David Neiwert, The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right’s Assault on American Democracy (Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2023), 536 pages.
Introduction
Some books are painful to read, yet essential to endure. David Neiwert, The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right’s Assault on American Democracy , documents the various splinter groups espousing violence against the American government. He recounts a dramatic battle between the forces of democracy and autocracy with a surprising grasp of detail and nuance. The Age of Insurrection is well footnoted. Thankfully for Christians, the message is simple: Allowing ourselves to be co-opted into a known lie and violent insurrectional rhetoric undermines the truth of the gospel.
A Known Lie
In sixty-two filings Donald Trump sued to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election and lost sixty-one of those suits. “Among the judges who dismissed the lawsuits were some appointed by Trump... Judges, lawyers, and other observers described the suits as frivolous and without merit” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_election_lawsuits_related_to_the_2020_U.S._presidential_election). The lone exception in Pennsylvania failed to materially change the election outcome and was eventually overturned in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Once Trump’s legal recourses were exhausted on December 7 th 2020, the rule of law requires him to abide the outcome. In other words, by law Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden… yet the “Stop the Steal” campaign continued in full swing. Why? David Neiwert traces the origins of “Stop the Steal” to political operative Roger Stone’s work for Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries and general election (116-117). The campaign was revisited in the 2020 elections by political operatives like Ali Alexander, Steve Bannon, and Amy Kremer. “Their “Stop the Steal” Facebook group was an immediate sensation, drawing over 300,000 followers in its first twenty-four hours” (118). Though Facebook eventually shut down the page down, the campaign only grew: “ Just Security found that the 8,200 online news articles featuring “Stop the Steal” published between the election and the insurrection garnered some seventy million engagements across a variety of platforms, with more than 43.5 million of them occurring in December 2020” (119). Clearly, political optics have little to do with the rule of law or more importantly the truth. Propagating a known lie was simply too politically profitable.
Violent Insurrectional Rhetoric
According to Niewert, the violent rhetoric that stoked the failed insurrection has roots in Christian Nationalism. He cites several examples: Stedfast Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas—Dillion Awes, “What does God say is the answer, is the solution for the homosexual, in 2022, here in the New Testament, here in the book of Romans—that they are worthy of death” (40); Shield of Faith Baptist Church in Boise, Idaho—Joe Jones, “’Put them to death. Put all queers to death. They die.’ When they die, that stops the pedophilia” (41).
Awes father-in-law, Pastor Aaron Thompson oversees a fundamentalist church in Vancouver, Washington, where he preaches a similar message, …teachers who encourage “the filth of sodomy” should be “shot in the back of the head” (42).
Clearly, the apple does not fall far from the tree.
No Christian should ever rejoice in sin; however, the Apostle Paul makes clear such will be during the End Times:
3:2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3:3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
3:4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away! (2 Timothy 3:2-5)
Paul commands us to turn away from ungodly people. Some of our brothers and sisters perceive that the kingdom of God is now and therefore desire to apply Old Testament law to society. However misguided, they construe this modern day legalism as obedient worship. Sadly, when becoming executioners of the Law of Moses supplants preaching the good news of Christ, their rhetoric prompts action and eventually they become agents of God’s retribution, alas sometime violent retribution.
Indeed, insurrection can appear a godly choice even as the very truth needed to save the sinner is lost in a quagmire of legalism and violence.
While standing in the halls of congress, QAnon figure Jacob Chansley offered the following prayer:
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for gracing us with this opportunity …to allow us to send a message to all the tyrants, the Communists, and the globalists, that this is our nation, not theirs. That we will not allow America, the American way of the United States of America to go down… Thank you for filling this chamber with Patriots that love you… Thank you for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank you for allowing us to get rid of the Communists, the globalists, and the traitors within our government (114).
In the midst of the January 6 th insurrection, salvation from “tyrants, Communists and globalists” co-opted the good news of eternal life and life more abundantly in Christ.
Ironically, Niewert’s reporting has a local flavor; QAnon affected city government in Sequim, Washington.
The mayor, a biker named Bill Armacost who runs a local hair salon, forced the resignation of Sequim city-manager Charlie Bush in January (2021) through a series of closed-door executive sessions—apparently fueled by Armacost’s ardent promotion of the QAnon conspiracy theories as well as his arch-conservative views that clashed with Bush’s handling of the city during the COVID-19 pandemic (275)…
Armacost, who calls himself a “warrior for Christ” on his Facebook page, is also an active biker who traveled to South Dakota during the pandemic in 2020 to attend the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a massive gathering that draws 500,000 and turned into a COVID-19 super-spreader event believed to have resulted in 260,000 nationwide infections afterward. When he returned, he immediately reopened his salon, ignoring recommendations for a two-week quarantine (277).
Whether wrapped in the American or Christian flag, disregard for the lives, of others seems all too common with many of these splinter groups. Imagine the witness for Christ left by Mayor Armacost among the citizens of Sequim.
Holding the Line
Neiwert does not understand the End Times, but couches his account as a violent tussle between two political parties, one democratic, the other autocratic.
In spite of the ability of Democrats to hold the line, there were nonetheless more than 180 Republican election denialists (a number of them incumbents) who won their elections to the House—meaning that more than a third of the members of Congress after 2022 will have questioned or denied the 2020 election” (446).
As Christians how are we to “hold the line” on abortion, alternative sexuality, known lies, and insurrection. All of these issues and more have become visceral calls to action for both Republicans and Democrats, but as issues they are merely symptoms of a much deeper ungodliness (2 Timothy 3:2-5) for which no Christian should ever “hold the line.” Instead like our brother Timothy, let us bewatchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,(and)fulfill(our) ministry (2 Timothy 4:5)… while trusting in our Lord’s soon coming.
Conclusion
Although The Age of Insurrection is an unpleasant read, Neiwert does an outstanding job of connecting events into a larger picture for Christians to avoid being sucked into the known lie and violent insurrectional rhetoric of Trumpism… a worthwhile endeavor for any brother or sister desiring to preach the truth of the gospel.