Last week, we noted that Fr. Dan Reehill, terrified of he knows not what as he banned Harry Potter on the ignorant and nonsensical charge of being \u201cdemonic\u201d is reported by his parishioners to regard himself as a \u201csoldier of Christ\u201d.\u00a0 This is, of course, a biblical image and has long purchase in the Tradition.\u00a0 But, like anything else, it is possible for biblical imagery to be misapplied and misused.\u00a0 Here in my own state of Washington, one of the biggest kooks ever to be elected to the Legislature, Rep. Matt Shea (no relation) is now under investigation for taking the \u201csoldier of Christ\u201d stuff to dangerous lengths<\/a>:<\/p>\n Standing onstage behind a Trump-emblazoned lectern and in front of a giant American flag, Shea shouted, \u201cIt\u2019s our turn now,\u201d recalled Jay Pounder, a longtime Shea confidante who was working security that night. Shea pumped his fist, Pounder said, and \u201cit felt like he was\u00a0<\/span>inciting the anger of the\u00a0<\/span>people<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Shea\u2019s supporters blew a ram\u2019s horn in celebration, said Tanner Rowe, who was also hired by Shea to work security that night.<\/p>\n Shea called Trump\u2019s victory \u201ca repudiation of the policies of tyranny\u201d and \u201ca refounding\u201d of America.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Both men were drawn to Shea\u2019s politics. They\u2019re both conservative, describe themselves as libertarians and liked Shea\u2019s positions on the Second Amendment, property rights and lower taxes.<\/p>\n But both were troubled by things they saw that night. Shea\u2019s fist pump, his declaration that \u201cit\u2019s our turn now,\u201d didn\u2019t sit right with Pounder.<\/p>\n \u201cThe tenor of the entire room changed from joyful election to angry, almost vengeful,\u201d he said. \u201cAlmost like a mob mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n Rowe interpreted the ram\u2019s horn as an Old Testament symbol: Either celebrating victory or commencing battle.<\/p>\n Both men thought the events of the night were odd, but neither acted on their concerns right away. They talked to each other, went about their lives and slowly, as time passed, became more and more troubled about Shea and how he was using his public office.<\/p>\n Almost two years later, on the eve of the 2018 election, the two released a document that Shea had been distributing entitled \u201cBiblical Basis for War<\/a>,\u201d a four-page, bullet-pointed outline for what looks like a holy war.<\/p>\n \u201cWar is a fact of life,\u201d it says. \u201cGod is with us and the battle is his.\u201d It lists \u201cqualifications of a warrior\u201d and \u201cexemptions from service,\u201d which include newlyweds, farmers and priests.<\/p>\n The document laid out the \u201crules of war.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMust surrender on terms of justice and righteousness: Stop all abortions; no same-sex marriage; no idolatry or occultism; no communism; and must obey Biblical law,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they do not yield,\u201d the document continues, \u201ckill all males.\u201d<\/p>\n Shea called the document a summary of sermons and part of a discussion of the history of war. Pounder and Rowe say that\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n The leaked document began a series of disturbing disclosures about Shea,\u00a0revealed in the local<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0international press<\/a>, that\u2019s led to the legislative investigation, supported by Shea\u2019s Republican colleagues in the House. The House is paying a former FBI agent $120,000 to look into Shea\u2019s involvement with groups that \u201cpromote, engage in, or plan political violence,<\/a>\u201d the contract for the investigation says.<\/p>\n The state Democratic Party; the Republican sheriff of Spokane County; the mayor, police chief and police union of Spokane; and a statewide religious coalition, among others, have all called for Shea\u2019s removal from office.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n A decade ago, a judge granted his ex-wife a protection order after she said he treated her \u201cas a possession\u201d and was physically and emotionally abusive, according to\u00a0The Spokesman-Review<\/a>, allegations Shea denied. In 2011, Shea\u00a0pulled a gun in a road-rage incident<\/a>\u00a0and was charged with having a loaded gun without a concealed-weapons permit.<\/p>\n In 2017, he was\u00a0sued for defamation<\/a>\u00a0after Shea said a Spokane County sheriff\u2019s deputy had provided a gun used in a triple murder. Shea has long had a running feud with the Spokane County sheriff. The lawsuit was settled out of court this year for undisclosed terms.<\/p>\n Since 2013 Shea has run his own \u201cPatriot Radio\u201d podcast, releasing regular episodes with guests ranging from preachers to retired military officers to 9\/11 truthers to Tim Eyman.<\/p>\n Each episode, Shea says, is in the \u201clegacy of Dr. Stan Monteith,\u201d a longtime conservative radio host who crusaded against fluoride in drinking water.<\/p>\n On the podcast, Shea rails against his political opponents, calling Democrats terms like Marxists, Islamists and the counterstate, and saying they follow a \u201cMaoist insurgency model.\u201d He warns against the \u201cde-Christianization\u201d of the U.S.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s this idea that Christians should be pacifist,\u201d Shea said on his podcast\u00a0this summer<\/a>. \u201cThere really is nothing further from the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Rowe \u2014 who has an image of a minuteman loading a rifle tattooed on his arm, next to the text \u201cDon\u2019t tread on me\u201d\u00a0\u2014 went to a meeting in early 2017 to learn more about the Liberty state push. [Shea dreams of Eastern Washington seceding from the rest of the state and creating the state of \u2018Liberty\u2019. \u2013 MS<\/em>]. He remembers flyers being passed around that intermingled Bible verses with policy proposals such as banning same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t even about liberty,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was about liberty for Christians and people need to live by Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n He started reading more about Shea and learned that he was a regular speaker at the Marble Community Fellowship, a\u00a0small church and community near the Canadian border,\u00a0about two hours from Shea\u2019s hometown.