Why Do Christian Nationalists Love Guns?
This week's Reader Question (Scroll to the end to listen)
Imagine yourself at eight years old. Your parents attend a Christian Nationalist church and send you to its school. The pastor rails constantly about Liberal Government Overreach. He points to the revocation of Bob Jones University’s tax-exempt status as the beginning of Liberals coming after true believers.
Liberal academics are brainwashing college students to hate Christians. The Liberal media pollutes minds with coded messages to harass true believers. Liberal scientists want everyone to believe they evolved from monkeys. Liberal doctors are murdering innocent unborn babies. And Liberal politicians are turning the United States into a police state where Christians could be tortured, imprisoned, or martyred for loving Jesus.
“Don’t be surprised if you have to pick up a gun and kill somebody for Jesus in your lifetimes,” he shouts as he rapid-fires his fist on the pulpit.
Most adult Christians in your church own at least one gun to protect themselves and their property. You overhear your parents wondering whether they need to buy more. Eventually, their collection will fill a closet-sized gun safe.
When you grow up and ask them why this is necessary, they insist that they must be ready to defend their right to be Christians. They won’t stand by and let anyone attack their faith. Most of their fellow church members are ready to fight in the Army of God, to justify literal terrorism as spiritual warfare. They’re prepared to shoot-to-kill any fellow Americans who oppose them.
When Christo-fascist Republicans like Kari Lake make comments like the ones highlighted below, it’s understandably triggering for me (pun intended.)
“That’s why they’re coming after us with law-fare; they’re going to come after us with everything. That’s why the next six months is going to be intense,” Lake said, adding: “We’re going to put on our helmet or your Kari Lake ball cap. We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us, just in case.”
Source: MSNBC
Christian Nationalists love guns because they have been radicalized by fear.
For five decades, their pastors have preached thousands of sermons about every conceivable thing that could attack their right to worship. They have been indoctrinated to see persecution everywhere. (This newsletter would be persecution to them. If you don’t agree with them, you’re persecuting them. You are the enemy.)
This radicalization is made more dangerous by the fact that they no longer associate with anyone beyond their bubbles. They might have liberal family members, but those relationships have broken down or ceased altogether. Journalists, politicians, and writers have warned about our very different realities, but it is still jarring to encounter it in the wild.
Project 2025 Promise 3: Defend our Nation's Sovereignty, Borders, and Bounty Against Global Threats
In the past decade or so, Christian Nationalism has shifted its message. It’s no longer “you need a gun to protect yourself from what we tell you to fear.” Their message today is “You are the avenger, a godly warrior standing between us and anarchy.”
They are part of the 1-in-5 Americans who say violence would be justified to get the United States back on track. Because many people cannot sit in pews and listen to violent rhetoric for five decades and fail to be fully radicalized. Here’s the full quote from PBS below, with a link to their poll:
One in 5 U.S. adults believe Americans may have to resort to violence to get their own country back on track, according to the latest PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll, an attitude that experts say puts the nation in “an incredibly dangerous place” in the months before the 2024 presidential election.
Republicans were more likely than Democrats or independents — and slightly more likely than the population overall – to say force may be needed to course-correct.
Source: PBS Newshour
What’s 1-in-5 Americans? Almost 67 million people.
Almost 67 million Americans likely believe violence is justified to “save” America.
Many of those are Christian Nationalists who believe they are Warriors of God fighting to restore God’s leadership of this country. They are convinced their guns will be useful in that fight. For decades, their leaders have equated loving guns with serving and honoring God.
One hears defense, defense, defense. Do they actually believe that an army of their fellow citizens is going to attack them? Do they plan to do the attacking? In 2021 at a Charlie Kirk gathering, one attendee asked "When do we get to use the guns?" Granted, only one person, but in light of what you are posting, seems not so far-fetched. Warriors don't just defend, they attack.
1 in 5 adults would be fewer than 67 million, but then children tend to follow their parents and are more than capable of using the military grade weaponry which civilians have access to in this country, which may or may not be the stupidest decision in the history of humanity. Also, some of those respondents are supposedly on our side. I say supposedly because violent Democrats might differ from the rest of us in some pretty important ways. In any event, tens of millions of Republicans ready to kill us is still very very very bad.
I think I might prefer a war though, to uncontested governance by these fascists. If they take control of the government they are going to have to be dislodged by extraordinary means anyway. I'm no expert on the history of war, but do conflicts usually resolve in favor of those who are more violent, or those who have more support? The first group has the advantage in the early stages, but you'd think the second group might prevail over time. The question is how wars are shaped by the non-military actions taken by every person every day. That's the unknown, which could potentially be a source of hope. Most Americans have not yet come to terms with what is going to happen in this country, and I don't think we can be sure how they will react when they are forced to.