Theological Interlude

 Katherine Stewart, a reporter who covers the religious right, has an essay in the NYT to which I commend your attention. If you can't access it because of the paywall, Paul Campos excerpts and discusses it here. Stewart explains what Josh Hawley's project really is. Why did he try to get Congress to overturn the results of the November election?

Yesterday, a comment on my Sunday Bible post, I quoted from Matthew 25, and I noted that most Christians do not actually believe what it clearly, literally says: that salvation is dependent on good deeds. As Hawley explains:

In multiple speeches, an interview and a widely shared article for Christianity Today, Mr. Hawley has explained that the blame for society’s ills traces all the way back to Pelagius — a British-born monk who lived 17 centuries ago. In a 2019 commencement address at The King’s College, a small conservative Christian college devoted to “a biblical worldview,” Mr. Hawley denounced Pelagius for teaching that human beings have the freedom to choose how they live their lives and that grace comes to those who do good things, as opposed to those who believe the right doctrines.

It may be surprising that Christians reject what the Gospel says are the words of Jesus, but they do. It has been a classic debate among Christian theologians whether salvation is by faith or by works. (Calvinists say it's neither, that God chose who to save at the beginning of time and there's nothing we can do about it.) In this debate, faith has won out, at least among the most politically active branches of Christianity and notably those who have supported the soon-to-end presidency of someone who is not himself a Christian and whose entire life is a tissue of sin.

The reason is that they are Christian dominionists -- their goal is theocracy.  To further quote Stewart:

In other words, Mr. Hawley’s idea of freedom is the freedom to conform to what he and his preferred religious authorities know to be right. Mr. Hawley is not shy about making the point explicit. In a 2017 speech to the American Renewal Project, he declared — paraphrasing the Dutch Reformed theologian and onetime prime minister Abraham Kuyper — “There is not one square inch of all creation over which Jesus Christ is not Lord.” Mr. Kuyper is perhaps best known for his claim that Christianity has sole legitimate authority over all aspects of human life.

This goal supersedes all other considerations. Blatant lies, terroristic threats  and actual violence are perfectly justified in pursuing it. At this point I commend your attention to newly elected Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, of Michigan who tells us that some of his Republican colleagues voted to overturn the election because they feared for the safety of their families if they did not. I need say no more.