How Progressive Christianity and Christian Nationalism both get it very, very wrong

When it comes to "ordo amoris" and a host of other things

Vice President J.D. Vance invoked what he called a “Christian concept” this past week in a conversation with Fox News about re-taking control of the borders. Take a minute to listen:

The concept he’s talking about is called “ordo amoris” and it refers to the reality that we have different levels of responsibility toward people depending on their relationship and general proximity to us. The concept is grounded in biblical thinking, but two Christian-in-name movements on either end of the political spectrum are misusing the concept.

Both so-called Progressive Christianity, and so-called Christian Nationalism, fail to adhere to sound biblical teaching. (NOTE: To the mainstream media/culture, anyone who goes to church is a Christian Nationalist – but I’ll show you what real Christian Nationalism is, and it’s not pretty).

Leftist fantasyland

In the clip, of course, he was responding to the political left’s turning of the “ordo amoris” concept on its head – the sacrificing of American citizens’ needs in deference to illegal immigrants’ needs. Progressive Christianity, which is entirely sold out to Marxist/leftist worldviews, often invokes random Bible verses or the name of Jesus to argue that we as American citizens have a duty to “love” every foreigner who’s crossed the border illegally – and that failing to embrace them with open arms is un-Christian.

This is the clear message of many of the “He Gets Us” commercials, and it’s explicitly promoted by progressives like Kaitlyn Schiess:

To the left, there is no such thing as other people’s children, which is why they’re so willing to step on parental rights (the obvious exception being that they don’t apply their own rule to the welfare of unborn children).

This isn’t limited to immigration issues. Here, well-known Bible teacher Jen Wilkin tries to make the wholly unsupported claim that somehow Christians should be less concerned about their own children and more concerned with the fate of children in their local public schools:

Plainly put, other people’s children is a thing that exists in reality, and it is not un-Christian to prioritize your children over them. I don’t know if the women advocating for this nonsense have children, but I know that leftists still feed, clothe, shelter and love the kids in their own homes more than they feed, clothe, shelter and love anyone else’s. To argue otherwise is to descend into the land of make-believe. This is simply not reality.

It is incredibly misguided to pretend, as Jen Wilkin does, that any harm to your own child that may result from sending them to an inferior or unsafe public school system is somehow offset by the good you will do by being an “adult parent in that system.” We’ll address this lack of biblical understanding in a moment.

The Christian Nationalism dominion bros

The left side that we just described is heavily populated with feminist-leaning women pushing for a falsely-based “love of neighbor” that isn’t biblically true. On the other side of the political spectrum we have the guys (and in this case, they are pretty much all guys) advocating their own strict interpretation of ordo amoris — that those closest to us, in various ways, are the only ones that really matter, and that barriers between various groups are actually commendable.

Christian Nationalism is a movement aimed squarely at young men who are understandably fed up with the left’s feminization of everything, but it’s actually just as toxic.

The hardcore Christian Nationalists are misinterpreting the Great Commission — they see it as a mandate to “Christianize” society through politics. Get laws and policies and cultural movements to reflect the Bible, get the women to stay home (this is a pretty big part of their thinking), and the world will be a better place.

And I think we could all agree that the closer the world gets to running in alignment with biblical principles, the better that would be — especially compared to the cultural dumpster fire we have going on now.

However, that is not what the Great Commission is. “Christianizing” the world is not our calling.

Nobody is won to Christ by force, and winning people to Christ is what our calling is all about. The Christian Nationalists completely miss the point, and as is often the case when we superimpose our own ideas on the Bible, some of their best “thinkers” are articulating truly abhorrent ideas, as Dr. Owen Strachan recently reported in the Gloria Deo Journal of Theology.

Dr. Strachan quotes from The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe, a leader in the movement, who advocates for less race-mixing, among other things, and argues that there is a “collective duty” of “groups” to “be separate and marry among themselves.”

