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DEBUNKING THE EVANGELICAL ANTI CATHOLIC SCREED

On top of everything else going on, elements of the Evangelical faction of the US Republican Party have thrown down the gauntlet against a group of people of which they made Tucker Carlson the figurehead. We've been here before of course (link, link), but this time it's not a flash in the pan, but a full scale war. On the other side of the spectrum we find media personalities like Mark Levin and Ben Shapiro. On the face of it, it's about loyalty to Israel and the Zionist cause. Any criticism is pounced upon with accusations of antisemitism. But here inter Christian theological differences have become the vehicle for the mother of all hate campaigns. But if you dig a little deeper, it is becomes clear that the actual target of this operation is to stop the advancement of Vice President, JD Vance. It's not about theology, it's about power. And the long term, a battle for the soul of the US Republican Party.

    

Nov. 14, 2024 Orthodox Ethos: Are the Jews Today Still God's Chosen People?

That's the short version of it. We can't be sure of the authorship of the screed (link), but it was posted on X last Sunday by someone with the handle, Insurrection Barbie @DefiyantlyFree who has a weird background. Since it can't be verified, we'll leave it at that. 

But some commentators have suggested that James Lindsay may have something to do with it. He coined the ridiculous moniker "Woke Right". The pamphlet indeed breaths his spirit and style.

Headed, "The Long Game and the Conservative Right" (link) the piece spins a web of conspiracies out of ancient theological differences that the author does not even half understand.

But indeed, it is something that might sprout from the mind of a person who thinks up a construct like "Woke Right", Lindsay being a staunch atheist who knows anything he knows about religion, from other atheist books. 

I will not take into consideration here the pro and contras of the war against Iran, ostensibly the genesis of the controversy. In fact it is marginal to the arguments.

Also not relevant is a silly quarrel between Megan Kelly (link) and Mark Levin, in which the latter enlisted the help of the Commander in Chief as he is conducting a major a war (link).

I will also leave aside the intricacies of American politics. I am not an American and I don't intend the insert myself in that debate. But since the author brings up American values, like the separation of Church and State, it is stunning how politics and religion are intermixed in the screed. 

The author makes it clear that the targets are not run of the mill Catholics. No, this is against a particular kind of Catholics, the kind that rejects the progressive Church Council of Vatican II, the kind who hold on to the Latin Mass and against Integralists, meaning Catholics who seek to limit the influence of radical secularism.

Center stage is the SSPX or the Society of Saint Pius (website) of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and adjacent traditionalism. I'm not Catholic either. So I'm also not going into the niceties of that inter Catholic dispute. But shockingly, all Catholic mainstream clergy are keeping schtum about the controversy. 

What I do know from studies on Ecumenism, is that post Vatican II theology is just as politized by secular Leftism as Tucker Carlson's Episcopalian Church. And that is, where the piece already stops making any sense. 

The subtitle makes clear at once that this is about power: "How a Network of Political Catholic Integralists, Russian Ideologues, and Media Provocateurs Are Systematically Dismantling the Evangelical Foundation of the American Right".

First off, given the reference to Catholics in one sentence with "Russian Ideologues" (the piece mentions Russian Eurasian philosopher, Alexander Dugin), I suspect that the author does not know the difference between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

For many Protestants, history starts at the Reformation. They are clueless about anything that happened before 1500. So to them the difference between Catholicism and Orthodoxy is like the nuances between Socialism and Communism: whatever. 

The main line of attack is supersessionism, also referred to as "replacement theology" by its critics and "fulfillment theology" by its proponents. It teaches that the Christian Church has superseded or replaced Israel as God's covenant people, the New Covenant in Christ fulfilling and replacing the Old Testament Covenants.

Far from being radical or sectarian, this theology is the heart and soul of the New Testament, as is made clear in various parts of the Gospel (references). The teaching has been mainstream Christianity since the establishment of the Church by Jesus Christ in AD 30 and the Council of Jerusalem in AD 50 (link).

But make no mistake. This is not about theology. This is about power and politics. It's about a question "that will take a decade or more to fully answer: Who controls the ideological and theological DNA of the Republican Party’s base?"

Generally this Evangelical faction of dispensationalists are referred to as Christian Zionists. But it is debatable if they even are Christians. They invoke the name of Jesus a lot, but when push comes to shove, they reject the heart of the New Testament. 

Instead they are harking back to the Old Testament Covenants, and like the Jews themselves, reject Christ as King, which is the 'meme' that got all this started, because according to this crowd, it's "code for antisemitism". 

If you are not aware of the origins is of this Protestant cult, John Mappin has the details here below.



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