The American Church is in grieving. This past weekend, services were held to mourn the death of a man, whether in his supposed ideals or in digital hallucinations of things he may have said. But that man was not Jesus Christ, and those churchgoers were not Christian (whatever they may claim to the contrary). The American Church has forsaken the Gospel in favor of a farcical image of Jesus as a self-help coach who preaches not universal salvation and redemption, but the fulfillment of the worldly “American Dream” for the select few. Assured in their position as among the elect believers, these worshipers march from their temples to enforce their will upon the whole world, so confident in their righteousness that they expect to be not just bowed to, but loved for their arrogance. In the current administration of worldly power, they have been given their anti-Christ, a man who, much like the Emperor Nero about whom St. John of Patmos wrote in Revelations, thrives on his worldly wealth and adulation as a being elevated over the masses as the members of the American Church believe themselves elevated over their fellow children of God. In such an un-Christlike church, it is unsurprising that the recently deceased man has been elevated to martyred sainthood-in life, even as he preached messages so utterly opposed to the gospel, he regularly believed himself to be a tool in the hand of God-or, perhaps more accurately, that he was the hand of God acting to mold America into his worldly vision. This man embodied every path by which the American Church has strayed from God-and no matter how hard the shepherd may search, it is up to the sheep to want to be found.

At the root of it all, the new original sin of those supposed believers lies in their fundamental approach to God and the Gospel. Michael Horton, a professor of theology at Westminster Seminary California, wrote in Christless Christianity about how many practicing Christians and preachers have reduced God from an almighty Redeemer into a spiritual thumbs-up, a self-help coach more concerned with assuring His followers’ peace of mind and worldly success more than a source of infinitely challenging grace. As we will discuss shortly in regards to their newly crowned martyr, the relationship in this altered dynamic shifts the focus of agency away from God and towards the worshiper. No longer truly focused on heaven, or even really saving more souls, the congregants of the American Church see their earthly prosperity (often the result of a number of social trends and just as often simple good fortune) as proof that God loves them and has helped them to succeed in this life. Such attitudes (the aptly named “Prosperity Gospel” only first among them) create a line of demarcation between successful/true believers and struggling non-believers. Rather than recognize the universality of Christ’s teachings, leaving space for both Jew and Gentile, the American Church has increasingly become a walled garden for Us to keep out a different-seeming Them. Mankind’s common state as fallen creatures is discarded in this Gospel, replaced by a self-belief that those within the American Church represent the elect few who are beloved and rewarded by God Almighty.

Should it be a surprise to anyone, then, that those walls should become like those of Jericho, the perimeter of a fortress by which the American Church wages war upon the infidel? Granted, the story of Christianity as an institution has often been one of assiduous support for the interests of the state (even becoming the state in some instances); what creates a particular perversity now is that those reactionary politics are no longer the preserve of the higher clergy. No longer content to merely promise an intangible salvation to the obedient, the American Church offers prosperity, personal self-satisfaction, and worldly triumph to the elect who bow at their altar. In those outside the Church (a limit defined not by religious beliefs, but political ones), these believers see not fellow servants to God, but debtors whose very existence must be amended to them personally. The American Church forms the keystone of the fascist culture war, each of its worshipers converted from Christ to a civic religion whose battle lines are only nebulously drawn back to Scripture. Keeping to within the confines of their fortress, the American Church has become like Israel as described in Ezekiel 16:49: “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” They believe that their worldly success should lead to complete worldly domination, so self-assured are they of their spiritual superiority.

There is, of course, one figure around whom the American Church has rallied to, a new Nero for the new Rome that is America. Markers of loyalty to him are found everywhere around those proclaiming themselves as defenders of the Christian faith, hailing him as a ruler not just chosen by heaven but empowered by God, all of the truths of his life to the contrary. In his gilded residences, his constant staging of spectacles centered around him, his utter lack of humility, his open hatred for the least of humanity, the all-but-crowned king of the American Church proves himself to be the anti-Christ of this age. It is not enough for him to stand opposed to every tenet of the Gospel, he must go a step beyond the Nero of old and pervert the Church itself into his loudest sycophants. He does not demean himself to anything like riding in on a donkey, but demands triumphal parades of military might and displays of lavish wealth. Rightly did the Church of antiquity fear a return of Nero and his bloody persecution of Christians; the American Church, having cast aside Christ in their war for worldly power, bow to their King and his promises of even more of what this world has to offer.

Who, then, is surprised that the recently deceased has become elevated to sainthood within the American Church? If un-Christlike division, worldly greed, and sheer haughtiness are the tenets of the American Church, then this first saint of their anti-Christ is truly their standard bearer. In his own words, he proved himself to be everything by which the American Church stands in opposition to Christ: a glorifier of American (and American-supported) violence abroad, a dedicated race warrior, and a divider of humanity. For this supposed saint, there truly was no higher power (than the United States of America). Small wonder, then, that these churches have to resort to AI-generated platitudes to deceive people into acting like the deceased was some kind of Godly man. That the illusion held at all is proof of the American Church’s fallen state. Their saint does not compel them to love and good works, but hatred and subjugation of fellow humanity in service of their hallowed new Rome, a proud Babylon the Great that brooks no challengers and offers no redemption to the outcast and the broken. This church, though it can never admit such weakness, is in desperate need of the true Gospel, a vision of universal grace and love for a humanity equal in its brokenness, to turn away from this earthly Caesar and his false prophets, and towards the true King.