Antifa and their allies in the Democrat Party and the media have a compulsion to label anyone who disagrees with them as Nazis and fascists, but a pastor accused of being a “Christian Nationalist” is redefining the pejorative and suggests those who resort to such labels are the real Nazis.
As I recounted in a previous article, Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel Chino Hills elicited the ire of 26 Democrat members of Congress after offering the opening prayer for the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year, being lambasted as a “Christian Nationalist” sympathetic to the riots of January 6th and accused of “spewing hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community.” These criticisms were laid out in a complaint addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson for allowing Hibbs to give the opening prayer.
Hibbs responded to the attacks in a statement to Fox News, dismissing the notion that he encouraged the violence of January 6th as “devoid of fact” and remarking that the “Christian Nationalist” label is “verbiage reminiscent of the rise of the Third Reich under the leadership of Adolf Hitler.” He explained that “Hitler, as well as communists, Marxists and socialists, are known to label and vilify those who disagree with their ideologies.”
I couldn’t agree more; those who baselessly attack their opponents as Nazis and fascists are the ones who are actually employing their tactics of isolation and demonization.
In his prayer, Hibbs asked God for “repentance of our national sins” and to fill the members of Congress with his “holy fear,” language his Democrat critics suggested was a dog whistle for “the militant and fanatical agenda he preaches about the LGBTQ+ community, Jews, Muslims, and anyone who conflicts with his ‘biblical worldview.’”
According to Roll Call, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), the principal author of the letter complaining about Hibbs, refers to himself as a “nonreligious humanist,” so perhaps it’s understandable that he would be confused about these terms. Or maybe he’s just an opportunistic demagogue.
During the March 3 episode of Lauren Green’s “Lighthouse Faith” podcast, Hibbs explained that he modeled his prayer after that given by Reverend Jacob Duché during one of the first meetings of the Continental Congress in 1774.
The sentiments expressed in the following excerpts from this prayer are very similar to what Hibbs included in his prayer.
“[L]ook down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give.”
. . .
“Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people.”
If a Christian Nationalist is anyone who believes our rights come from God, as Politico’s Heidi Pryzbyla argued during a widely panned appearance on MSNBC last month, Duché certainly sounds like one of these extremely dangerous individuals.
During the podcast, Hibbs summed up Christian Nationalism as what’s contained in the 1620 Mayflower Compact, whose signers pledged to “Covenant and Combine ourselves together in a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid,” namely the “Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country.”
Citing Jeremiah 29:7, Hibbs elaborated that “a Christian Nationalist is a Christian who happens to live in a nation and that they seek [its] welfare.”
While Democrats and their allies have ranted and raved about the dangers of traditional Christianity, their harangues are being drowned out by the even-tempered expositions of people like Pastor Jack Hibbs who are flipping the script on their demagoguery and lies.