Oh, to be a conservative now that election season is nigh. For the record, I am a conservative and will likely spend the months leading up to Election Day comparing and contrasting the efficacy of various over-the-counter antacids.
Despite the fact that the GOP nomination is essentially a foregone conclusion, it is no secret that within the conservative movement, the debate of Trump vs Non-Trump has created its fair share of internecine animus. Anyone who may have even a slight reservation about Trump risks being labeled a closet progressive and a RINO. Conversely, a conservative who saw some benefits of Trump’s term may find themselves characterized as a knuckle-dragging, red-hatted MAGA Neanderthal who clubs women over the head and feasts nightly on raw wooly-rhinoceros in his cave.
And that’s just from the conservatives.
As a conservative who has been ambivalent about Trump, is a former evangelical, and who earned a master’s degree as part of a now-defunct plan to become a pastor, I was interested in the film God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner and set for release this month. I have a continued interest in religion and matters of faith and was excited to get permission to screen the movie in advance. An interview with the director did not come together by the time I hit my deadline. I planned to approach the film with an open mind and to see what I could glean from it. I thought to myself, “Who knows? The filmmakers may have some points to make.”
The film is a 90-minute campaign ad designed to play on the fears of believers who may be suffering a crisis of conscience.
God & Country is somewhat of a study in contrasts. The viewer is treated to plenty of scenes of the January 6 riot and incendiary snippets from the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Robert Jeffress, John MacArthur, Greg Locke, and Charlie Kirk. Ralph Reed, Rick Wiles, Glenn Beck, and even Allie Beth Stuckey make appearances, as does Jerry Falwell and a number of televangelists whom the world has largely forgotten. There is also a generous helping of supercuts from various church services and gatherings like the Flashpoint Rally, CPAC, Reawaken America, and the January 6 riot. (READ MORE from Lincoln Brown: Distinctly American: Who Are RFK Jr.’s Supporters?)
Interspersed with these vignettes of shock, awe, and shame are comments from various thought leaders, some of whom have or had some ties to the evangelical and conservative movements. These include Russell Moore, Phil Vischer, Skye Jethani, David French, and others. During the scenes depicting the violence and rhetoric associated with Christian Nationalism and, by default, the Right, the music is menacing. But when the various experts speak, the music is somber and even soothing. The critics speak in quiet, thoughtful tones, with kind and sometimes pained expressions. The viewer is offered a choice. They can throw their lots in with the crazy, violent anarchists who are hell-bent on creating a new theocracy, or they can join the calm, erudite intellectuals who want nothing but the best for us all. Aside from a few remarks that not all conservative Christians have joined the movement, the middle ground is left unexplored.
At one point, a list of organizations that are moneymakers within the conservative movement is displayed on the screen. Among them are the Heritage Foundation and even Hillsdale College. Whether it is intended or not, the image implies that the organizations may be complicit in the efforts to fuse church and state. While the Heritage Foundation and Hillsdale College are certainly conservative, one can hardly call them hotbeds of revolution.
One of the sins held up in the film is the opposition to CRT and the LGBTQ movements. A book-burning scene is even included. Along those lines, the clip of Jon Tigges being taken into custody by police at Loudoun County, VA, school board meeting flashes across the screen. Tigges, like many of the people at those meetings, was concerned about the sexualization of students and the mixed use of bathrooms. Of course, it would not be until later when the news broke that a student calling himself transgender had been accused of sexual assaults in girls’ bathrooms, and the school board was attempting to conceal the issue. With that revelation, those parents’ worst fears were confirmed.
The film proposes that while a major cause célèbre of Christian Nationalism is abortion, the movement has its genesis in racism, specifically in the opposition to desegregation. While I am not sufficiently schooled in that era of history to categorically deny any connection, it is noteworthy that the popularity of the Left among people of color is decreasing and that it has lost allure for many such people. It also pointedly ignores the fact that there has been a rise in demand for minority-only spaces coming from the Left.
The makers of God & Country do not spare the rod when it comes to abortion. Simone Campbell, an attorney and nun who claims she has a nuanced view of abortion, asserts that the practice is not mentioned in the Bible. The case could be made for that, but the Bible does prohibit the taking of innocent life. In the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, one can find condemnations of abortion and the sexualization of children. The average man or woman in the pews may be able to claim ignorance of those writings. As a nun, Campbell must certainly be aware of both issues.
I was talking about that scene with a friend of mine. This friend’s mother did not want her as she was an unplanned pregnancy. This was in the days before Roe v. Wade, and my friend said that her mother certainly would have aborted her if she could. The truth is, my friend’s mother gave her to a relative as soon as she was able to do so. My friend went on to become a dedicated and talented healthcare provider who has donated time and services to impoverished people in other countries. I would like to see Campbell sit down with my friend and tell her that she was nothing more than a “nuanced” choice. (READ MORE: The Allegations Against Tim Ballard Must Not Disrupt the Fight Against Human Trafficking)
Similarly, the point is made that many Conservative Christians will donate time and money to stop abortion but dedicate little of either to assist new mothers. This is patently untrue. There are many Christian organizations devoted to that very cause. But acknowledging their existence and efforts runs contrary to the popular narrative the movie reinforces.
Clips of January 6 make up much of the imagery in God & Country. I do not agree with some conservatives that everyone who entered the Capitol that day was merely on a convivial, self-guided tour of the building, which included an unscheduled stop at the Nancy Pelosi Gift Shop. But it is disingenuous to claim that everyone there was on a mission to search and destroy and that an overthrow of the government was in progress.
