“And President Trump has been very clear about this, that puts the interests of American citizens first, and in the same way that the British prime minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French,” Vance said, “we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that’s a very welcome change.”
Former Member of Parliament Rory Stewart, a British broadcaster, academic and author, posted on X, commenting on Vance’s claim that having a hierarchy of loves is a “Christian concept.”
“A bizarre take on John 15:12-13 – less Christian and more pagan tribal. We should start worrying when politicians become theologians, assume to speak for Jesus, and tell us in which order to love,” said Stewart. John 15:12-13 says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
Vance replied to Stewart’s post, saying, “Just google ‘ordo amoris.’”
“Aside from that, the idea that there isn’t a hierarchy of obligations violates basic common sense,” Vance added. “Does Rory really think his moral duties to his own children are the same as his duties to a stranger who lives thousands of miles away? Does anyone?”
Vance’s words to Hannity have Christians of various stripes chiming in with their opinions on the topic. William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership, commented on a clip of the interview, saying, “Exactly! I made this same argument from the Ordo Amoris in my talk at NatCon in 2022: A Christian Case for America First.”
“People love to say that the Good Samaritan means everyone is our neighbor. That’s not what Jesus was teaching,” said Josh Daws, host of “The Great Awokening Podcast.” “He wasn’t giving a universal command to treat all people the same. He was showing that our neighbor is the one God puts in our moral proximity.”
“This may be an ‘ol school’ concept. But it’s not ‘a very Christian concept,’” said Thabiti Anyabwile, pastor of Anacostia River Church in Washington D.C. “He’s describing *natural* affection, a fleshly notion of love. He’s describing self-love spread over a wider area. He’s not describing Christian or *super*-natural love.”
“The kind of love that is ‘very Christian’ loves the enemy, the widow and orphan (who by definition [is] not your family), and the stranger (by definition not your clan, ethnicity, race or nationality),” said the pastor. “See, for example, Matt. 5:43; Lev. 19:34; Deut. 10:18.”
“This country has so baptized the flag in civil religion, or wrapped Christianity in the flag, that it cannot distinguish the two and thereby distorts the two,” said Anyabwile. “I don’t mind politicians injecting faith or religion. But the faithful had better try what they say by the word of God.”
Author Nancy Pearcey responded to Anyabwile by also referencing the concept of the “ordo amoris,” an idea attributed to St. Augustine, and referenced by C.S. Lewis in his work, “The Abolition of Man.”