“People of different ethnic groups can exercise respect for difference, conduct some routine business with each other, join in inter-ethnic alliances for mutual good and exercise common humanity… but they cannot have a life together that goes beyond mutual alliance.” (149)

“As I argued above, a community of similar people provides the best social conditions for the communication of gifts and achieving collective goals. Dissimilar people together can achieve the basic goods of humanity, but not the complete good.” (151)

“perhaps in some cases amicable ethnic separation along political lines is mutually desired.” (149)

“Culturally distinct groups of Christians could, of course, start their own churches, and this would solve one problem.” (200)

This is antithetical to the gospel of Christ, as Paul clearly teaches in Galatians — a book written to condemn legalism in the strongest terms possible, which might be why the Christian Nationalism bros don’t appear to be taking it to heart:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. — Galatians 3:28

I’m not seeing “start your own churches” based on your “culturally distinct group” in our Instruction Manual, are you?

And the hardest of the hardcore supporters of this movement, like Wolfe, Doug Wilson and Joel Webbon, are playing with fire, calling out pastors who disagree with them as having “loser theology” (this was directed at John MacArthur), or telling men to take dominion over their wives and children (man was supposed to take dominion over the animals, but Ephesians lays out a servant leadership role, not a dominator — see Ephesians 5:25-33 and Ephesians 6:4).

Pastor Kevin DeYoung notes in his review of the Wolfe’s book:

The message—that ethnicities shouldn’t mix, that heretics can be killed, that violent revolution is already justified, and that what our nation needs is a charismatic Caesar-like leader to raise our consciousness and galvanize the will of the people—may bear resemblance to certain blood-and-soil nationalisms of the 19th and 20th centuries, but it’s not a nationalism that honors and represents the name of Christ.

Beyond “ordo amoris” to properly ordering our lives

We see that there is danger on every side, and it’s important that we hew closely to actual scriptural teaching to avoid the gross errors of both of the above approaches to what we most value as we order our lives. So what does the Bible say?

Well, here’s the thing. It says all the relationships are important.

For instance, the Bible offers a stern warning to those who would shirk caring for their own families/relatives:

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. — 1 Timothy 5:8

So no true Christian can fail to care for his own family. But Jesus expanded the definition of family, as we see in Matthew 12:46-50:

While He was still speaking to the crowds, behold, His mother and brothers were standing outside, seeking to speak to Him. Now someone said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak to You.” But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

So caring for that family — which practically speaking, is your church family — is put even higher than blood ties. After all, as Jesus told His disciples the night of His betrayal (John 13:34-35):

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Our loving relationship to other believers is meant to be seen by the world. It is also the subject of all the “one anothers” in the Bible — a myriad of teaching about how to interact with our fellow Christians.

So what about that “love your neighbor” thing that the left is always talking about? Yeah, that’s really important too. Because loving one another in our church family, and caring for our own families, does not unburden us from the responsibility to love our neighbor — which generally in the Word means loving the lost back to Christ.

Notably, it does not mean campaigning for open borders, or announcing that you love everyone. As C.S. Lewis observed, “Loving everybody, in general, may be an excuse for loving nobody in particular.”

So how do we love the lost? We should start with loving one another, which should demonstrate to the lost what they’re missing! Obviously there are countless more ways we can meaningfully love and serve people, practically speaking — hospitality is a big one! This is the true meaning of the Great Commission, and it is also a priority.

See, that’s the thing. The order actually isn’t quite as important as realizing that we can’t just park on one of God’s instructions to the detriment of the others. We can’t say we’re too busy with our kids to serve in the soup kitchen, for example, or that we’re giving too much money to church to be able to help out a neighbor who can’t pay his electric bill.

Following Jesus means a wholehearted approach, every day, to all the important relationships outlined in the Bible. We all — and our churches, and our families — should be actively loving and serving the communities in which we live as well as seeking how to reach the larger world (hint: give to missions).

This, then, is how we bring the good news of Jesus Christ to all. This is our calling. This is how we are to order our lives — as always, aligning closely with the whole counsel of God’s Word.