“Demand the welfare of the nation that you are in because your welfare is tied to your nation’s welfare,” he told attendees.
Joanna Kline, assistant professor of Old Testament at Gordon College in Massachusetts, questioned the accuracy of Kirk’s translation. For one thing, it leaves out the command to pray. It also missed the original context of the verse, which was intended to tell the Israelites that they’d be in exile for decades. That group of people also had no power to make demands.
“Who would they make demands to?” she said.
A spokesman for Turning Point USA said Kirk sees himself as a lay Christian trying to do his part, rather than a pastor or religious leader. In that role, Kirk is trying to get his fellow Christians involved in shaping the broader culture.
That’s very different than Christian nationalism, the Turning Point spokesman said, and has long been a Christian practice.
The spokesman also said Kirk was concerned about the pandemic shutdowns that affected many churches and, in Kirk’s mind, interfered with the right to worship. That showed him the need for political involvement by churches, because even if churches stay clear of politics, government officials don’t leave churches alone.
“His main point is that churches should preach the gospel,” the spokesman said. “His second point is to make sure that churches are able to do this.”
Victor Marx speaks at a Turning Point USA event. Photo courtesy of Marx
Author Victor Marx, who spoke at a Freedom Night in April, said holding an event to discuss politics at a church on a Wednesday night was much different from holding a discussion of politics on a Sunday morning.
A friend of Kirk’s who has also spoken at a TPUSA event for pastors earlier this year as well as other conservative gatherings, Marx rejected the label of being a Christian nationalist.
“To say that our country needs to be run at every position by Christians—that is not what I believe,” he said.
For Campbell, his concerns about Christian nationalism have a personal side.
A former skinhead, Campbell first showed up at Desert Springs Bible Church in his early 20s, when he was invited to play drums in the band. The friendship and welcome he found at the church changed his life, he said, and he abandoned the hate he’d felt as a young person.
He eventually joined the church staff and in 2015 became senior pastor. At the time, the church was mostly white and did not reflect the diversity of its community. Campbell began working to change that — building close ties with Black and Hispanic churches and working on issues like immigration.
Things went well at first. But Donald Trump’s election in 2016 and the accompanying MAGA Christianity began to split his church. People he’d known for decades left to find a congregation that better fit their politics. Some of them ended up going to Freedom Night at Dream City — which led him to attend one of the services there and made him aware of the growth of Christian nationalism.
Campbell wants to help people like his former church members find a better way to live their faith.
Campbell is currently working on a book project modeled after the Alpha program — a popular evangelistic method centered on kindness, hospitality and conversation.
“This is the Alpha program for Christian nationalists,” he said.
Dennae Pierre, a Phoenix pastor and executive director of the Surge Network, which helps churches from different ethnic backgrounds, believes Campbell is on to something.
Pierre has worked closely with Campbell in the past and watched him lead his congregation through a difficult transition. Though many church members have left, she said, Campbell’s congregation has also attracted new people who felt ostracized by the fusion of faith and politics in other churches.
She, too, thinks conversion rather than confrontation will help people find something better than Christian nationalism.
“When we think about Christian nationalism, I think there needs to be an intentional discipleship process, to dismantle what is unhealthy and to rebuild people with a more gospel-centered vision of what it means to be a Christian,” she said.
This article originally appeared here.
