California megachurch pastor Jack Hibbs, a close ally of right-wing Christian nationalist political operatives David Lane and Charlie Kirk, declared on his podcast last week that people who vote for Democrats cannot be Christians. Hibbs’ influence stretches beyond his congregation through his political alliances and online followers; his YouTube channel has 659,000 subscribers. Earlier this year, House Speaker Mike Johnson invited Hibbs to give a prayer to the House of Representatives.
From an edition of his “Real Life with Jack Hibbs” podcast posted Aug 1:
Democrats, sorry. Look, I gotta tell you man, I’m gonna say it again, you cannot be a Democrat and be a believer in Jesus Christ. You can lie to yourself all you want. Jesus Christ is not an abortionist. Jesus Christ does not attack borders and say they don’t matter. The God of the Bible established borders, he says so. The God of the Bible is pro-life, he says so. So, if you’re a Democrat, and you say you’re a Christian, that means you vote Democrat, which means you vote against the Bible. Actions speak louder than words. So, I have no interest in you.
In reality, of course, millions of Christians regularly vote for Democratic candidates, which apparently rankles Hibbs almost as much as conservative evangelicals who vote, something he has been complaining about for years. On last week’s podcast he railed against conservative Christians in California who don’t vote, saying “I have so much more respect for Democrats who go out and vote in huge numbers for their sick, perverse ideology, their godless platform.” Hibbs has previously referred to the Democratic Party as a “death cult.”
The purported focus of Hibbs’ Aug. 1 podcast episode was Christian nationalism, a term he said he doesn’t take seriously because news outlets all have different definitions. (Christian nationalism is a complex ideology, and scholars and journalists do define it in varying ways; generally, it is grounded in the belief that the U.S. was founded by and for Christians, and that Christians have a duty to “take America back” so that it remains or returns to being a “Christian nation” whose laws align with a particular “biblical worldview.”)
Hibbs said he is not a Christian nationalist because he doesn’t want a state church and doesn’t want to make everyone Christians, adding, “Most people are going to hell.” But Hibbs often acts like a Christian nationalist, for example by promoting false versions of American history—including slavery—that Christian nationalists use to buttress their claims about America’s divine founding and mission. On his podcast, Hibbs urged people to read the Mayflower Compact, a document that Christian nationalists like David Lane claim gives America a national mission to advance Christianity.
Hibbs referenced a biblical directive attributed to Jesus, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” then gave his take on the passage:
The truth of the matter is, ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s,’ meaning California belongs to God. Caesar belongs to God. The presidency of the United States belongs to God, as does the crown of England belong to God. Those are secular institutions—of course, I understand that—under the sovereignty of God, meaning God raises them up and God takes them down.
When former President Donald Trump was shot, Hibbs claimed it was a warning that the former president must publicly “bow the knee,” adding, “It’s time to say that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he’s the one that rules over the affairs of men.”
When people criticized Hibbs’ invitation to pray in Congress this year, Hibbs responded by declaring that those who criticize or oppose Christian nationalism are a “systemic cancer” in this nation and are carrying out the agenda of “the Third Reich under Hitler,” as Right Wing Watch reported. In May, Hibbs responded to college protests against the war in Gaza with a diatribe claiming that student protesters aren’t protected by the First Amendment because Hibbs doesn’t recognize them as Americans.
Hibbs and his church are active in trying to influence politics at the state and local levels. His church conducts voter registration and ballot harvesting operations. Members of his congregation took over the local school board, pushed members of his church to take over school boards, part of his message that “as Christians we are to take back this nation.”
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