What Do Christian Nationalists Mean When They Say "God Has a Plan?"
It's so much worse than you think (Scroll to the end to listen)
I normally ignore headlines, but this recent public comment from Christian Nationalist Republican Mark Alford deserves an explainer.
I started doing these explainers of Christian Nationalist language last February with the doozy “Forced birth can be the greatest healing agent.” It’s linked below in case you missed it.
Most coverage has focused on the “God has a plan” part of his comment. And that’s fair. It’s easier to imagine what that part means.
“God is in control.”
“God will take care of you.”
“I’m saying this to make it God’s fault that I’m gutting every safety net and then blaming your sin for why God doesn’t help you.”
But I want to focus on his comment as a whole. You know, since he went out of his way to make sure everyone recalled the entire dickish thing.
When one includes the phrase You are not the victim, you are the vicTOR, his statement takes on a whole new - and much grosser - meaning.
Christian Nationalists worship vengeful, angry Old Testament God. Jesus shed his blood so they can have eternal life, but he was a wimp who helped people without judging them or expecting anything in return.
Unlike vengeful, angry Old Testament Badass God.
Old Testament Badass God was a MAN. He leveled entire cities for disobeying him. Cut down witches and loose women who offended him. Demanded public stonings for violating many of the Ten Commandments.
He wasn’t an old bearded man sitting on a cloud; he was a steroid-fueled, hyper-masculine machine who brokered no criticism when he told homophobic jokes with his buddies over beers after he rained fire and brimstone on the gays of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Welcome to the god Mark Alford worships.
Christian Nationalists believe we are meant to suffer in this life in exchange for eternal blessings. Our earthly lives aren’t meant to be fulfilling. They shouldn’t have meaning. We have no reason to focus our energies on the many setbacks that happen here.
Like watching one’s job be illegally eliminated by Christo-fascists who are ignoring the Constitution.
God’s plan and purpose for every life, according to Christian Nationalists, is TO LIVE FOR THE NEXT ONE.
People like Mark Alford believe that God’s plan is for people to suffer, because in their suffering they will turn to God, realize he is in control, and give God glory for their VICTORY over suffering.
Christian Nationalists also believe those who really, truly claim that VICTORY will be rewarded. Maybe God will miraculously pay their mortgages. Or cause a neighbor to send dinner. Or reveal a more godlike, perfect employment that builds up their heavenly treasure.
And if those things don’t happen?
Christian Nationalists claim it’s YOUR fault. Your faith isn’t strong enough. You haven’t claimed VICTORY enough. You don’t believe enough. God is still judging you for hidden sin in your life. Or my favorite: “You should just accept that it isn’t God’s will.”
In the story of Job, they are every person who came by the pit where Job sat in his sackcloth and ashes after he lost everything, and they told him to curse God and die. Except they say “it’s your fault you’re in the pit. But God has a plan so embrace it and claim VICTORY! (Otherwise, we don’t care if you die.)”
This is the God Christian Nationalists will offer to the millions they kick off Medicaid. It is the God they will trot out when they crash the economy. It is the only one guests at concentration camps, I mean, “wellness retreats” will be able to worship as they pick poisoned tomatoes for fourteen hours a day and withdraw from their mental health medications.
I personally hope people like Mark Alford get to stand before the ragey, hateful God they adore. And I hope I get to see a God like Jesus tell them, “You didn’t get what I was trying to teach you. AT ALL. What you did to the least of humanity, you did to me. Depart from me. I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)
I hope John Calvin is burning in hell without air conditioning. What this belief system really does is absolve the clergy of responsibility because everything is on you. I'm rich: God's plan. You're poor: God's plan.
After finding that my member of the House of Representatives hasn’t even been recorded in the Congressional Record as speaking yet this session let alone my state’s two new senators being silent frankly this bothers me. It is one thing to say God has a plan. It is another to effectively disenfranchise people to the point that the 1930s Germany feeling is inescapable.
If these bozos in DC want to go down this road the best Old Testament book to consider would be Lamentations. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The elected leader of the nation is barely in touch with reality. We’re fairly vulnerable to enemy attack of the more traditional sort. That we have a loon like RFK Jr destroying our healthcare system will lead to pestilence and plague starting with measles outbreaks that make the Samoan epidemic in 2019 that he helped cause look like a test run.
Throwing around “God has a plan” like that is a way to be cruel and try to assuage your conscience. We have free will. If you see suffering and can help then you should help. If you can’t help let others know so they might help. We’re not automatons devoid of agency.
I am stuck in a rat’s nest of politicians spewing these sorts of things here in Ohio. There has to be a way forward somewhere.