“The Nazis largely got into power by simply talking the old straight stuff about heroism in a country full of cynics and buggers.”
C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters, Vol. 2, p. 346
Introduction
As we contemplate the results of the midterms, what should American Christians be doing about all this? Aside from buying guns and ammo, I mean?
The very first thing is to avoid all simplistic analysis—not to mention tired cliches—like the plague. People are talking about “the reason” conservatives suffered this beat-down, as though they were explaining how a pool shark was able to put the eight ball into the corner pocket. But . . . about 122M people voted in the midterms, across fifty states, and there were multiple factors that all came together, contributing to this loss. Too many analysts rush to explain everything, not like careful analysts should, but more like a salesman with a stiff quota at his back. “The Republicans lost the midterms because not enough people were buying this line of protein powder that I am trying to move.”
Let me cram into one paragraph a veritable stew of contributing factors, not to mention a slew of them. Some of them are connected to things that are frequently mentioned, while others are not.
Among other cruelties in the political world, assassinations are conducted because assassinations work. Charlie Kirk was brutally murdered, and the most effective voice articulating conservative policies, and organizing for them, was taken out. Immediately after this, Candace began her iniquitous campaign that disrupted the natural backlash against the left that was coming. She was a really successful chaos agent, dividing the conservative world into various fragments—and a number of unstable souls spiraled off into conspiracy-land. On top of that, responsible voices that were in a position to shut down her nonsense failed to do so for various reasons. This wicked disruption of hers was made easier by the shambolic fake release of the Epstein files early on, which left a really sour taste in a lot of mouths. That insinuated the worrisome thought that “nothing is really changing.” The in-party almost always loses seats in the midterm. It is the American way. The fecklessness of Republicans like Sen. Thune was another factor—not passing Voter ID, blocking recess appointments, and slow walking other MAGA issues. And then Sen. John Cornyn refused to secure Trump’s endorsement, thus throwing Texas away. Then toss into the mix the politics of the Iran war. Given the “no new wars” pledge, that war required far more consistent messaging than it got—the people needed to know what the tactical objectives were, and just how many miles it was to the exit ramp. And that needed to be under three miles away. To be told multiple times that the exit ramp was “just around the bend” when it wasn’t just around the bend didn’t help at all. Eighteen miles and three exit ramps later we come to the other half of the impact of the Iran war. Gas prices were that other half and that, coupled with food prices, made affordability a big time issue. One friend says, aptly, that Texas “didn’t go blue. It went more ‘angry red.’” As he put it, a good old boy contractor who can’t afford to fill up his diesel truck is going to have opinions. One hopes that six months of their new senator—who looks and talks like a counselor intern for a junior high summer camp run by liberal mainline denomination—will bring back another set of more authentic Texas opinions. You know, of the yikes kind.
As an aside, even though I agree with the above, having just written it, I think making fun of Texans for their staggeringly bad choices this round will do them a bit of spiritual good. They have been taking their stalwart status for granted, and this fiasco was like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie running away from the Alamo, sobbing.
The Silver Lining
Two bright spots. The first one is Idaho. Like many red states, we are red from border to border, but the whole thing is only about three inches deep. We have a lot of organizing and teaching yet to do. We overwhelmingly elect Republicans, but the general leftward pressures are evident here as well. In fact, every county in Idaho (with one exception) moved left in this last election. The only county that moved right was Latah County, where we live. We now have three Republican county commissioners here, and I don’t recall that ever happening since I have lived in Moscow—since 1975. The second wonderful answer to prayer was that we successfully defeated Prop. 1, a Godforsaken abortion measure, and did it with a 12 point spread. Idaho can be a beacon of hope for the other 49 states—provided we recognize our actual situation, and start acting on principle instead of reacting on emotion. That means a lot of teaching and organizing. We need to stare straight at Texas for a bit, muttering “there but for the grace of God . . .”
The second bright spot is that we are going to have two years of glorious, glorious gridlock. Like two sumo wrestlers as a stationary but quivering monument, Congress and the White House are going to be grappling in place for month after month. The president will not be able to get any judicial nominees through, and Congress will not be able to override Trump’s veto of any of their bonkers legislation. There will be impeachment after impeachment lofted over to the Senate, but the Democratic margin there means there is no way the Senate will vote to convict. And even if the Senate were to convict, that would simply mean that the Democrats will have installed President Vance. In the meantime, the Republican primaries will be just a-going, and however many Republican candidates there are, all of them will be able to point to the lunatic measures that are wafting off of Congress like a bad smell, and they will be able to say, “If you don’t put a Republican back in the White House, and if you don’t do something about this mess you made in the House and Senate, just look at what is going to happen to you.” The progressives are already drafting legislation to allow them to come in and trans your family dog. I’m serious, man. Look it up.
Grim Vindication, Of a Sort
And actually, there was even a third bright spot.