<\/a><\/p>\n The church has also hosted speakers like John Weaver, a Georgia pastor who has\u00a0preached against interracial marriage and defended slavery<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI found it all very strange,\u201d Rowe said. \u201cLike, incredibly strange. Why would you have a guy like John Weaver at an event up in Northeast Washington, and, you as a legislator, why would you speak at that same event?\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n In May, Pounder\u00a0leaked a string of text messages<\/a>\u00a0in which Shea offered to conduct background checks on progressive activists after his confidantes proposed \u201cpsyops\u201d and violent attacks against their political opponents.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a paranoid guy,\u201d Pounder said, describing how Shea would make them sit on their phones during meetings to prevent anyone from listening in.<\/p>\n In August, The Spokesman-Review\u00a0reported on<\/a>\u00a0leaked emails in which Shea pushed Pounder to buy GPS devices that they could use to track opponents.<\/p>\n And less than two weeks ago, Pounder posted a document entitled \u201cRestoration,\u201d which he said Shea wrote and which appears to be a blueprint for establishing a Christian state following a civil war or secession. There are instructions on establishing hospitals and morgues and decentralizing water, sewer and electrical utilities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worship of the Judeo\/Christian God will be fostered and encouraged by government,\u201d it says. \u201cImplement a severe penalty for those seeking to remove public religious expressions.\u201d It calls for capital punishment for, among other things, sodomy.<\/p>\n Pounder says he\u2019s still fond of Shea but that the legislator is \u201creally mixed up\u201d and believes in a \u201cweaponized version of Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate his views on less taxes, on water rights, I still appreciate his views on the Second Amendment, religious freedom, I totally respect those things,\u201d Pounder said. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t realize there was this dark theology.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As we saw yesterday, what lies behind this violent and vengeful Christianism is the deep belief that white conservative Christians are being \u201cpersecuted\u201d in the United States and that \u201cwarfare\u201d conducted by \u201csoldiers of Christ\u201d will be necessary to \u201ctake back the country\u201d lest we face \u201cwhite genocide\u201d.<\/p>\n Of course, not everybody is toying with the idea of \u201ca civil war or secession\u201d. But, on the Right, neither is such talk regarded as being crazy or beyond the pale either. It is, as they say, \u201cwithin the Universe of Discourse\u201d. From Pastor Rick Joyner\u2019s<\/a> call for civil war to Meghan McCain\u2019s death threats against anybody outlawing assault weapons<\/a> to the whack Evangelical \u201cprophet\u201d demanding the arrest of Democrats or the Righteous will start butchering them<\/a> to John Zmirak\u2019s demented claim that Hillary Clinton was the new Diocletian and Trump the new Constantine<\/a>, the thing connecting virtually all conservative Christian talk, Protestant and Catholic, in the United States is the fixed belief that conservative white Christians are bitterly persecuted and fighting for their lives.<\/p>\n This is the drumbeat coming from Rod Dreher, for instance. His Benedict Option is nothing other than the claim that besieged conservative Christians must make a last desperate stand against the Dark Ages that already engulf us. Church Militant also proclaims the doom of the Church constantly while also repeating the spectacular nonsense that Trump is Constantine<\/a>. And most recently, David French and Sohrab Ahmari held a debate moderated by Ross Douthat<\/a> in which all parties took it for granted that conservative Christians were under profound threat in the US and the only question was what to do about it.\u00a0 Ahmari\u2019s solution was essentially some kind of Christian theocratic state.\u00a0 He lost the debate but expressed the hope of millions of Right Wing American Christians.\u00a0 French, it will surprise no one to hear, is an Evangelical who has been frequently excoriated for his failure to prostrate himself to Trump.<\/p>\n Of course, the election of Trump did nothing to assuage the fears that gave birth to such nonsense as Deliverance by the New Constantine, because the fear comes from sources far deeper than anything that an election can solve. That is because the fear is rooted, in the end, in a profound distrust in the gospel itself, meaning ultimately a profound distrust in Jesus Christ. And, like Boromir, when you fundamentally distrust anything but your own power, you inevitably try to seize the Ring and fix the universe yourself by force, because you don\u2019t trust Grace and Jesus will not save you.<\/p>\n Of which more tomorrow.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last week, we noted that Fr. Dan Reehill, terrified of he knows not what as he banned Harry Potter on the ignorant and nonsensical charge of being \u201cdemonic\u201d is reported by his parishioners to regard himself as a \u201csoldier of Christ\u201d.\u00a0 This is, of course, a biblical image and has long purchase in the Tradition.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1101],"class_list":["post-113589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-intellectual-tradition"],"yoast_head":"\n