Is “Jesus is King” a Nazi Slogan? Some Christians Think So.
The Babylon Bee has come a long way since it started. Believe it or not, not long after its launch, it had at least one guest post by Karen Swallow Prior and took pot-shots at discernment blogs. But since its start in 2016, the website’s “Fake News You Can Trust” has only gotten funnier and thankfully, more religiously and politically conservative. Obviously, we appreciate their work.
This made some scratch their heads at a perplexing dust-up on X, when Babylon Bee managing editor, Joel Berry, claimed that the expression, “Christ is King,” is an overture to Nazi ideology earlier this week.
What’s the joke? Or better yet, where’s the punchline?
The particulars of this recent debate over the phrase, “Christ is King,” stems from Kamala Harris responding, “You’re in the wrong rally” to hecklers who shouted at her the phrase, “Christ is King” (if that’s what you call someone who declares Christ as King). Some disagreement exists whether Kamala was responding to that particular phrase, or just the hecklers in general, with the group Evangelicals for Harris predictably denying it had anything to do with religion.
According to LifeSite News, the video shows students shouting both the phrase, “Jesus is Lord” and also the aforementioned “Christ is King.” As you can see above, Evangelicals for Harris actually quoted the line, “Jesus is Lord” and not “Christ the King.”
Conservatives took to X to capitalize on the show of instinctual disgust Kamala had toward what seems to be an orthodox statement of faith. However, liberals claimed she only bristled at the “heckling.”
However, there are some conservatives who seemed to side (to some small extent) with Harris, including the managing editor of the Babylon Bee, Joel Berry. The reason, he claims, is that the expression was used by the Nazis and – in particular – is used to show contempt for Jews.
There certainly is something to the controversy, and Berry isn’t imagining it. Conservative influencer, Candace Owens, parted ways with Daily Wire personality and Jew, Ben Shapiro, with the tweet, “Christ is King.” Slate Magazine referred to the expression as, “an aggressive trolling of Jews.” The tiff between the two personalities stemmed from Owens’ criticism of the State of Israel for alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people, which Shapiro and a good many Americans considered kosher (ahem) in light of Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023.
Owens, an avid Roman Catholic, is seen as associating with the Christian Nationalism movement, which this publication does not intend to parse at this time. Certain Christian Nationalists, like TradCath, Nick Fuentes, exhibit what some characterize as anti-Semitic behavior or language.
Clear as mud?
In short, Kamala Harris told hecklers shouting multiple phrases – including “Christ is King” and “Jesus is Lord” – that they were at the wrong rally, liberals immediately claimed that she was referring to the act of heckling and not their exaltation of Christ, but some conservatives opposed to Christian Nationalism claimed her rebuke was warranted because the phrase, “Christ is King,” has anti-Semitic undertones.
So, what are the facts regarding, “Christ is King.” Is Berry correct? Was it a Nazi slogan and, if so, does saying it imply hatred of the Jewish people?
Historically, the National Socialist German Workers Party – commonly known today as Nazis – did indeed have conflicting views toward Christianity. Typically, Nazi propaganda did endorse personal faith as a common place for the German people to coalesce, but not in a more meaningful way than countries of Western Europe of the United States has typically done. Some propaganda produced by the Nazi party refers to the establishment of a “Holy Reich,” but was far less an organized religious movement and was neither wholly German-Protestant nor Roman Catholic.
Some have pointed out that German sloganeering, as seen on Nazi paraphernalia, used Christian phraseology, which was not uncommon for any army in World War II (except Asian armies contained largely to the Pacific theater). Hitler was raised Catholic, but rejected Roman Catholicism personally, and characterized his confirmation as “repugnant” to his conscience. He did, however, refer occasionally to the ideals of the Christian religion, but both Hitler and most of his German followers adamantly rejected claims of Christ’s divinity.
In fact, Hitler positively referred to pagan religions almost as much as Christianity, and apparently believed in the ancient Odinist after-life of Valhalla, at least according to several obituaries he wrote for others. It appears that, historically, Hitler or the Nazi’s references to Christianity were for purely propagandic purposes, particularly as it relates to so-called “blood libel.” This is the term some use to refer to the Biblical characterization of Christ’s crucifixion being at least partially to be blamed upon the Jews, as Peter preached, “Men of Israel…Christ Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:22-36).”
There is no doubt, however, that the Nazi party referred to Christianity and quoted Christian leaders (like Martin Luther) to support incredibly awful deeds perpetrated upon the Jewish people and others. Along with Jews, Hitler and the Nazi Party also expelled Seventh Day Adventists, the Salvation Army, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and practitioners of witchcraft. Catholics and Mormons were permitted to stay in Germany, so long as they did not proselytize.
However, there is no historic evidence that “Christ is King” was a slogan of particular importance in Nazi propaganda.
The phrasing, “Christ is King,” is drawn from scriptures like 1 Timothy 6:14-15 that explicitly refer to Christ as the “King of Kings.” In fact, the first prophecy of Christ to his mother, Mary, described him as King (Luke 1:26-28).
However, there is no doubt that the phrase, Christ is King, was used to agitate against Jewish personalities, set-off by Candace Owen’s infamous tweet to Shapiro. With the world taking sides over Israel’s war against Hamas and collateral damage in Palestine, the tweet was like a match to gasoline. It was particularly volatile because the riff between the two conservative pundits demonstrated that not all on the right-hand side of the political spectrum endorse the nation state of Israel or foreign Israeli influence in American political affairs.
For example, when Andrew Tate, who as best we can tell identifies as Muslim (he’s suggested on multiple occasions his conversion was to foster business relationships in Dubai) shouts the slogan, “Christ is King,” it certainly has more to do with political or cultural ideology than religion. See below.
Some Christian leaders pointed this out, with varying degrees of insistence, seemingly in correlation with how much they publicly reject Christian Nationalism. See Owen Strachan, a vocal critic of Christian Nationalism, below.
As with most theological debates, this issue gets pretty convoluted, pretty quickly. But from 30 thousand feet, it does strike one as perplexing that some Christians – like Berry at the Babylon Bee – have such a strong response to mere hints of Christian Nationalism that they appear to take the side of Evangelicals For Harris in how they hear the rally clip from October 20th.
Surely we’re all listening to the same thing, but have vastly different interpretations of something for which there’s actual video evidence.
If the phrase, “Christ is King,” sparks such vehement argument among Christians, you can better believe that the topic of Christian Nationalism is poised to become one of the fiercest issues of the next decade.
We cannot fact-check “Christ is King” as an actual Nazi slogan of any importance. We can, however, fact-check the statement as being true regardless of who says it. Christ is indeed King.
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