To be honest, there was some perverse gratification in seeing all the Never Trump forces coalesce—you know, with Nick Fuentes and David French, cheek by jowl, urging us to vote the same way, not to mention Tucker and Bill Crystal. It was sure nice to see the horseshoe theory concerning the nature of the political spectrum illustrated so aptly. David French pioneered the genre of “the conservative case for voting for commies,” and now his Society for the Promotion of Square Circles looks to be enjoying some spectacular membership growth. New arrivals are coming in by the day. The fact that some of the deserters from the conservative army came from the left side of our forces, and these later ones from the right side, is not that big a deal. I am sure they will all get along for a short little while, at least until the Dems are done finding them useful. And history has shown us that useful idiocy has a short shelf life.
Conviction, Not Reaction
Let me note a startling fact, and then draw a conclusion from it that you were not expecting. Younger men voted for Trump by 55% in 2024, and then voted for the Dems in this go around by 58%. That is an astonishing swing, and clearly not one driven by a change of conviction. It was clearly a change of opinion, which is not the same thing.
There is a reason this swing vote—which ought not to be a swing vote—is as volatile as it is. This is the kind of thing the apostle was talking about with his phrase “winds of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14). And trying to recruit young men with rage bait is only adding additional gusts.
Economic illiteracy cannot redeem itself by acting “based,” or by talking tough, or by blaming your own internal angst on the Rothschild family. The economic woes of young men in this country have been significant and, if you think about it, terrifying. And these young men just went and voted for the party that is going to make it all three times worse for them.
What they need to understand is the power of free markets. But there is an order to this that the secular libertarians do not understand at all, and that is the need for prerequisites. The order goes this way: free grace > free men > free markets. It all starts with gospel. If you start with secular libertarianism you wind up with free men > free porn > free chains. And here we are.
These young men need to understand the grace of God in the gospel. They need fathers. They need an education. They need vocation and economic opportunity. They don’t need any more rage bait. They need gospel care and discipleship. So those who understand the power of markets have a lot of teaching to do. But the problem is that most of those who say they understand and support markets don’t understand the necessary prerequisites for markets, and so in the current climate they are in no position to teach anybody anything. That, Lord willing, will be a separate jeremiad this November. If you don’t understand whose hand is the invisible hand in The Wealth of Nations, then the only thing that hand will do for you is to write mene mene tekel upharsin on the wall of your classical liberal study, right over your portrait of Adam Smith.
Jewish Self-Loathing
So we are living in a time when the progressive left has teamed up in an alliance of convenience with radical Muslims. They don’t have very much in common at all, but one of the things they do share is the pus-green toxicity of their Jew hate. They all loathe Israel, which is the convenient and very thin political cover story that they use to hide their hatred of Jews as Jews. Now in the midst of all this vitriol, openly expressly these days, about three quarters of American Jews still voted for the Democrats. This makes these Jews, taken by and large, the dumbest smart people in the world.
The line put out by the Anglo Jew-hate guys is that the Jews support leftist candidates because they hate the white people of the Christian West and want to enslave us all. It is all a vast conSPEERacee. At the same time, now that the Jew hate is regularly spouting noxious fumes out of numerous Democratic campaigns, and most Jews are still voting for that party en masse, it is becoming apparent that they don’t just loathe white people. They clearly loathe themselves. If Jewish liberals were a teenaged girl, they would be in the bathroom, crying and cutting themselves.
Orthodox Jews, on the other hand, voted Republican by a margin of around 2 to 1. So maybe it is not the Jewishness, but rather the liberalism. Just a thought. Tossing it out there.
Secular Jews vote the same way that liberal white ladies on Martha’s Vineyard do, only not quite so bad. If these Jews vote this way because of tainted blood, then why do the liberal white women vote the way they do? If your answer to that question is “also because of the Jews’ tainted blood,” then you need to go take a walk around the block. Get some fresh air.
If you think Jews vote the way they do because they are in the process of trying to ruin the Christian world, and they want that because they are Jews, but that the descendants of the Puritans in Connecticut vote in that same way because they are in the process of being ruined by the Jews, then I have a suggestion for you. I suggest that you get a handful of sermons on the gospel by Martyn Lloyd-Jones and listen to those while lying down on the sofa. And maybe a cold shower or two.
A Brief Placeholder Point
Now comes something that needs to be mentioned here, although I have to develop it in a subsequent November post. We need a theology of what it means to become ungovernable. We need a solid grounding in Protestant resistance theology, and a much deeper understanding of the. authority of the lesser magistrates. Coming soon.
John Piper Is Still Missing the Point
A clip from John Piper is making the rounds. If you don’t have time for the whole thing, just jump to the 10:12 point and listen to the end.
At that point in his response, John says that he doesn’t like the idea of using the power of the sword to establish the Christian religion. Not even a hint, he says. But then he gives us way more than just a hint. Later on (11:35), he says that he wrote to one of the senatorial candidates in Minnesota, and said if she would take a stand on the pro-life issue, he would probably vote for her. Now God bless John for his many years of clear advocacy for the unborn. I honor him for it. But he is being a much better Christian here than he is being a logician. Whether or not the human zygote is created in the image of God, and worthy of protection by the civil magistrate—a protection that can only maintained by the power of the sword—is a theological issue. It is not worldview neutral. And he clearly wants a particular theological position to be enforced by the power of the sword. Why?
