They Didn’t Ban the Church...They Rewrote It - patterns of Nationalized Christianity
- Andrew Fouts
- 4 hours ago
- 7 min read
Growing up in evangelicalism and especially as one who attended Christian School my entire life, I had a fascination with the persecuted church. Part of this fascination led me to read books like the retelling of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs from DC Talk, and the memoir of Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured For Christ.
These stories have stayed with me and will pop up occasionally, sometimes randomly, but often as I begin to see or hear things that trigger the circumstances of one of the stories. This is where I first learned of the Saints like Telemachus, and where I began to explore things like Christian influence on culture in history, and even the relationship between Islam and Christianity. But there is one story in particular from Richard Wurmbrand that has come up in my mind a lot recently.
The founder of the Voice of Martyrs, Richard and his wife Sabine were regularly imprisoned and tortured for their leading roles within the underground church movement in Romania during both the Nazi and Soviet occupations. His wife was Jewish herself and lost her family during the Holocaust. His memoir is filled with stories of persecution, evangelism, forgiveness, miracles, and even an appearance of Jesus to him within a cell. But in the first chapter of “Tortured For Christ,” he tells us a story about a Congress of Faith Leaders that the Soviets called in Romania. This congress featured pastors from all over Romania praising the new occupiers and sharing how Communism and Christianity meshed well. Eventually it was time for Richard to speak.
“My wife and I were present at this congress. Sabina told me, Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ! They are spitting in His face.' I said to her, 'if I do so, you lose your husband. She replied, 'I don't wish to have a coward as a husband.' Then I arose and spoke to this congress, praising not the murderers of Christians, but Jesus Christ, stating that our loyalty is due first to Him. The speeches at this congress were broadcast, and the whole country could hear proclaimed from the rostrum of the Communist Parliament the message of Christ!
The Soviets, like the Nazi Party, did not ban Christianity outright. They didn’t attempt to make enemies of the Christians in the countries they occupied. Instead, they both chose a slow and deliberate hijacking of the faith, to not only gain the favor of the people they had power over, but to make questioning this power akin to blasphemy. Christianity was never banned; it was rebranded. And as a result, the ways of Jesus were outlawed, and it happened slowly and subtly.
A RECENT HISTORY OF NATIONALIZED CHRISTIANITY
NAZI GERMANY
In Germany, it began with simple statements from Adolf Hitler, including a 1922 speech where he identified that his movement was a Christian one. This was met with mixed reactions, as the Catholic Church specifically banned allegiance to the Nazi movement. Throughout the next decade, the focus was shifted towards making Christianity more German and less Jewish in nature and belief. They did this via support from German pastors and churches. This shift is part of what was noticed by Dietrich Bonnehoffer as counter to what he experienced in the African American Churches of America. In 1933, everything changed again as Hitler began to proclaim that Christianity was at the heart of Germanic values. After this speech, even the Catholic and Orthodox churches began to have Nazi sympathizers in their pulpits. There was never any official movement to make Christianity a part of the Nazi movement. It was a slow, deliberate, and seemingly invisible shift in the way those in power talked.
Christianity was never outlawed, but the ways of Jesus were.
SOVIET UNION
The Nazi's process was the same type of playbook we read about the Soviets from Wurmbrand in Romania. They gathered the pastors and churches from around the land. This congress of pastors voted Joseph Stalin to be the honorary leader of this meeting, and then one by one the pastors pledged loyalty to the Union, the Communist Party, and preached about how Christianity lines up so well with the values of Stalin and his policies. Wurmbrand notes how the Orthodox and Catholic priests began to incorporate the Hammer and Sickle on their robes. The Baptist churches began placing the party flags in their sanctuaries. The Soviets never actually outlawed Christian belief, but they banned the practices.
WHY AM I WRITING ABOUT THIS NOW?
If you have been paying attention over the past decade, this should feel uncomfortably familiar.
June 2016 - According to Dr. James Dobson, Donald Trump becomes a new Christian, and will preside over the Country as a Christian.
November 2016 - Trump wins presidency with only 26% of evangelicals and most Christian leaders rejecting his messages.
June 2020 - Trump gasses protestors to take a photo at a historic church with a Bible
November 2020 - Many Religious leaders that had rejected Trump in 2016, now declare him the only choice for Christians. Trump loses the election to a Catholic, Joe Biden.
January 2021 - Trump supporters attempt to overthrow the election while signing praise songs and prophesying Trump as the true president
2021 - Churches begin to label CRT as anti-Christian, and most deny that Christian Nationalism is a real theological movement
2022 - Higher profile Religious leaders began to redefine, but accept the idea of Christian Nationalism. Kinist Stephen Wolfe publishes “The Case for Christian Nationalism”.
