The Rachel Report Issue #21

Dear Liberty Lovers,

We left off last month talking about believers getting on their knees for our country and taking a stand against unrighteousness and immorality. This is where I’d like to pick up. So maybe instead of my salutation being “Dear Liberty Lovers,” it should be, “Dear Church.”

During my campaign, God made it abundantly clear to Christina and me that, win or lose, we needed to focus our efforts on the church in 2023.

If you’ve heard me speak in the past seven or eight months then you’ve heard me say: if we lose our country…it will not be because the Democrats have become more powerful than us, it will be because the church has failed to act.

I want to unpack that and the best way to do so is by talking about Bonhoeffer and the German Church in the 1930s.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is easily one of my favorite historical figures and has long been one of my heroes of the faith. In case you are unfamiliar, Bonhoeffer became ordained as a pastor in 1931 in Berlin Germany… and he was a political activist.

A pastor…and a political activist.

The first official charter and the creation of the Nazi Party began in Germany in 1920. Thirteen years later in 1933, Hitler was named Chancellor. Two days after, twenty-six-year-old Bonhoeffer began speaking out against the Nazi regime and Hitler’s agenda.

In the years that followed, Bonhoeffer pastored a German congregation in London and a large church in Germany. He preached about the evils of Hitler’s radical agenda from the pulpit and broadcasted his sermons and anti-Nazi sentiments on the radio. By 1939, he had lost the right to lecture, publish, or broadcast on the radio. Eventually, he joined the German Resistance Movement and even became involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler which led to his arrest in 1943. On April 9^th, 1945, he was hanged at a mere 39 years old… Less than one month away from Germany surrendering to the Allies.

Bonhoeffer has always been inspirational to me for a few reasons.

1. Early on he identified the evil of Hitler’s agenda and immediately took the responsibility for taking action.
2. He was stifled and attacked on every side and he refused to stop standing for the truth… even to death.
3. He was a young man when he chose to take an extraordinarily courageous stand against one of the most powerful and influential leaders in the world at the time.    
4. He married the church and Christianity with the responsibility of standing for righteousness, truth, morality, and justice which led him to political activism.
5. He was not swayed by an inactive church.

Bonhoeffer had the courage and spiritual maturity to realize that he could not remain silent in the face of evil even though the church responded to Hitler’s agenda overall with “a deafening silence.”

At the onset of WWII when Hitler invaded Poland, there were approximately 18,000 churches that were Protestant in Germany. Approximately 3,000 of those churches were part of the German Christian Church and aligned themselves with Hitler’s ideology. Approximately 3,000 of those were part of the Confessing Church (Bonhoeffer’s church) which opposed Hitler. But the remaining 12,000 remained neutral.

Because they didn’t want to cause contention.

Because they didn’t want to alienate members of their congregation.

Because they didn’t want to oppose the governing authority.

Sound familiar?

Sounds like the church in America right now. Only I think it’s worse that we find ourselves in this spot because we have the benefit of history. We know how the German church’s inaction ended…with millions of Jews, “non-Aryans,” soldiers, and citizens dying. 

I believe, if Bonhoeffer were alive today, he would be taking a similar stand in the United States that he took in Germany in 1933.

The American church has bought into the idea that Christians should not be political and that there ought to be a clear separation between the church and the state. 

So let’s talk about that for a minute. Again, anyone who’s heard me speak has heard me say this, but I’ll say it again. I believe one of the biggest lies satan…yes satan… has sold America is “the separation of church and state.”

Let’s unpack that…

First, let’s start at the beginning, where did that idea or “catchphrase” originate?

The phrase “separation of church and state” has become so popular in social discourse that people tend to mistakenly believe it can be found in a founding document. However, the only time it is ever used during the founding years of our Republic was in 1802 in a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson to a group of pastors and scholars in the Danbury Baptists Association of Connecticut.

But to understand Jefferson’s intent, we need to consider the historical backdrop in which this letter was written. The country was in its infant years having separated from the greatest empire in the world, and for what? Liberty and religious freedom if we date back to the first colonists that came to America.

The only rule of law these new Americans had ever known was one in which the government had an established church.

Many contemporary Americans hear about churches or Christians involving themselves in politics and cry “Separation of church and state!” But they have it backward…Jefferson’s intent was that the government not interfere with the church.

It was to keep the government out of church…Not the church out of government.

It was so the situation in England- that drove Puritans, Separatists, Pilgrims, and other religious groups to brave the journey across the Atlantic in search of religious liberty- would never happen in the United States. 

It was so the government couldn’t tell the church what to teach.   

That is what the very first clause in the 1^st Amendment of the Bill of Rights says… to paraphrase, the government cannot establish a national religion (U.S Const. Amend. I.). This is called the Establishment Clause.

Contrary to the narrative the Left would like us to believe, our Republic was established on the idea that the church would be involved in the government. John Adams said that our Constitution was established and would only work with a “moral and religious people” and that it was “wholly inadequate to the government of any other” (Adams, 1798). The Founders- Christian or not- believed that Christianity was essential to keeping a virtuous citizenry who could work together to keep a government that derives its just powers from the consent of the governed (Washington, 1775).

In the past fifty years, the political Left has worked to remove this heritage from education and has successfully removed Christianity from schools, higher education, and social norms and it has altered the fabric of our nation. James Orwell stated that “the most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”

Isn’t that what we’re seeing right now? Let’s be clear. The political Left and enemies of the Republic do not want Americans to remember their Biblical heritage and they sure as heck do not want the Christian church involving themselves in the political sphere.

Why? Because powerful things happen when the church is involved. One way that is evidenced is by the 247 years of overall prosperity, flourishment, justice, and freedom in the United States of America. 

You cannot separate the founding of the United States from Christianity. 