And this sets us up to deal with the other confusion that John has. No one in his senses would think to accuse John of saying that he wants to bring in salvation by means of strict pro-life legislation. Politics is not the gospel. I know that John knows that. John’s pro-life position is not the gospel. And I also know that he understands that our slaughtering of the unborn makes God angry. Coming under law, repenting, and turning to the gospel would mean that our legislators would enact laws protecting life as the fruit of the gospel, and not the root of the gospel.
Now I have the same view about the power of the gospel that John does, and where it needs to rank in this process. But let us say that I believe that if the gospel came in power to a society it would be fruitful there. And let us further say that I believe that this fruit would be evidenced in three additional societal areas than John thinks it would be, but the flow and direction would be the same with all four issues. Fruit, not root. So if you become a “Christian nationalist” at the threshold of four such issues, there is no reason to believe that a man can’t understand those four issues in the same way that John understands his pro-life issue. So the gospel is not being left out, and our political proposals are not being turned into a ramshackle gospel, impotent to save. Not a bit of it.
And as far as our adversaries are concerned, it is worth pointing out that John wanting the will of God to get in the way of even a portion of the sexual revolution (that being abortion) means that in the lexicon of the bad guys, he is already a Christian nationalist himself, whatever he might say about it.
Gospel and More Gospel
People who think about politics too much want the results of the midterms to constitute a repudiation of everything they already wanted to see repudiated. For some, it is Christian nationalism, and a recent talking point that has surfaced is that Christian nationalists don’t care about preaching the gospel. They are nothing but political click-mongers, and they have supposedly left Christ and Him crucified entirely out of their calculations.
The fact that there are some false brothers who are guilty of this (and there are), and who call themselves Christian nationalists (and they do) is utterly beside the point. There are Christian nationalists who don’t talk about Christ and Him crucified, true, and so some people won’t identify with Christian nationalism for that reason. But if that is the criterion, then these folks need to stop calling themselves Christians also, because there are also plenty of professing Christians who are ashamed of Christ and Him crucified. Take the senator elect from Texas for a fine example.
I think I can safely claim to be one of the leading spokesmen for Christian nationalism, and Canon Press here in Moscow has been the sponsor of the discussion surrounding this issue—see here, here and here. And the suggestion that we have somehow shoved the preaching of the gospel of Christ into the background is risible enough to make a cat laugh.
But for those just arriving, it really is Christ or chaos. The message of Christian nationalism has nothing to do with using politics to bring in salvation. As well ask your kid playing on the beach to bring the Pacific Ocean home with him in his little plastic sand bucket. That way he can continue to play “at the beach” in your backyard.
The issue is not whether politics can save anything. Of course it cannot. The issue is whether or not politics needs to get saved. The issue is whether politics and politicians can sin against Almighty God, and whether there is any forgiveness possible for them when they do.
Men sin against God. We do this individually and we do this collectively. We do this individually on the sly, sneaking off to porn sites, and we sin against God in Congress assembled, passing legislation that makes life easier for porn sites.
And when men rebel in this way, they are sinning. When they sin, it is the responsibility of every Christian preacher to declare the holy law of God to them, and the condemnation it brings, to be followed by the message of the gospel—the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ—and all as applicable to them. This must be done in the power of the Spirit, and to such an effect that these insolent men reluctantly echo the words of Agrippa—”Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (Acts 26:28).
At which point our pietistic and separatist brethren tugged at Paul’s sleeve, and told him he needed to back it off a bit. “Veering toward Christian nationalism, you know. Agrippa is a king, remember. You are starting to neglect the gospel.”
Neglecting the gospel by preaching it? That’s a new one.
So this is NOT neglecting the gospel. It is, however, neglecting a version of the gospel, the kind that runs and hides when confronted with the commandment of the Lord Jesus. You know, the one who said to preach the gospel, and I quote, to “every creature” (Mark 16:15).
Today’s Giveaways
For the next five days the Canon Press free Kindle giveaway is Biblically Responsible Investing by Robert Netzly. You can get that book here. And new for NQN Vol. 9, this year we are also giving away actual books—the only thing you pay for is shipping. Today is a Canonball day, and we’re giving away my Dangerous Alphabet, the Penguin trilogy, Blah Blah Black Sheep, Hello Ninja, and another summer hit, Rikki Tikki Tavi. Quantities are limited, and you can only pick one free book, so get in line at noquarternovember.com. You had better get over there quick because I am told that a previous book went through the available free books in about 18 minutes. And that tells you something about the robust traffic over there, and nothing about how many books are being given away.
And the Mablog Shoppe is being generous with a different title. You can now get Letters on Homosexual Desire for free. That will remain free for the rest of the month, alongside Letters to a Rootless White Kid and Letters of Marital Counsel.
