The Rise of MAGA Christian Identity
Plus: The crocodile comes to eat Jonathan Greenblatt and the ADL.
Programming note: The latest Bulwark Movie Club is up. This week Sonny and I talked about All the President’s Men with Jonathan Cohn. Check it out.
Also, guys, if you haven’t listened to Tim Miller’s conversation with the legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, please do so—it’s fantastic. That’s yesterday episode of the Bulwark Podcast.
1. Christian Identity
Two data points:
Last Sunday, Thomas Jacob Sanford attacked the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints meetinghouse in Grand Blanc, Michigan. He set the chapel on fire and killed four of the Mormons worshipping there.
On Tuesday, a Mormon named Dave Butler started a fundraising drive to support Sanford’s wife and children. Butler wrote, “Sanford leaves behind a wife and children who must be grieving. They will face financial hardship and psychological trauma as a result of this week’s horrifying events.”
Here are some of the comments left by people who donated money to Sanford’s family:
“God shall wipe away all tears. Until then, we can help each other as we strive to forgive and heal. I can only imagine what your family must be going through as well.”
“Our hearts are broken for all of those who are impacted by this tragedy. Our feelings also include you.”
“Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort, and to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things, and in all places that ye may be in.”
Contacted by the Washington Post, Butler explained: “The Epistle of James says that we should care for the widows and orphans. I wanted to make sure that we were taking care of them.”
As of this writing, people have donated over $200,000. Judging by the notes accompanying the donations, most of them seem to be Christians and Mormons.1
On Sunday night, while the Mormon meetinghouse was still burning, Elon Musk took to defend the honor of Christians. Or rather to defend the honor of “Christian Identity.”
An anonymous right-wing influencer, IAmYesYouAreNo, had declared that, “The ADL [the Anti-Defamation League] considers Christianity a hateful terrorist extremist belief. You don’t hate the ADL enough.”
Musk replied, “The ADL hates Christians, therefore it is is a hate group.”
This would be the same ADL that defended Musk after he gave (twice) a Nazi Nazi-like salute at a Trump rally.
Two questions:
Which of these examples more fully embodies the tenets of Christianity?
Which is more likely to be embraced and approved of by self-identifying American Christians, right now?