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A ‘missionary to Christian nationalists,’ Phoenix pastor urges conversion, not confrontation
Religion News ^ | 11-11-2022 | Bob Smietana

Posted on 11/12/2022 8:49:02 PM PST by Saije

(RNS) — Phoenix pastor Caleb Campbell has a theory about the growing number of Americans who are labeled as Christian nationalists.

Most would rather go to Cracker Barrel than storm the Capitol.

Many see themselves as good Christians who love their country. But somewhere along the way, they began to think being a good American and being a Christian were one and the same.

“Their whole life has been the intermingling of their American civil religion and their Christian religion,” said Campbell, pastor of Desert Springs Bible Church and a self-described missionary to Christian nationalists.

To help his fellow Christians make a clearer distinction between their faith and their identity as Americans, Campbell founded a group called Disarming Leviathan and spent the last year reading Christian nationalist books and attending events like Turning Point USA’s monthly Freedom Night in America, held at a Phoenix megachurch.

...

God-and-country patriotism remains popular in the United States, according to a recent report from Pew Research. Nearly half of Americans (45%) believe America should be a Christian country, including 78% of white evangelicals and 62% of Black Protestants.

Though few want the U.S. government to adopt Christianity as the country’s official religion, according to Pew, many Americans fear religion is losing influence in the culture. That fear, says Campbell, has led a growing number of his fellow believers to embrace a more extreme form of God-and-country patriotism, one more focused on winning the culture war than following Jesus.

(Excerpt) Read more at religionnews.com ...


TOPICS: Charismatic Christian; Evangelical Christian; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: faith; patriotism; politics; religion
I wonder what the Pastor's political views are.
1 posted on 11/12/2022 8:49:02 PM PST by Saije
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To: Saije

This is Marxist nonsence.


2 posted on 11/12/2022 8:52:36 PM PST by cowboyusa (America Cowboy up! )
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To: Saije

One nation under... You know... the thing...


3 posted on 11/12/2022 8:52:51 PM PST by Axenolith (WWG1WGA!)
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To: Saije

This pastor thinks that we should just sit back and let the Marxists strip us of our GOD given rights. Not me.


4 posted on 11/12/2022 8:54:08 PM PST by cowboyusa (America Cowboy up! )
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To: Saije

“Campbell founded a group called Disarming Leviathan”

Shifting the popular definition of “leviathan” from the Hobbesian state (where it has been since 1651) to a particular anti-statist group which he believes should be disarmed.


5 posted on 11/12/2022 8:58:32 PM PST by ameribbean expat (The object of life is...to avoid finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -Aurelius)
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To: Saije

Ask him “what is a woman?”


6 posted on 11/12/2022 9:00:26 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (The worst thing about censorship is ████ █ ██████ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████████.)
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To: Saije

“But somewhere along the way, they began to think being a good American and being a Christian were one and the same.”

It is and this snowflake is a woke idiot.


7 posted on 11/12/2022 9:02:00 PM PST by DesertRhino (Dogs are called man's best friend. Moslems hate dogs. Add it up..)
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To: Saije
Phoenix pastor Caleb Campbell has a theory

I have a theory too.

That he has no idea what he is babbling about.

Oh, and is not a Christian of any sort.

8 posted on 11/12/2022 9:07:06 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (The nation of france was named after a hedgehog... The hedgehog's name was Kevin... Don't ask)
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To: cowboyusa

This jerk is a sick propagandist. He is scum.


9 posted on 11/12/2022 9:11:16 PM PST by alstewartfan ("She looks like she's 19 years old, sitting there like a lady with her legs crossed." Creepy Joe)
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To: Saije

This election seems to suggest that neo pagan globalists outnumber Christian nationalists in modern day America. This pastor seems to be a bit of a globalist himself and has come to terms, perhaps personally, with the decadence of modern American culture.


10 posted on 11/12/2022 9:15:05 PM PST by allendale
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To: cowboyusa

Dang right.


11 posted on 11/12/2022 9:44:00 PM PST by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as. )
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To: Saije

i read so few these days. this looked intriguing, but now i’m so sorry i clicked on this. this piece defined obfuscation bias and intentional misdirection. in other words, it’s obviously of the Father of lies.

i hope to never read anything by Bob Smietana again.

anyway, to salvage this time, and to summarize what ‘Christian Nationalism’ is, i’ll define it: it simply amounts to equal protection for all members of all religions of their God given 1st Amendment freedoms of thought, speech and worship. of course that is already the law of the land.

when conflicts arise among those groups, no group is allowed to deny the free public speech or thought of any other group and of course no individual within any secular or religious group is allowed to do physical harm to any individual under the guise of ‘religion’ or ‘thought.’

otherwise all groups must be allowed to practice their religion as their God dictates.


12 posted on 11/12/2022 9:44:47 PM PST by dadfly
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To: Saije

Another day, another hit piece from the marxist propaganda mills. Those confused, gullible Christians who don’t know how to distinguish church and state are everywhere, dontchaknow! Kind of like the stories on bullies— they’re everywhere, they tell us, but we cant ever find one outside the media.

Meanwhile, godless Leftists everywhere make the state into their church, and we their moral inferiors. Climate change, abortion, economics, guns, you name it— they call evil good and good evil. They turn morally neutral things into abominations, and true moral abominations into sacred virtues.


13 posted on 11/12/2022 9:51:18 PM PST by Señor Presidente (Tyranny deserves insurrection)
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To: allendale

I agree. Read Ezekiel 12 which condemns the behavior of people like this.

https://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Ezekiel+12


14 posted on 11/13/2022 4:25:20 AM PST by DarthVader (Not by speeches & majority decisions will the great issues of the day be decided but by Blood & Iron)
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To: Saije

Now we know George Washington and the other founders were so wrong. They were way too confrontational. They should have simply been “nice” to the Brits. That would have worked far better..../s


15 posted on 11/13/2022 5:00:31 AM PST by xenia ( )
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To: Saije

This pastor is “lukewarm” as Jesus once said. “I spit you out of my mouth.”


16 posted on 11/13/2022 6:27:41 AM PST by ohioman
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To: Saije

Jesus wept.


17 posted on 11/13/2022 6:55:28 AM PST by Hat-Trick (Do you trust a government that cannot trust you with guns?)
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To: Saije
It doesn't matter what the "American" religion is. It only matters what the TRUE religion is.

There are ethnic religions (Judaism, hinduism, shinto, the various tribal shamanisms, etc.), but Xianity was never supposed to be one of them.

How did a universal religion that had not nationalists when it was in the catacombs become so tied up with ethno-nationalism? How did a country that didn't exist until over 1700 years after the founding of Xianity become the One True Xian Nation par excellence? And how did enlightenment rationalists like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson get turned into Heaven-sent prophets?

18 posted on 11/13/2022 8:15:26 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (בראשית ברא אלקים את השמים ואת הארץ)
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To: cowboyusa

Besides having no apparent Christian foundation, “Pastor Caleb” seems to have no notion of history, either.

I’d like to have Caleb discuss this quote from John Adams:

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/john_adams_391045

It seems a common occurrence that those who want to take religion out of our government, also don’t like the Constitution. I wonder why that is?


19 posted on 11/13/2022 12:54:01 PM PST by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: Saije

I pray to our only King:Jesus: let
our nation, America, be subject to Christ and all He commamds.

Matthew 28
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.


20 posted on 11/14/2022 3:51:27 AM PST by Theophilus (It's fake and defective)
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