You cannot separate the Bible from the Constitution.  

The Bible is cited in 34% of the quotations from founding documents between 1760 and 1805. That is staggering. There was no greater source of inspiration to the Founding Fathers than the Scriptures and the Founders- believers or not- knew what the Word said cover to cover. This is the very thing that makes the American founding so compelling and unique… political liberty and Christian truth were irreversibly intertwined.  Declaration of Independence signer Reverend John Witherspoon stated in May 1776, “God grant that in America, true religion and civil liberty may be inseparable.” 

This is an unpopular thing to say in Christian spheres, but I’m going to say it because it’s the truth.

The Bible is political.  

Jesus healing a man on a Sabbath…That was a political no no.

Jesus overturning tables in the temple…That was a political no no.

Jesus speaking to a woman at a well…That was a political no no.

The Bible mentions government and law over 500 times. I’d say if something is discussed that often, it’s pretty important to God. 

So it should be important to us.

The United States has seen a marked turn away from God and Judeo-Christian values since the 1960s and 1970s when things like prayer, Bible reading, and civics were removed from schools, but we as a country have pivoted even farther away from our Biblical roots since 2008 and evil has seemed to ramp up its push and reach in the past eight years.  

One of the worst parts of the secularization of our country has been the secularization of the church. Many churches now are buying into the centrality of the federal government, wokism, and rhetoric of inclusivism, tolerance, acceptance, and equity.

Bringing it back to Bonhoeffer and the 3,000 who supported Hitler’s agenda… The above-mentioned “woke churches” would fall into this category of supporting the evil agenda that is proliferating in the United States and attacking the hearts and minds of our children and this nation. 

Notice, however, that there were approximately the same amount of German churches that sided with Hitler as they did with Bonhoeffer and the anti-Nazi movements. Yet…the Holocaust still happened. WWII still happened. 

What does this tell us? This tells us that it was the 12,000 churches that remained neutral that allowed Hitler to systematically murder millions of men, women, and children.

It was their silence.

It was their failure to act.

So the blood of millions was on the church’s hands just as much as on Hitler’s and the Nazi’s. 

That’s a difficult pill to swallow but it’s the truth. 

What would have happened if the 12,000 acted? What would have happened if the 12,000 said “No Hitler…life or death we stand for righteousness, justice, and morality.”  

We the church cannot remain silent as evil flourishes. James 4:17 says “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

Church, we know the truth… We are sinning if we don’t act on it. And that means acting justly, morally, and truthfully in the face of evil.

The silence of the 12,000 is what allowed evil to reign in Europe in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Church, may we not be one of the 12,000.

When people ask me why I am involved in politics, I always answer something to this effect: “Because this is not about politics. This is about right and wrong, good and evil, justice and injustice, and morality and immorality. And in 20 years…whether the America we hold dear still stands or not…I want to be able to look back and say it wasn’t because of my silence or failure to act that we lost our liberty and beloved home. I gave liberty, truth, justice, and morality my life, my fortune, and my sacred honor.”

I need to be able to look back and know that I did not cower to social pressure and societal norms.

I need to be able to look back and know that I did not surrender doing the right thing on the altar of comfort. 

I need to be able to look back and know that safety wasn’t so sweet to me as to come at the cost of freedom. 

Stand up church. God placed you in this time and place for a reason. You were made for this time, right now, for a purpose.

Forming a holy community requires the Holy Spirit. Therefore, that’s how we get holiness and righteousness back into politics… The “holy community” of believers, taking action.

But for that to happen, as Bonhoeffer put it, “we must allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”

This may feel like a rabbit trail…but stay with me for a second. I want to talk about politicians juxtaposed with statesmen.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a politician as: “a person experienced in the art or science of government; especially one engaged in conducting the business of a government. A person engaged in politics as a profession.”

There is quite a bit more disagreement amongst scholars when defining a statesman. Scholars widely agree that “politician” has more to do with action whereas “statesman” has more to do with character. The best definition I’ve read to date is from author Terry Newell. He argues that,

“Statesmanship is defined as much by who leaders are as the skills they possess. Leaders who forge good societies are not just clever tacticians. Their skills rest on a foundation of moral values and a deep understanding of history… acts of statesmanship also call forth moral character to others” (Statesmanship, Character, and Leadership in America, 2012).

I wrote a paper earlier this year in which I formed my own definition of statesmanship based on primary and secondary source scholarship. Building on Newell’s description and the ideas of scholars such as Locke, Tocqueville, and Dr. Kahlib Fischer, I’d like to offer the definition that I’ve formed:

A statesman may be defined as a person who is rooted in Christ, grounded in truth, guided by morality, and who possesses a deep love of liberty which compels them to stand for righteousness, justice, and truth in government and society.

It is important to realize what a statesman is before we cast our ballots every few years. Look at the above definitions again. Can you think of a statesman in Idaho? I can. My mind immediately goes to men and women like Jacyn Gallagher, Glenneda Zuiderveld, Scott Herndon, Brian Lenney, Cindy Carlson, and Heather Scott.

These are men and women of God. 

They’re the church…involved in politics.

 Let’s get statesmen back into politics. But that means we have to get the church back in politics.

I encourage you, believers, to speak to your pastor if he is not politically engaged right now. Encourage him to truth. Sit down and speak with him… and if you’d like me to join you, I would be happy to do so.

I stand with you and am praying for you. Each of your names that are subscribed to this Report, whether we’ve met in person or not, is on my monthly prayer list. Each month when this Report goes out, I pray for each of you by name.

You are chosen, marked, and purposed for such a time as this. YOU have a job to do here at this time. Be bold. Be courageous. Be humble. Be rooted in truth. Be a Bonhoeffer. Be a statesman in your churches, communities, families, and government.