Emma Green is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where she covers politics, policy, and religion. She wrote the following in an article published on January 8th :
A Christian Insurrection
Many of those who mobbed the Capitol on Wednesday claimed to be enacting God’s will
The name of God was everywhere during Wednesday’s insurrection against the American government. The mob carried signs and flag declaring Jesus saves! and God, Guns & Guts Made America, Let’s Keep All Three.
Some were participants in the Jericho March, a gathering of Christians to “pray, march, fast, and rally for election integrity.” After calling on God to “save the republic” during rallies at state capitols and in D.C. over the past two months, the marchers returned to Washington with flourish.
On the National Mall, one man waved the flag of Israel above a sign, begging passersby to Say Yes to Jesus. “Shout if you love Jesus!” someone yelled, and the crowd cheered. “Shout if you love Trump!” The crowd cheered louder.
The group’s name is drawn from the biblical story of Jericho, “a city of false gods and corruption,” the march’s website says. Just as God instructed Joshua to march around Jericho seven times with priests blowing trumpets, Christians gathered in D.C., blowing shofars, the ram’s horn typically used in Jewish worship, to banish the “darkness of election fraud” and ensure that “the walls of corruption crumble.”
This is not the Christianity we follow. We follow the words of a man, (himself a protestor) who stood for loving God and loving others.
His ministry is evidenced in words such as Generosity, Courage, Love, Forgiveness, Hope, Respect, Truth, Healing, Peace, Reconciliation, just to name a few.
Those were not words which rang out in Washington on January 6, 202l. Let us not forget that as we, as followers of Jesus, live into 2021 in His ways, not their ways!
May God bless us all as we face so many new and frightening challenges both globally and here at home.
Pastor Beryl