The Attempted Assassination of President Trump

- and the self-destruction of the "Christian Nationalist" movement

On the heels of the shocking assassination attempt on President Trump, the so called “Christian Nationalist” movement is self-destructing. This is a good thing. In its place, the traditional Christian movements and virtues of the past two thousand years are making a comeback - Christian virtue, Christian justice, Christian resolve, Christian firmness, Christian love and Christian charity.

The attempted assassination of the Presidential candidate who opposes the neocons and the killing fields of Ukraine and wants to bring peace, was in all probability orchestrated by those who support never-ending war and money-printing. And that is all I shall say about this shocking episode in the miraculous saga of the American Republic. My readers should read between my lines! And if you wish to have an excellent and forensic analysis of some of the evidence that lies hidden between the lines, I would recommend John Leake’s brilliant series of notes and essays on Substack.

One of the self-described leaders of the Christian Nationalist movement is Nick Fuentes - who claims that his browner skin is still part of what he calls “white identity.” The even browner Sicilian Italian or Southern Spanish people presumably can also take part in his “white identity” movement - as should several people from Turkey, Syria and Lebanon! And since Fuentes claims Mexican descent, there is a hierarchy apparently, of Mexican “whiteness” too! In other words, his “white identity” group is in fact a very broad Church indeed!

But the appointment of J.D. Vance as President Trump’s running mate made Mr. Fuentes very upset indeed. According to him, Senator Vance, is not qualified for high office in his mythical “Christian Nationalist” state, because his wife is not white, but brown (Usha Vance is of Indian origin)!

In one of his videos, Fuentes bemoaned the nomination of Senator J.D. Vance for Vice President, since Vance had apparently betrayed his race by marrying someone from a somewhat browner race and since his children also have DNA from his wife!

It may not occur to the Christian Nationalists, of course, that the self-professed Catholic Nicholas Fuentes of the universal Catholic Church is propagating a very different Gospel from that lived and preached by Jesus Christ, whose Church is not defined by race but by the new life available at the foot of the Cross for all races. Or, as Holy Scripture proclaims, “out of one blood hath he created all races” and “in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek” and God has no favourites - “but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”

On social media, Fuentes re-posted two juxtaposed photographs - the Governor of California Gavin Newsom’s family and next to it, J.D. Vance’s family.

According to this post, something had “gone wrong,” because Newsom’s family was whiter than J.D. Vance’s family! It would not be a far stretch to deduce that Nick Fuentes would have preferred a Newsom vice presidency (or presidency) to the “wrong” family of J.D. Vance! Of course, the fact that Newsom has legislated and promoted several anti-Christian positions (abortion, transgenderism etc.) in California would be beside the point for many “Christian” nationalists! And the even more immediate reality that Senator J.D.Vance is a baptized and confirmed Catholic Christian would matter even less!

As if all this “Christian Nationalist” apostasy and blasphemy against the Gospel were not enough, one of the “pastors” of this movement claimed that the fact that American Hindus of Indian origin ( all legal immigrants) were living in his neighbourhood was a “judgment from God” against America!

Pastor Joel Webbon claims that “foreign people” who “worship foreign Gods” are not welcome in America. That Christians are a small and diminishing minority in the West does not enter his calculation at all! Neither the fact that the great majority of his “white” neighbours would almost certainly have foreign Gods too - the gods of wealth, holidays, cars, Netflix, gay pride parades, atheism, abortion, etc. Presumably pastor Webbon would also desist from sharing the Gospel with his Hindu neighbours (they would not deserve it!)!

Against the rather ridiculous antics of the Christian nationalists, I shall proceed to describe two unmistakable signs (among many) of the beginning of the end of the movement.

The first is what I believe to be a conversion story that illustrates the transforming power of the Gospel.

Up until the assassination attempt on President Trump, Andrew Torba was regarded in Christian nationalist circles as a social media and tech leader of the movement. As the founder of the “Gab” free speech supporting rival to the old “Twitter,” he had the support and respect of many defenders of freedom and free speech.

Torba today, has changed much of his tune. He even claims he likes J.D. Vance.

And he wants his fellow Christian nationalists to leave Usha Vance alone! In time, Andrew Torba will almost certainly denounce “Christian nationalism” and leave the movement altogether. It cannot come too soon!

The other story is meant to challenge us Christians who have been lured by the vain glory and seductions of the “Christian nationalist” view of history and the world. Jake Shields is a multiply crowned Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) champion and until very recently, a frequent conveyor and reposter of the social media messages of Nick Fuentes. This has all changed - and for the last 3 days, I could not find a single Fuentes message in the X-feed of Mr. Shields.

Shields does not call himself a Christian, but two days ago, he broadcast a very Christian message on his X-feed, which has since become viral:

(The photograph above is from the time J.D.Vance and Usha were fellow law students in Yale)

The arrival and adoption of Christianity in Western Europe was not merely a civilizing movement, but a transformational encounter. Even secular historians agree that it was the touch of Christ upon the Western centuries that defined and developed Western civilization - not race, not Geography and not indeed Greece or Rome! The ancient Romans looked down upon the ancient Britons, regarded them as barbarians and described with horror their demonic religious practices, including Druidic human sacrifice rituals. The transformative power of Christ and His Kingdom made the British nation civilized, extraordinarily creative and Christian. The various nations of Western Europe have similar transformative stories - with their national lives and trajectories and destinies being changed by their life-changing encounters with the Gospel.

Black, white, brown and all colours in between are identified the same by the Cross and the Resurrection. And in his vision in the book of Revelation of the glorious future with Christ, the apostle John beholds all the redeemed, all together, “from every kindred and tongue, and people and nation.”