And it is not as if there was no precedent for such a thing. The nation and world watched when, not so long before January 6, progressive protestors took to the streets to loot, burn, and create chaos. And in the ensuing years, there have been incidents of leftist protestors occupying government buildings. While the Hamas terror attack on October 7 likely occurred after filming on God & Country wrapped, one cannot deny the vitriol and the acts of violence aimed at Jews across the nation and the world. And much of it was reminiscent of that of the Third Reich. God & Country strives mightily to point out the suspected sins and navigational errors of the Right while studiously avoiding those of the Left.
During the film, Anthea Butler, the author of White Evangelical Racism, muses on what might happen in the unlikely event that the nation should become a dictatorial theocracy. She wonders what would happen to those who do not fit the Christian Nationalist demographic. That is a question that conservatives, even those who want nothing to do with Christian Nationalism, have been asking themselves in terms of the current trajectory of the nation. The media, academia, and at times, even the government itself have indicated that conservatives, and even people without political affiliation who subscribe to traditional viewpoints, will have no place in the future of America.
Late in God & Country, Skye Jethani makes the following assertion about Christian Nationalists:
They’re told over and over and over again that “you’re in danger and you need to be more afraid. The enemy is wokeism, it’s CRT, it’s liberals. It’s all these things that are dismantling America.” And it’s a really clear narrative: “Join us and you’ll have purpose and here’s your enemy.”
Change the names, and how much does this message differ from those offered by many of those on the Left?
The issue is not whether Christian Nationalism exists — and many conservatives, including myself, do not subscribe to the movement. The real questions are how prevalent it truly is and to what degree it will influence the next election. Setting aside Biden’s disastrous appearance last week, almost every conservative I know, including myself, was alarmed by Biden’s infamous “Red Speech.” Many saw that address as a blanket indictment of and warning about all conservatives, using a MAGA brush. God & Country would have the viewer believe that there is a wild-eyed Trump supporter hiding under every conservative bed, waiting for their cue to commence operations. It is an attempt at a 21st Century Red Scare. Literally.
French and Moore’s involvement in the film may be motivated by something beyond saving the soul of a nation. Writing at First Things, Meghan Basham reports that French and Moore have teamed with Duke Divinity consulting professor Curtis Chang to create a study for church groups called “The After Party.” The trio realized they would have difficulty pitching a progressive group study to evangelical Christian funders and turned to the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors’ New Pluralists project. Another donor is the One America Movement. The various benefactors of “The After Party” have supported promoting “the leadership of rural LGBTQ+ people” and “keeping fossil fuels in the ground” to prevent climate change. They have also advocated for abortion access and gender-affirming care for young people. (READ MORE: The Evangelical Divide)
In America, one is free to support and promote whatever causes one cares about. The above-mentioned efforts do not often find homes in evangelical settings unless they are introduced subtly and under different flags. Small group curricula are staples of many churches, particularly those in the Evangelical movement, and present just such an opportunity. Basham points out that the aim is not to purge the church of politics but of the “wrong” kind of politics under the banner of being a better Christian:
Creating a Bible study curriculum to teach churches how to engage politics is, by nature, a political act. That’s even truer if you’ve turned for financial support to unbelievers committed to advancing left-wing policies. If these critics of conservative evangelicals are correct that their Trump-voting brothers and sisters are sick with political obsession, then they have the same disease. One would be hard-pressed to identify evangelical voices who’ve done more to bring a divisive focus on politics into the pews — all under the pretense of de-escalation and bipartisanship.
Not every Christian conservative, even those who may support the 45th President in the upcoming election, is interested in establishing a theocracy or the apotheosis of Donald J. Trump. In my experience, the majority of them are not. Many have an almost acute aversion to politics, at least outwardly. This may be due to the fact that they do not want an incursion by the world disrupting their church services or Bible studies. It may be because they do not want to frighten away potential seekers. The film does highlight the fact that there is a cadre of believers who hold that we are living in the End Times and that the Rapture and/or the Second Coming are nigh. And that assertion was accurate.
However, many Christians, especially those who make up the target audience of God & Country, are susceptible to societal peer pressure. They may not be “of the world,” but they have to live in the world, or at the very least, live unmolested by it. Witness the popularity of “Duck Dynasty.” Christians everywhere were jubilant that a show about people who shared their beliefs was popular. While the mass appeal of the show began to wane, books by the members of the Robertson clan continued to appear on the shelves of Christian bookstores, even as beach towels bearing the image of Uncle Si with his teacup were finding their way to the bargain bins at Walmart. For a brief time, contemporary Christianity was cool.
With the death of George Floyd and the rise of BLM and CRT, I saw several rural Evangelical Christians post the now-famous Black Square on social media and adopt decidedly left-wing stances. That was the direction in which the world was drifting at the time, and these people were terrified of being seen as standing on the proverbial wrong side of history. This is especially true of believers who came of age in the era of Post-Modern Christianity and were raised on the top-ten list at K-LOVE. (READ MORE: We Built Ugly Churches and Still Do Not Attract Young People: How Is This Possible?)
One may accurately surmise that these are the people at whom God & Country is aimed. The film is a 90-minute campaign ad designed to play on the fears of believers who may be suffering a crisis of conscience. These believers may think that they can retain their Christian identity while still meeting the ever-shifting demands of the secular, progressive, and popular culture. In some ways, It is the ultimate expression of the “Jesus is my boyfriend” mindset. It offers all of the “warm fuzzies” that come with being a member of the new Elect without the need for discernment.
Ultimately, God & Country was a disappointment. I went into it thinking, somewhat quixotically, that I might have my worldview challenged. Self-examination is necessary, if sometimes uncomfortable. Instead, I heard shouts from the echo chamber, with a strongly implied warning that any political stance other than progressivism is not only wrong but dangerous.
