Sheep in Sweden. Credit: Panek on Wikimedia Commons.
My grandmother once tried to teach some of her grandchildren Swedish, at least a few words. I don’t recall any, and I remain completely baffled while meandering through IKEA. Seeing the products at least you can make the connection with their names in Swedish, if not the pronunciation.
When a distant relative from Sweden recently sent a news article in Swedish to me and several others and seeking our opinion, Google translater became necessary. The headline read: “Kritikstorm mot Hegseth’s pastor efter ‘dödsbön’ – Brooks Potteiger har beskrivits som USA:s försvarsministers andliga rådgivare.”
Google translation: “Storm of criticism against Hegseth’s pastor after ‘death prayer’ – Brooks Potteiger has been described as the US Secretary of Defense’s spiritual adviser.” At least the first word in Swedish was understood. ‘Kritikstorm’ – very efficient and with fewer letters. Much less understandable is the religious movement behind the subject of the news story.
More than being difficult to understand, as in one of the responses to the Swedish relative, it’s “scary as hell.” Or another’s response: “It’s blasphemous and worse that a pastor will use Christian theology (being crucified with Christ) in a way that makes it a veiled threat. I don’t know how Pete ended up doing evil things. I sat with Pete Hegseth in a dinner and tried to argue him out of supporting Trump in the run up to the 2016 election. Obviously my argument fell on deaf ears.”
It is appalling to hear about Hegseth’s frothing statements about war, violence, killing as if it were ordained by God to vanquish the heathen. To hear about him praying such at the Pentagon is an abomination. His pastor, Doug Wilson, founded the Congregation of Reformed Evangelical Churches that self-identifies as a Christian nationalist.
While Pete Hegseth and other ‘Christian nationalists’ or ‘reconstructionists’ are worshipping this Sunday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, his life, and his teachings, they will either block out any thoughts about the madness of warring with Iran, or have some alarming ability to manage such cognitive dissonance. (See ‘The devil made me do it’ – In quest for political power, Christian nationalists playing with fire, Feb. 26, 2026).
Old and New
For Christians the Bible consists of two major parts: Old Testament and New Testament. I once remarked to a friend, Republicans are Old Testament, Democrats are New Testament. A few sparks arising from that were extinguished with an agreement that you need both. Reading about noisiest sector of the Christian church today, you might think they have forgotten about the New Testament. This seems especially ironic as we approach Easter Sunday.
The Christian nationalists seem to ignore the message of Jesus in the New Testament. He was not about an earthly kingdom, and disappointed some of his followers who hoped that he would bring political power to overthrow their Roman overlords. Nowhere in the New Testament is that supported.
And as they are feeding on the Old Testament, the Christian nationalists, other nativists and xenophobes, should also consider such citations as Leviticus chapter 19, verses 33 and 34: 33“When an alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. 34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
Works and faith
Somewhere in a later assessment of the evangelical church of my childhood and youth, I recall thinking that most attention was given to the New Testament. That would make sense for a Christian church. However, there was sufficient sermonizing from the Old Testament, enough to instill guilt in young children with a healthy fear of hellfire and damnation.
As an adult I joined a Lutheran congregation (ELCA). The difference, as I once remarked to a Lutheran pastor acquaintance, is that salvation with the former came with a question, ‘are you saved?’ while the Lutherans make it a statement: ‘You are saved!’
Martin Luther helped explain away much of the anguish about works and faith. The law and works alone cannot provide salvation. The new covenant announced in the New Testament came to the rescue. I also appreciate the Lutheran liturgy, basically the same as the Catholic Church.
In the New Testament we learn about Jesus’s ordeal of 40 days the desert being tempted by Satan with dominion over the world, or political power. If Christian nationalists want to compare their current political party leader with Jesus, in the desert he would have yielded to Satan. God ordains governments to manage human behavior, to curb the bad and support the good. With our current federal government misleaders, the opposite seems true.
All theists know that God wants each individual to grant him dominion. God sent Jesus to correct the course of humanity, and away from its dark side of division, power and greed. The earthly kingdom he talked about is within each individual, with the Sermon on the Mount being our guide. Until then God’s word came through the prophets. Remotely, which as we know is never as good or effective as in person, face-to-face, two millennia ago.
Or, symbolically, maybe some decades ago. We were living on a small farm site raising a small flock of sheep. In early spring all the ewes had lambed, except a young one, and we were not expecting her to. Easter Sunday morning I went to the barn to check on the sheep. There she was, standing over one lamb she had just borne, a poignant reminder of that day.
Happy Easter!
