjE3NjUwNDgmYW1wO3dpZHRoPTEwMjQmYW1wO2hlaWdodD02MzYmYW1wO2Nvb3JkaW5hdGVzPTAsMCwwLDAiLCJleHBpcmVzX2F0IjoxODE4MTI3NzYwfQ.s4UAUrwBvc1lW71iS3uyVPG5gyg29YZHxKVZrdfJlHQ/image.jpg" /> Paul D. Miller is a Georgetown College professor, a former Bush-era nationwide safety official, and a type of self-appointed guardians of “respectable” faith who enjoys lecturing not simply his college students however half of America. Miller's newest essay printed within the Dispatch is a unprecedented act of pious snobbery — a lab-grown mix of theology, remedy, and think-tank sanctimony.

He calls it an exploration of “MAGA Christianity.” In reality, it is a sermon towards Christians who dare to assume, vote, or worship outdoors the well mannered confines of Beltway perception.

The irony is beautiful: a person preaching humility whereas presuming to guage the everlasting future of half the Christian citizens.

Miller’s place to begin is as cynical as it's tasteless: He makes use of Charlie Kirk’s memorial — a second of collective grief — because the courtroom to indict tens of millions of fellow believers. He admits that the occasion was each a Christian service and, in his phrases, a “state funeral,” but he by some means interprets that duality as corruption.

To show a mourning congregation into proof for a political thesis just isn't discernment however desecration.

From there, his argument collapses underneath the burden of its personal conceit. Miller insists that “MAGA Christianity” is a deviant pressure of religion — emotional, populist, and unmoored from doctrine. His proof? None. He provides no creeds, no sermons, no teachings that contradict scripture.

He merely declares, with professorial confidence, that it seems to be “quite a bit like historic Christianity” however “departs from it in necessary methods.” Which methods? He by no means bothers to say.

It is a masterpiece of insinuation — assert first, outline by no means.

He even makes an attempt an ecclesiastical census, claiming Southern Baptists hardly ever attend Trump rallies and that Reformed Christians fall outdoors the MAGA mildew. The assertion is so weird it reads like satire. Thousands and thousands of evangelicals who pray, tithe, and skim their Bibles day by day have supported Trump not out of idolatry however conviction — as a result of they see in his insurance policies a protection of life, liberty, and the household.

But to Miller, they're theological vacationers, emotional rubes cheering a false gospel.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk's demise revealed the kingdoms colliding in America

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What Miller calls “anti-elitist” is, in actual fact, constancy to the biblical precept that reality just isn't confined to temples of energy. Christ didn't recruit His disciples from the higher crust of Roman forms. He selected fishermen, tax collectors, and outcasts — the identical type of folks Miller treats with sociological suspicion. And his horror on the “bottom-up” nature of MAGA Christianity betrays the actual heresy at work: the worship of hierarchy.

For Miller, holiness lives within the ivory tower. For MAGA Christians, it nonetheless lives within the coronary heart.

There’s additionally the matter of credentials. By his personal admission, Miller is a political scientist, not a theologian. But right here he's, parsing scripture like a prophet and warning tens of millions that their souls are in peril. One virtually expects footnotes to incorporate “peer-reviewed visions.” He quotes Matthew 7:21-23 — “Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’…” — as if it had been aimed toward Republican voters.

In doing so, he twists a warning towards hypocrisy right into a cudgel towards patriotism. The irony is beautiful: a person preaching humility whereas presuming to guage the everlasting future of half the Christian citizens.

Miller’s nice mistake is his failure to know that Christianity and citizenship usually are not enemies.

American Christians perceive that their religion shapes their politics as a result of their politics form the ethical order wherein religion survives. To hope for righteous management just isn't “lawlessness” however obedience. To combat for the unborn, defend the household, and resist the creeping godlessness of presidency just isn't vengeance however advantage. Miller can not see this as a result of he’s too drunk on his personal self-importance.

The reality is straightforward: MAGA Christianity, as he sneeringly calls it, is nothing greater than Christianity that refuses to be bullied.

His disdain for “emotion” is equally misplaced. Scripture just isn't a spreadsheet. Christ wept, rejoiced, and raged. The Psalms are nothing however emotion sanctified into track. But Miller treats ardour as proof of poison, as if the one acceptable Christian is one anesthetized by nuance. His theology is chilly oatmeal — grey, tasteless, and finest left untouched.

What’s most galling is his informal dismissal of tens of millions of believers who've thought deeply in regards to the intersection of religion and politics. These Christians usually are not senseless zealots. They're women and men who've grappled with conscience, scripture, and civic responsibility. They’ve endured scorn from the press, mockery from academia, and condescension from exactly the form of clerical technocrats Miller represents.

To counsel they aren't actually Christian is to bear false witness on a nationwide scale.

The reality is straightforward: MAGA Christianity, as he sneeringly calls it, is nothing greater than Christianity that refuses to be bullied.

It is the religion of people that consider morality just isn't negotiable, borders usually are not blasphemy, and the flag might be honored with out idolatry. It is the religion that constructed church buildings, colleges, and communities, whereas the mainline denominations he venerates bend over backward looking for social approval.

Miller’s essay, then, just isn't a protection of the gospel however of the institution. He frets that the “Radical Reformation” spirit has turn out to be too highly effective when, in actuality, it’s the one factor conserving Christianity alive in a tradition hell-bent on its erasure. His actual quarrel isn’t with President Trump, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobiec — whom he dismisses as a fabricator and charlatan — however with any Christian who refuses to ask his permission to dwell faithfully.

Ultimately, Miller proves his personal level unintentionally.

He accuses MAGA Christians of conceitedness, but his whole essay drips with it. He warns towards false academics whereas setting himself up as one. And he preaches humility from a pulpit of self-regard, complicated his contempt for readability. The devoted he mocks will go on praying. They’ll hold voting and constructing households whereas his essays collect mud within the archives of full irrelevance.