1. They’re all Christian Nationalists
2. They’re all fanatical loyalists of Donald Trump as members of the Iowa Faith Leader Coalition
3. They’re all dupes in multilevel marketing scams

It seems more than a coincidence that these three things come together.

Christian Nationalism and Trump fandom keep people enthralled through the sunken cost fallacy, which leads people to double down once they’ve committed to something, even when it becomes apparent that there’s a scam involved.

That’s how MLM schemes keep people hooked too.

Find out more about the convergence of multilevel marketing scams, Donald Trump, and Christian Nationalism through the latest episode of the podcast Donald Trump’s Army of God (also available on Apple Podcasts).

Dykstra is also the Iowa State Director of the Congressional Prayer Caucus Foundation, also known as the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network. These groups are Christian Nationalist organizations that are dedicated to the replacement of neutral democratic government in the United States with a Christian theocracy.

The Iowa Prayer Caucus Network claims to have the mission of promoting “faith, morality, and Judeo-Christian principles.”

If the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network is a Christian Nationalist organization, though, how come it claims to support Judeo-Christian principles?

“Judeo”, after all, refers to Jewish people and ideas. So what gives?

The big clue to what’s going on with Paul Dykstra’s language about “Judeo-Christian” principles is that the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network has never ever allowed Jewish Iowans to join. There has never been a single non-Christian member of the organization.

Ironically, the term “Judeo-Christian” is actually a dog whistle for antisemitism.

Christian Nationalists like Paul Dykstra use the “Judeo-Christian” term as a way to pretend that they are standing up for religion in general, when in fact, they are seeking to elevate Christianity above all other religions in the United States.

The Iowa Prayer Caucus Network has never consulted with a Jewish rabbi to come up with its “Judeo-Christian principles”. Only right wing Christian leaders have been involved.

A few months ago, Paul Dykstra appeared in the Iowa State Capitol to speak in opposition to allowing non-Christian religious displays to be placed in the Iowa State Capitol alongside Christian religious symbols. Dykstra believes that only Christians should have the power to place religious displays in government buildings.

Paul Dykstra and the Iowa Prayer Caucus Network are Christian supremacists. They want to use the power of big government to force all Americans to submit to the authority of Christianity.

To allow their Christian Nationalism to gain power over state and federal government would make Jews into second-class citizens. They seek to destroy America’s tradition of freedom of religion and replace it with Christian power.

I sincerely appreciate that progressive Christians are willing to take a step forward and recognize that there’s a lot going on in the name of Christianity that’s cruel and stupid. I thank them for trying to take a stand against cruelty and stupidity.

That said, I have to wonder where these people get their ideas about what Christianity is.

Have they not paid attention to history? Centuries of horrors have been inflicted on the world by Christians, both as individual and through Christian organizations.

Have these progressive Christians not read the Christian bible? Both the Old Testament and New Testament teach people to be brutal to each other.

Yes, there are nice bits of Christian history, and restfully kind passages in the Christian bible, but all around those parts are

Christians might ask themselves: How can we reconcile the loving, peaceful Jesus with the wrathful, narcissistic, violent, toxic Jesus? They’re presuming that there is one true, authentic Christianity, and somehow, all of the contradictory parts from Christian history can be put together into a coherent union that’s beautiful and sensible and just the best story ever told.

Realistic Christians are going to have to give that ambition up, if they’re going to be honest. It’s as clear as day that Christianity is not one single thing. It isn’t one great story, written by a god who knew what he was doing all along.

Christianity is a mish mash hodge podge train wreck of a narrative that was written by committee.

Actually, that’s not fair. Christianity is a mish mash hodge podge train wreck of a narrative that was written by many committees over thousands of years.

If ever there truly did exist a person named Jesus, anything that person actually said was rewritten and redacted by Christians over the centuries before it became “The Bible” to the point that nothing of the original material remains.

Christianity promotes both violence and non-violence. Christianity promotes both tolerance and intolerance. Christianity promotes both obedience and rebellion. That’s because Christianity is a collection of dogmas created over a long period of time by a whole bunch of different people who had very different agendas.

So, yes, Jesus is written in the Christian bible as saying to turn the other cheek. However, the same Christian bible also says that Jesus made death threats against his enemies.

But the same Christian bible also represents Jesus as saying “I have not come to bring peace, but the sword.”

Update that to present-day weaponry technology, and the Christian bible has Jesus saying: “I have not come to bring peace. I have come to bring guns.”

I’m not pointing this out because I love the idea of guns. Guns are nasty machines designed to kill. People who love guns have hateful hearts.

I’m saying this because I’m sick and tired of Christians pretending that Christian Nationalism is not Christian. I’m sick of seeing Christians using Jesus as a cudgel to batter non-Christians with, and then pretending that Jesus was the Prince of Peace, a perfect embodiment of non-violence.

The truth is that there is a great deal of ugliness, hate, and violence within Christianity. That’s why Christian Nationalists are so ugly, hateful, and violent. Christian Nationalists get inspiration for their cruelty and intolerance from Christianity, and often from the purported words of Jesus.

If progressive Christians really want to confront Christian Nationalism, that’s great. I suggest they begin by acknowledging that the problem begins with their religion.

Will they have the courage to reform their religion, or will they just keep pretending that the problem of Toxic Christianity does not exist?