Ordered Liberty Under God

The Gospel is not Republican, Democrat, socialist, nationalist, or any other political label. Christ does not exist to be recruited into our agenda. We are called to submit ourselves to Him. But that is exactly why I think we need to be careful on both sides.

My concern was not that Christianity should be wrapped in partisan politics or that the Church should become an arm of the State. I reject that. The Church must never become a tool of a political party or government. But rejecting “Christian nationalism” does not mean Christians should stop making moral judgments about political ideas. If a movement expands state power over the economy, education, healthcare, housing, speech, family, religious liberty, and private property, Christians have every right to ask whether that movement protects human dignity or gradually replaces it with government control.

That is not fearmongering. That is discernment.

Helping the poor matters deeply. Scripture is clear about that. But the biblical command to care for the poor does not automatically make every government program wise, just, biblical, or sustainable. The Bible commands generosity, justice, and mercy. It does not say that centralized state power is the same thing as compassion.

We all know Scandinavia is not socialist in the classical Marxist sense. Denmark, Norway, and Finland are market economies with private property, private enterprise, trade, and rule of law. They have large welfare systems, but they are not examples of Marxist economics or government ownership of the means of production. So using them to defend socialism often confuses the issue.

On Sodom, I think both points are true. Ezekiel highlights pride, arrogance, abundance, and neglect of the poor. Jude and Peter highlight sexual immorality, lawlessness, and rebellion against God’s created order. Those do not contradict each other. They show that a society in rebellion against God usually decays morally, sexually, spiritually, socially, and economically all at once.

So I am not saying the danger is only “the left," although it is heavily weighted in that directions. I agree that any movement can corrupt Christianity if it tries to drape itself in the cross while refusing to bow before Christ. But it is also possible to use the warning against “Christian nationalism” as a way to avoid dealing with the dangers of socialism, Marxism, or excessive state power.

The real Christian position is not cold individualism, and it is not an all-powerful state. It is ordered liberty under God: personal responsibility, voluntary generosity, strong families, faithful churches, justice for the vulnerable, protection of private property, religious freedom, free speech, and limited government that protects God-given rights rather than replacing them.

That was my point.