Secularism or Statism? The Religion of the Political Left

The Christian Left, says Church and State host Lucas Miles, has abandoned the Holy Trinity for the trinity of diversity, acceptance, and social justice. (ErwinMeier/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Commentary

Today’s culture is often considered secular, implying that America is primarily divided between the religious and the non-religious. However, in addition to the many religions that enjoy freedom in the United States, the ideology of the political left seems to be a religion of its own. The left prides itself on its detachment from God and country. Yet its adherents embrace the tenets of the state and the doctrines of their own political ideology with religious fervor, labeling any who oppose them as a heretic.

Liberals increasingly label conservatives “Christian nationalists,” or more commonly, Nazis and fascists. Ordained minister and best-selling author Lucas Miles, host of the EpochTV series “Church and State,” shows that the political left is a religion of its own. It is a religion, moreover, that resembles the statism of Nazi Germany much more than it resembles Christianity.

In an episode entitled “The Holy Trinity of the Left,” Miles defines Christian nationalism, explores how Christians should respond to this label, and takes a look at the German Church under Nazism.

An image from video footage featured in "The Holy Trinity of the Left" about the origins of Christian nationalism. (EpochTV)

What is Christian Nationalism?

Headlines referring to the Jan. 6 capitol protest labeled attendees as militant Christian nationalists. Miles calls the term a “dog whistle” to label the Christian right as one thing: Nazis.

The media and the left conspire to paint Christianity as hateful and oppressive.

Miles uses the example of the book “Taking America Back for God,” by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry. The authors speak with disdain and fear about Christian nationalism. They describe Christian nationalists as people who believe America was or is a Christian nation, encourage Christian prayer before sporting events, voted for Donald Trump, participate in evangelism, support Israel, and await the second coming of Christ.

By these criteria, anyone who believes and lives out basic aspects of their Christian faith is labeled a Christian nationalist. According to the book, if you’re a Christian, you’re a Christian nationalist.

“The term ‘Christian nationalist’ is intended to make you think of one thing in particular,” Miles says: Nazism. “You’re a Nazi if you follow Jesus. That’s essentially what’s being stated.”

The left tries to paint devout Christians as Nazis and bigots who should be viewed as the number one danger to society. However, “when you understand what happened in Nazi Germany, I believe the last thing that you would ever call a Christ-follower is a Christian nationalist,” says Miles. If people understood what happened to many churches under the Third Reich, they would never identify Christian nationalism with Nazism.

The ‘Nazified’ German Church

Although some Christians have embraced the term “Christian nationalist,” it is essential to understand what it means historically.

Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. The ruling Nazi party understood that it needed to draw other groups in Germany to its side to promote its agenda to the rest of the nation. Because of this, the Third Reich worked to align the German church with its political ideology.

The Nazi ideology successfully took root in liberal churches that were already aligned with völkish (folkish) religion with pantheistic, mystical viewpoints. In many ways, these churches had already stepped outside the Christian faith. Therefore, incorporating Nazi beliefs into their worldview wasn’t that much of a stretch.

Miles explains that although the liberal German church had already embraced viewpoints that were outside the Christian faith, it continued using the vehicle of Christianity to promote its message. The Third Reich recognized this and used it for its own purposes. The Nazified German church continued to call itself Christian in order to promote the Nazi agenda. It taught that Jesus was not the Messiah but called him “Jesus the Jew destroyer.” It even adopted ideas from what was known as the “quest for the historical Jesus” and suggested that Jesus hadn’t really died, but had someone else die in his place. Nazism stripped Christianity of the Jewish foundation it was built upon, giving up the tenets of the faith to bow down to the statist agenda of the Third Reich.

True Nationalism: Deifying the State

Miles explains that true nationalists are willing to bow down to the state at all costs.

Today’s evangelical Christians certainly do not fit this category. Many Christians resisted state mandates for masks and vaccinations. Many have stood against the sexualization of children in public schools.

Authentic Christians should refuse to make anything else their deity besides the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In his book “The Christian Left,” Miles describes Christian nationalists as people willing to set aside the basic tenets of Christianity to embrace the state’s view of these issues instead. They reject the Church’s role in society as a source of mercy and compassion for people and put that role on the state, because they have made the state their God. Miles argues this is the same thing the Nazified German church did when it broke from Christian orthodoxy to bow to the state instead.

An image from video footage featured in "The Holy Trinity of the Left" about the origins of Christian nationalism. (EpochTV)

The Religion of the Left

Who are actual nationalists? According to Miles, anyone who puts the state in the place of God is a nationalist. Today’s leftist nationalists, Christian or otherwise, wholeheartedly embrace any rhetoric or agenda promoted by the state. If a person goes against any narrative of the state, that person is called a heretic. Unless people bow to the state, they are cancelled, censored, and demonized. No one is allowed to go against the left’s LGBTQ agenda, the alleged right to murder the unborn, or anti-white woke ideologies.

Churches flying rainbow or Black Lives Matter flags reveal a progressive Christianity willing to forego the tenets of the Christian faith and bow down to the state’s orthodoxy instead. Miles calls many leftist churches Christian “in name only” because they adhere to the doctrines of the left instead of Biblical teaching. They have exchanged the Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the trinity of diversity, acceptance, and social justice.

The political left promotes the anti-God and anti-Christ mentality that Marxists have been promoting for years. Where does this ideology lead? For society, the result is oppression and loss of human rights. For Christians, the result is a vilification campaign that labels Christians as dangerous to society. If allowed to continue, it will mean increased persecution and the ultimate loss of religious freedom.

An image from video footage featured in "The Holy Trinity of the Left" about the origins of Christian nationalism. (EpochTV)

Be Ready for Persecution

Miles notes that Christians should anticipate some form of persecution in their lifetimes. They must learn to navigate a time when their beliefs aren’t just mocked and ridiculed in Hollywood, but are instead treated as evil and dangerous. The more the left demonizes Christians, the more persecution will arise. Miles says Christians must prepare themselves and be ready so their faith doesn’t fail.

This EpochTV episode admonishes Christians not to stand idly by and watch as evil continues to embed itself into our culture without the truth to counter it. Christians may be able to slide by in silence for a bit longer, but by doing so, they are allowing the left to perpetuate its evil agenda. Miles calls believers to be bold and stand up for the truth, their faith, and the Church.

Watch “The Holy Trinity of the Left” on Church and State here.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.