The Conservative Cave

Have you been perplexed by all the incessant talk of “Christian nationalism”?

Have you ever been snidely referred to as a “Christian nationalist” in the last few years, when you maybe didn’t even know what it meant?

If so, you’re not alone. Confusion around this fraught subject is understandable. I offer the following as a broad, big-picture read on this dizzying landscape.
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And that’s because, out of nowhere, these phrases suddenly became the universally agreed-upon alarmist pejoratives that media elites were using to deride politically engaged Christians and their beliefs. Almost overnight, the basic tenets of the Christian faith were branded as the extremist fringe. Consider how specious it is to be called a “bigot” for believing sane things, such as “there are only two sexes” and that males shouldn’t be allowed to compete in female sports. Thus, to many, charges of “Christian nationalist!” seemed like yet more obnoxious, dishonest wolf-crying.

Do you believe in defending the unborn and think open borders and unfettered immigration are unwise? Do you value the Judeo-Christian norms and ethics underpinning the West and think they are worth preserving? Well, as it turns out, you’re a scary “Christian nationalist.”

Do you dislike or object to that label? That's too bad. It doesn’t matter. The powers-that-be have decided that you are the new boogeyman to be feared and despised, an authoritarian threat to democracy akin to despicable “white nationalists.” In fact, if you work for a socially conservative Christian organization, you might wind up on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hate Map alongside neo-Nazis and be smeared in the press based on their malicious categorizations.
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Some self-identified Christian nationalist types also claim the mantle of the “New Christian Right,” and are notorious for rabblerousing and rage-baiting on social media. Some of these personalities tap into frustrations many have felt seeing Evangelical elites — derisively referred to as “Big Eva” — dilute the Gospel to cozy up to the New York Times cultural tastemaker class, which often adamantly opposes the Christian faith. Big Eva, some of them claim, rhetorically punches hard at right-wing sins while staying relatively muted on or even coddling left-wing sins. On that latter point, it gives me indigestion to admit that they might not be entirely wrong.

Even so, while these “New Right” Christian nationalists are loud and occasionally make a fair point or two, they are not demonstrating a holy, earnest zeal for God's righteousness in society. A visceral mean-spiritedness characterizes them, and their abusive antics are an affront to the character of Christ.

Though it depends on the individual, as some are are more over-the-top than others, among the foul ungodliness that this emerging camp of people (almost entirely men) incubates are a menacing chauvinism, framed as opposition to feminism; conspiracism and gratuitous hostility toward Jews, framed as objections to Zionism and the Israeli government; and a racist set of beliefs known as kinism, framed as a preference to marry someone of their own ethnicity. All of these spiritual pathologies are repackaged with just enough biblically rooted doctrines and presented as though they are espousing historically faithful Christianity. They also posit a radically different vision for church-state relations than what most Americans desire, while claiming to be true to the intent of the founding fathers.
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Bottom line, especially in geopolitically tumultuous times, whether the deception stems from the Left or the Right, the first allegiance of a Christian must always be to the lordship of Jesus. And unlike this crowd, you never see Him exhibiting gross contempt for women, countenancing hatred for Jews (He is a Jew), and connivingly promoting ethnic prejudice — because in Him, there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28).

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Saturday that people are coming from out of state to protest at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Newark and creating a dangerous situation.

“We know that people from outside of the state have been interfering in the protests and escalating them,” Sherrill said at a press conference. “Five of the six people arrested last night by state police were from outside New Jersey.”

Masked individuals attacked the barrier in the protest area and took “aggressive and dangerous actions” against the Newark police and state police, Sherrill said in a post on X on Sunday.

The protesters threw projectiles at police and used the barriers as weapons and lit tires on fire in the streets, the governor said.

Sherrill said that “some national extremist groups” have become involved in the protests.

Morris Katz, the supposed wunderkind behind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is also the campaign strategist for Maine Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. At present, Katz has failed to live up to his title. Instead, he is doing cleanup on Aisle 7 because he refused to strategize in order to get ahead of the self-inflicted landmines that have blown up all around his candidate.

As RedState reported, the latest scandal involves Platner sexting with at least 12 women soon after he was married, and doing this through an app that has known associations with pedophilia and sex trafficking.

These latest revelations against Platner were published on Saturday in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Genevieve McDonald, a former Platner campaign aide who quit after Platner's racist and antisemitic Reddit posts were exposed, also did an exclusive with the New York Times confirming the veracity of the information published in the WSJ article.

Katz first took to social media and made it plain that whoever leaked the salacious texts and corroborated the information deserved to be driven out of politics because they were "incompetent, untrustworthy," and prioritized "vengeance over decency."

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An adviser to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner warned a former aide she would be accused of lying and sabotage if she cooperated with news outlets reporting on sexually explicit messages Platner sent to women, according to a message reviewed by the Bangor Daily News.

Morris Katz, a strategist with the Platner campaign, delivered the Friday warning through an intermediary to former state Rep. Genevieve McDonald, who left the campaign last fall and spoke to The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. ...

A new decision from the Fifth Circuit Court has opened the door for the state of Texas to begin conducting their own immigration enforcement.

Senate Bill 4 had made it a state-level crime to enter Texas illegally. It further prohibited state and local agencies from refusing to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and required magistrates to pursue criminal prosecutions for violators even if the perpetrator had an outstanding federal immigration case. Above all, it allows the state judiciary to carry out deportations independent of the federal government.

In May, a district court blocked several key provisions of the law from going into effect, notably the ability for the state to issue its own orders of removal and the criminality for refusing to comply with such removal orders. That decision was reversed by the latest.