Why Even Fight Christian Nationalism?

(It’s Only Partly About a Hindu Statue)

It only seems to take a matter of hours these days for a new Christian Nationalism fracas to break out online. And when it happens, I often wonder: Why do we even bother fighting this nutty movement? What is the point of it all?

The latest skirmish started with Christian Nationalist favorite Joe “The Sin of Empathy” Rigney commenting on another CN’s post concerning the Statue of Union, a 90-foot sculpture of the Hindu “god” Hanuman that stands at the Sri Ashtalakshmi Temple site in Sugar Land, Texas. Posting over a short video showing the statue, Rigney remarked: “Anyone know if Michael Cassidy has anything going on these days?”

Cassidy, readers will recall, was the man who, back in December 2023, destroyed a Satanic Temple display in the Iowa State Capitol. Claiming “I saw this blasphemous statue and was outraged,” he initially faced a felony hate crime charge for his actions. He later pleaded guilty to an aggravated misdemeanor charge in order to get the felony hate crime count dropped, admitting that he “partially dismantled a display in the Iowa State Capitol Building, without a right/license to do so.”

Judging from their reactions to Rigney’s question (which may or may not have been serious), Christian Nationalists of the Woke Right variety now seem to think that Cassidy was an important trailblazer, with many appearing eager for a repeat of the “go around physically destroying idols” stunt. Mind you, this Hindu statue was constructed by Hindus and sits on the grounds of a Hindu temple; it’s not sitting in a corner of a taxpayer-funded state Capitol somewhere, although even that illegal act of Cassidy’s did nothing to advance the gospel or destroy Satanism (which the Satanic Temple doesn’t even believe or practice).

Noting the legal, constitutional and biblical problems with false-religion statue destruction, Midwest Baptist Theological Seminary library dean and professor Matt Millsap asked Rigney, “Are you encouraging trespassing and destruction of private property? Are you suggesting that in America, Christians have the right to free and unhindered religious expression, but Hindus should not?”

And then another little online war broke out.

The CN side, with its typical emotional outbursts, was all for destroying the Hindu statue and, further, eradicating all non-Christian religions in America (“Christianity should be privileged and sand-demon-worship should be banned!” argued one, as if Jesus Christ becomes the Savior and transforming Lord of anyone’s life through a simple political fiat). The anti-CN side, on the other hand, argued against the concept by exegeting and citing Scripture and defending the importance of our religious liberty, which – news flash! -- clearly benefits Christians. In return, the latter were met with very deep CN counter-arguments, such as “Shut up, fed.”

Again, it is just this sort of incident that often leads me to think: Why fight with these people, like a few of us have been doing for two years now? Why even bother countering the insane ideas these people put forward? Most of them just block, insult, lie and argue like third-grade schoolyard bullies, anyway, showing no good-faith willingness at all to be corrected by Scripture or a sound argument.

But then I remember why we must fight. God commanded us in His Word to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) and to “fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Tim. 6:12). This fighting, however, isn’t in the category of the useless controversies or the unreasonable quarreling and fighting among ourselves that Scripture clearly commands Christians to avoid. There is a time and a place to step in and publicly correct and biblically rebuke false “Christian” moral dictates or “destructive heresies,” because they undermine the gospel, leading the sheep astray and dividing and damaging the Body of Christ. As each of us has time and opportunity, we must fight for the truth of God’s Word as He alone gives us the grace to do. It is simply our duty as Christians, regardless of the results we may or may not see.

Imagine, for example, what would happen if some CN crazy actually did travel to Sugar Land in a fit of faux holy war and destroyed the Hindu statue.

Remembering that every Christian is anti-pagan idol, we nonetheless understand that destroying someone else’s property is illegal and wrong. Second, the Hindus have the same constitutional right to freedom of religion that Christians do, and they have a First Amendment right to put up a statue on their temple site. Third, trying to destroy a Hindu statue in Jesus’ name would reflect horribly on the gospel and the Body of Christ as a whole.

Just as Christianity comes under hostile public scrutiny whenever a famous pastor falls, an attack on a Hindu statue would end up erroneously painting Christians as akin to Shiite Muslims in a new “Christian” form of wild-eyed jihad. Talk about undermining and harming the cause of Christ!

Meanwhile, post-statue-destruction, all the Hindus who erected the statue would still be lost, so how would that act help them in any way to believe that Christ loved them and died and rose again to save them from their sins? In fact, such an act would harm the advancement of the good news of salvation and falsely announce to the world that Christians care more about destroying physical idols than they do about the eternal destiny of the people who built the statue in the spiritual darkness of ignorance. If any Christian actually does care more about attacking an idol than seeing the salvation of a lost sinner for whom Christ died, then it is to his shame, and he is worthy of strong rebuke.

What’s more, the idea that Christians should go around attacking and destroying idols is not biblically defensible. Consider the Apostle Paul’s arrival in Athens in Acts 17. He had every reason, under CN logic, to go around tearing down all the idols he saw, but he didn’t do that. Instead, he used the opportunity God gave him to reference the pagans’ altar “to an unknown God” as a jumping-off point for a tremendous description of who the true Triune God really is and a public proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed,” Paul proclaimed. “He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”

And guess what happened? Some pagans said they wanted to hear him again on the topic. And others “joined him and believed.” That’s the right way to honor Jesus – by loving and evangelizing those who need Him, reasoning with them, as Paul did, to come to Him who is the only mediator between God and man and the only way to be saved. As Paul understood well, the outward idol isn’t the main problem, anyway; the inward idolatry of the heart is what must be addressed.

To reiterate, none of this means that we CN critics are idol-supporters. Of course not! But neither Paul, nor we, are called by God to clean the outside of the pagans’ cup just so we can pat ourselves on the back and get a chance to preen on Tucker Carlson’s show afterward. Jesus came to seek and save the lost. And we are here, therefore, to love sinners as Jesus does and to make disciples of all nations. Let the gospel triumph, not the illegal, totalitarian and often foolish impulses that are so much a part of CN.

This is just a small example of why I think it’s critical to continue to do battle against CN –- and other unbiblical errors —in a public way, as the Lord leads each of us to do. False teachers are on the rise in these last days, and they are publicly poisoning the church, often online, taking advantage of the fact that many Christians get more of their beliefs from false teachers on the Internet than from their own pastors or denominations in person. By God’s grace, we have a duty to fight for the faith against any who would falsify it, twist it, add to it, take away from it or undermine it, keeping in mind that we, too, always have to be open and responsive to the rebuke and correction of Scripture.

John Calvin once said, “A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.” That is right on the money. And yet, we can’t forget that “the battle is the Lord’s.” He is the One who saves, justifies and sanctifies. We only plant and water, while God gives the growth. And it is He who will advance His gospel through us. It is He who will finally separate the wheat from the chaff, as well.

Until He calls us home, may we who love our Master keep on barking.