2023 - Teachings surrounding Matthew 25, begin to teach that only Christians deserve care, that the parables of Jesus are about Capitalism, Docetism begins to circulate, mental health is declared sinful by higher profile pastors. Project 2025 is published.
2024 - DEI is declared antichristian by many churches, Toxic Empathy teaching becomes popular, we begin to be told that the Jesus we teach is weak, effeminate, and illogical. The teachings of nonviolence, and no enemies, began to draw calls of heresy and antiamericanism. Christians begin to declare Trump a Cyrus. Many Pastors who in 2020 had rejected Trump, now support him as the Christian option.
November 2024 - Trump wins the presidency with 80% of the evangelical vote.
2025 - We are told that teaching Philippians 2 as a lifestyle is sinful. High profile Christians begin to celebrate and protect ICE’s deportations. Christians cheered as SNAP benefits were cut from families. Christians defend a call to euthanize the homeless. Christians defend the bombing of Iran, Gaza, and boats.
May 2025 - an American Pope is elected. A pope critical of the Trump administration.
September 2025 - Charlie Kirk is Assassinated. His memorial is headlined by a neonazi, and features the president declaring the teachings of Jesus as not worth following. Christians cheer for this as a revival. Pastors begin declaring themselves Christian Nationalists.
December 2025 - Christians begin defending the President's involvement in the Epstein files.
Now here we are in 2026, and we saw Christians mocking and defending the killing of protestors. We see Christians continue to celebrate racial profiling and abuse. Continued calls to end welfare. We saw Churches call for government protection after they became fearful of community members wanting answers. And in the past month, we have seen Christians defending the president's bombing of a muslim nation during their holy weeks, a profanity-laced threat on easter, and threats of genocide and war crimes. All of this as his war department begins to make Crusade era promises to American troops about righteousness and dying for the country, meaning they are dying for God.
All of these have led up to this month, when the administration attempted to bully the Pope. The President begins to argue with him. The Vice President demands that the Pope stay out of politics. All as the administration attempts to defund Catholic Charities.
And the response is divided, while some begin to see this as a red flag, high profile catholics denounce the church to support the president. And of course, there was the infamous picture.
The morning of April 12th, the President posted a picture made by AI, of him as Jesus healing the nation. There was immediate uproar from even his supporters, saying this had gone too far, at least for a few hours. While some publicly repented from their support, many began with disappointment, but within 24 hours arrived at rationalizing it as a simple mistake. A few days later, the Pentagon quoted a line from Pulp Fiction, claiming it to be scripture, with again very little response from the Christian community that supports him.
And now this week, we see the President reading Scripture on live TV, and proclaiming this year to be a “rededication to God.” But what type of Christianity is it that he is commissioning in this rededication?
An American National Christianity that is decidedly White. Decidedly Prosperous. Decidedly Protestant. And void of any of Jesus teachings.
WHY THIS MATTERS
What we are watching is the final steps of a process that began in 2016. A process that we have seen countless times throughout history, dating back to Constantine. A process that many of us have warned about since it began, and a process that leads to the destruction of others, and the future of the church being in remnants of those who choose to resist with the teachings of Jesus as our mandate. We have reached the breaking point. The call for government protection from the community, added with the responses, or lack thereof, to the blasphemous images and villainization of the Catholic church, has set the tone needed for the full shift into a nationalized Christianity to emerge over the coming years.
The time to choose where you will stand is now.
A NOTE
What do we mean by National Christianity?
National Christianity is not necessarily the same thing as Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalists want to see a Christian government that seeks to identify the state with the Church. National Christianity seeks to identify the church with the State. Redefining Christian belief with State identity. In some cases, they overlap. In our current climate, the Christian Nationalists have hope for it to overlap, but the current shifts from the administration seem to show that their hopes aren't going to pan out. While the White Supremacist and Protestant overtones are there, the other moral goals of American Nationalists are not.
For more History on how Nazi Germany used the Church, you can learn about this from the US Holacaust Museum at: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/en
You can get a Copy of Tortured for Christ here: https://amzn.to/4sHEErH
This post was written by Andrew Fouts. The founder and main content creator for Ministry Misfits. He also serves as one of the directors and writers for KFM Broadcasting Network.
This post was edited by Joseph Dea. Joe is a writer for his own blog at https://kfmbroadcasting.wixstudio.com/buddywalkwithjesus and is one of the directors and writers for KFM Broadcasting.
This blog is being crossposted to our network blog at www.kfmbroadcasting.com/blog. If you have found this or other Misfits Resources helpful, check out the network of resources available through KFM!