Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4
After the Afghanistan debacle, people in stadiums began to chant “F*ck Joe Biden.” It picked up steam and it was not too long before one could hear the chant (before media cut out crowd noises anyway) across America. In an interview with Brandon Brown, a NASCAR driver who had just won Talladega, Kelli Stavast misunderstood the “F*ck Joe Biden” chant in the background as “Let’s Go Brandon” (LGB) and a meme was born.
There’s been a lot of back and forth in my circles on this phrase. Many of us, including me, enjoy the viral subversive mocking of the media inherent in the phrase. Meaning that the media censors and changes stories to protect their “guy” and LGB is pointing it out in real-time. But there’s no doubt that even that initial mockery is not the point anymore. People are sending a message to the President and it’s not just Republicans, the chant is happening in the blue states as well. And if that was not surprising enough, now we’re seeing it happening in the church? What?
Brandon Goes to Church
From November 11-13, the “ReAwaken America” conference was hosted at Cornerstone Church which is pastored by John Hagee. Hagee is most known for his views on Israel and end-time prophecies, but in the media, he’s mainly portrayed as a Right-Wing zealot. On November 13, a Right-Wing watchdog account posted a video of people chanting “Let’s Go Brandon” in the main sanctuary (see here) and it, of course, immediately went viral.
Now people immediately assumed this was during an actual service of the church and my initial exposure to the news was posts blasting John Hagee as a white supremacist, warnings against Christian nationalism (more on that in a second), and decrying the politicization of church and the alignment with Right Wing/Q’Anon politics. Cornerstone responded with the following:
"This past week, Cornerstone Church facilities were used by an outside organization. Cornerstone Church is not associated with this organization and does not endorse their views,"
Fair enough?
The responses to this event immediately fit into their narrative. Almost every center-left (and even some center-right) Christian commentators participated. Now, I’m not saying any of these narratives are false or untrue, but if one has to misrepresent, lie, or obfuscate the facts to prove one’s narrative what does that say about the truthfulness of the narrative itself?
I keep harping on this because I often find myself sympathetic to causes that continue to make bad faith, intellectually vapid, and just dishonest arguments to support that cause. As G.K. Chesterton said: “I strongly object to wrong arguments on the right side. I think I object to them more than to the wrong arguments on the wrong side.” I object to bad arguments because I very rarely get into conversations where I believe at the get it’s impossible to change someone’s mind or convince them of my perspective. So many justify the bad arguments they make because of the perceived hopelessness/lostness of the people on the opposing side. Or, they deploy a false understanding of gatekeeping or policing in order to not deal with the argument. I would not be dramatic to say this type of approach is totalitarian and it’s growing in discussions regardless of political or religious belief. And violence always soon follows.
So, to me, it’s fair to say that much of the initial LGB reaction was not in good faith nor was it concerned with good faith questions about the event. But, we’re left with what I view as a fair and legitimate question: why did the church host the event in the first place?
Brandon meets Christian Nationalism
The term Christian nationalism is a fairly new phrase in our lexicon, at least in how it’s used anyway, and one would be pressed to find anyone who actually agrees on a definition. It often is objected to as an abstract leftist generalization and I personally believe there’s some merit to that. After all, when President Joe Biden used Scripture to compare US troops to the Prophets, many who normally decry this type of blatant abuse of Scripture were woefully silent. (Notable exception found here)
For our purposes, when I use the term Christian nationalism I’m using it as how Christianity Today defined it here:
the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.
So what does this have to do with Cornerstone Church hosting the ReAwaken Conference and chanting Let’s Go, Brandon? I’ll break it down into 4 responses:
1) The conference is a political conference.
While Cornerstone is correct to say they do not endorse the views of the conference (there were dozens of speakers so obviously this is true), they clearly are sympathetic to the goal and mission of the conference since they agreed to allow them to host it on their property. Cornerstone does not open its doors to all political conferences so while what they responded with is true, it’s also disingenuous. This is why wisdom dictates that it’s not the church’s place to host a political conference because it violates the Scripture’s commands to impartiality.
2) What is a sanctuary?
A church’s sanctuary is a place set apart for a single purpose: the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Any other use of the sanctuary, no matter how much that cause may align with the results of the gospel, falls victim to the money changer problem in Jesus’ day. This is especially true because the ReAwaken conference bills itself as a business venture first. Cornerstone allowed their sanctuary to become a place for money changers.
3) Christian principles; not Christian power.
I’ll rely on Paul Miller to express this concern:
Yes. American Christians in the past were exemplary in helping establish the American experiment, and many American Christians worked to end slavery and segregation and other evils. They did so because they believed Christianity required them to work for justice. But they worked to advance Christian principles, not Christian power or Christian culture, which is the key distinction between normal Christian political engagement and Christian nationalism. Normal Christian political engagement is humble, loving, and sacrificial; it rejects the idea that Christians are entitled to primacy of place in the public square or that Christians have a presumptive right to continue their historical predominance in American culture. Today, Christians should seek to love their neighbors by pursuing justice in the public square, including by working against abortion, promoting religious liberty, fostering racial justice, protecting the rule of law, and honoring constitutional processes. That agenda is different from promoting Christian culture, Western heritage, or Anglo-Protestant values.
4) Save the Brandons
Let me say right off the bat here that saying LGB does not make one a Christian nationalist. LGB is mostly snarky satire and in some ways, I don’t think there’s a problem with laughing at it. Especially at the media's expense. But, Christians uttering it as a curse at Joe Biden cannot be supported by Scripture. In fact, it directly violates the commands of Scripture. And even though Joe Biden has done things that are inexplicable and detestable we are commanded to pray for him - not curse him. I’ll close this out with Paul:
“Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person” (Col. 4:5-6).