‘Kingdom Coming’ Came to Capitol

Review by Bill Doughty ––

Michelle Goldberg

“Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism” by Michelle Goldberg (WW Norton, 2006), is a book completely relevant after the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump-inspired insurrectionists, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists.

When, where, and who are the next targets?

Written fifteen years before the 1/6 attack, Goldberg seems to predict the violence at the Capitol as she explains the passion and self-righteousness of homegrown extremists rooted in Christian identity.

Goldberg writes, “This is what we are up against. Christian nationalists worship a nostalgic vision of America, but they despise the country that actually exists –– its looseness, its decadence, its maddening lack of absolutes.” (To be clear, most Christians condemn and regret the violence of Jan. 6, and not every rioter was a Christian fundamentalist extremist.)

In “Kingdom Coming” Goldberg reflects on the rise of fascist fundamentalism in the wake of “the Posse Comitatus, the Christian Identity-influenced paramilitary network, which in turn bred the militia movement.” By the mid-1980s and into the 90s Posse Comitatus had at least 15,000 active members and many more followers throughout the nation.

“The militia movement, which was active in several states during the mid-1990s, evolved out of the Posse Comitatus. Militia ideologues often trafficked in an explosive blend of conspiracy theory, survivalism, hatred of the federal government, and Christian Identity; the movement was part of the paranoid and violent demimonde that nurtured terrorists including Oklahoma City bombers Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols and Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. As the decade came to an end, the militia movement splintered and dissipated. Yet its brand of radical religious nationalism, rather than going underground, slithered closer to the mainstream.”

McVeigh

McVeigh very nearly joined the U.S. Navy, but chose instead to enlist in the Army, where he met Nichols. McVeigh participated in Operation Desert Storm in the early 80s.

As noted in an earlier Navy Reads post, of the insurrectionists who were first arrested for attacking the Capitol Jan. 6, around 12 percent reportedly had connections to the military. So far, more than 40 of the people arrested are military veterans. (Others had ties to law enforcement. And at least one violent insurrectionist served in the previous administration as a Trump appointee.)

Goldberg explores the modern history of Christian nationalism and touches on some of its permeation in the military, including at the Air Force Academy, where cadets were made to accept Christianity as a “total ideology.” In 1961 Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Wacker, a member of the John Birch Society, was found to be “indoctrinating” U.S. troops stationed in Europe; he was denounced on the Senate floor. In 2003 Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin wore his uniform while proselytizing Christianity over Islam: “I knew that my god was a real god, and his was an idol.”

In 1986, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger issued a directive decreeing that “military personnel must reject participation in white supremacy, neo-Nazi and other such groups …” But the military failed to completely root out the relatively small number of white power hate groups and individuals in uniform.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III speaks to service members aboard USS Nimitz, Feb. 25, 2021. (DoD Photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Jack Sanders).

On Martha Raddatz’s Face the Nation March 7, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III recommitted to eradicating extremism –– racists, fascists, supremacists, and anarchists –– in the ranks.

Referring to core values and the oath to protect and defend the Constitution, Austin said, “We want to make sure that our troops are reminded of what our values are, reminded of the oath that we took coming in. And my belief, my strong belief, Martha, is that 99.9 percent of our troops embrace those values, and are focused on the right things, and are doing the right things each and every day.”

The evidence of white supremacists’ and Christian nationalists’ active participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection siege is undeniable –– from images of the huge wooden cross, to signs, flags, and the words they screamed as they assaulted police officers and guards, the media, and the Constitution.

[Among the startling images captured Jan. 6 is a video by New Yorker’s Luke Mogelson, which includes a temporary takeover of the Senate chambers by Christian nationalists (at 7:55 in the video).]

Goldberg’s review of history includes several quotes from Hannah Arendt describing Germany’s conservatives in the post First World War era. They “bought into the dolchstosslegende, the myth that the military had been stabbed in the back by subversive civilian traitors –– especially Jews.”

Who could be scapegoats and targets in the years ahead if such thinking continues to grow? Atheists? Blacks? Browns? Asians? “Latte-drinking liberal elites”?

In "Kingdom Coming," published five years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Goldberg notes the similarities of fundamentalists in the Middle East and the United States. She questions the wisdom of perpetuating foreign entanglements while ignoring threats on the Homefront. Those threats include “a conscious refutation of Enlightenment rationalism” and rejection of “the idea of government religious neutrality.”

“It makes no sense to fight religious authoritarianism abroad while letting it take over at home. The grinding, brutal war between modern and medieval values has spread chaos, fear, and misery across our poor planet. Far worse than the conflicts we’re experiencing today, however, would be a world torn between competing fundamentalisms. Our side, America’s side, must be the side of freedom and Enlightenment, of liberation from stale constricting dogmas. It must be the side that elevates reason above the commands of holy books and human solidarity above religious supremacism. Otherwise, God help us all.”

Far from just presenting a problem, though, Goldberg also offers prescriptions for finding reason through critical thinking and “practical politics.” She sees the answer in big-tent moderate strategies, not radical liberalism or conservatism –– neither Goldwater nor McGovern. The answer, however, is not appeasement.

President Joe Biden talks with Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III during a visit to the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Feb. 10, 2021. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)

Goldberg seems to envision the current Biden administration:

“My ideas are not about reconciliation or healing. It would be good for America if a leader stepped forward who could recognize the grievances of both sides, broker some sort of truce, and mend America’s ragged divides. The anxieties that underlay Christian nationalism’s appeal –– fears about social breakdown, marital instability, and cultural decline –– are real. They should be acknowledged and, whenever possible, addressed. But as long as the movement aims at the destruction of secular society and the political enforcement of its theology, it has to be battled, not comforted and appeased.”

She cites the view of Arendt again to make her point. Arendt warned of “unprecedented unpredictability” of totalitarian movements, based on her experience witnessing the rise of Nazi Germany. Can the same advice apply to the mindset of the Trump supporters and Christian nationalist insurrectionists who believed Big Lie propaganda and heeded the call to fight and march on the Capitol January 6, 2021?

Arendt wrote: “Because of its demagogic qualities, totalitarian propaganda, which long before the seizure of power clearly indicated how little the masses were driven by the famous instinct of self-preservation, was not taken seriously.”