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Hell hath no fury like the righteous wrath of God. Second to that, apparently, hell hath no fury like politicians told that, dead in their sin, they will receive that righteous wrath.
Meet Pastor Jack Hibbs of Calvary Chapel, a church in Chino Hills, California. Hibbs is a theological and political conservative, one gathers from his X feed, and is the author of the recently released “Living in the Daze of Deception: How to Discern Truth from Culture’s Lies.”
On Jan. 30, he was invited by House Speaker Mike Johnson to give the invocation as the guest chaplain in the House of Representatives, where his prayer called upon God to “hear my cry in this hour of great need that we might be humbly blessed before You in repentance of our national sins.”
This, more or less, flew under the radar for the better part of the month of February — until a letter sent to the speaker of the House and signed by 26 House Democrats last week accused Hibbs of being “an ill-qualified hate preacher” who was pushing a “Christian nationalist agenda,” according to Roll Call.
Furthermore, the Democrats linked the calls for “repentance of our national sins” and the need for “holy fear” to “allusions to the militant and fanatical agenda he preaches about the LGBTQ community, Jews, Muslims, and anyone who conflicts with his ‘biblical worldview.’”
“After we picked our jaws up off the floor upon learning that this hate preacher had been allowed to give a guest invocation, I think many of us decided we need to start calling this out,” Rep. Jared Huffman of California, author of the letter, told Roll Call.
Huffman, who self-identifies as an atheist according to The Washington Times, apparently took a long time to get his jaw off the floor, since the two-and-a-half page letter was only sent out Feb. 15, two full weeks after the fact.
In the letter, the Democrats accused Johnson of not following protocol in various ways, including acting as sponsor to Hibbs even though Hibbs is not from his congressional district. Johnson represents a district in Louisiana.
Furthermore, they claimed Hibbs was a “radical Christian Nationalist who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection and [who] has a long record of hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community.”
“As if spreading election lies and providing religious support and cover for the January 6th insurrection was not enough to disqualify Hibbs from being a Guest Chaplain, Hibbs also has a hateful and divisive public record on civil and human rights,” the letter stated.
“When his opening prayer invoked ‘holy fear’ and ‘repentance’ for ‘national sins,’ these were allusions to the militant and fanatical agenda he preaches about the LGBTQ+ community, Jews, Muslims, and anyone who conflicts with his ‘biblical worldview.’”
The prayer in full does nothing of the sort.
Hibbs called for “repentance of national sins” — and the Bible teaches that we’re all sinners, though it’s not as if the Democrats (and some Republicans) have made a secret out of the fact they believe the Bible is a book of quaint suggestions, not holy Scripture, and must be treated as such in matters of sexual sin and other forms of “tolerance.”
Hibbs might also have irked a few in the chamber by noting that they’d be judged by the standards of the Bible.
“Please come upon those here, who are the stewards over the business of our nation, with Your wisdom which comes from above and with Your
holy fear, knowing that Your coming day of judgment draws near when all who have been and are now in authority will answer to You, the great judge of heaven and of Earth,” he said.
As The Washington Times noted, Hibbs “has been targeted for years by LGBTQ+ activists and media for his high-profile opposition to gay marriage and transgenderism.”
As for the supposed hatred of “Jews, Muslims, and anyone who conflicts with his ‘biblical worldview,’” you will not be surprised that most of the examples Huffman cited in his letter are two- or three-word out-of-context quotes linked to out-of-context articles or clips by supposedly unbiased arbiters like Media Matters for America or the social media account Right Wing Watch.
The letter also demanded Johnson “please explain why the Chaplaincy has continued to prevent Members from sponsoring certain fully qualified Guest Chaplains such as Representative Mark Pocan’s constituent, Nontheistic Chaplain Dan Barker.”
Mr. Barker, that “nontheistic chaplain” (an evident contradiction in terms akin to “jumbo shrimp”), is actually the head of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the litigious anti-Christian troll group.
Furthermore, the idea that the individual being invited to be guest chaplain must be in the district of the invitee is an awfully fungible one, especially when one considers that, according to the Times, as recently as Nov. 9, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California invited Aram I, Catholicos of the Armenian Apostolic Church, to give the invocation. Aram lives in Antelias, Lebanon.
(Aram’s prayer, along with other daily prayers in the House and Senate, can be found here.)
And, as for the connection with Jan. 6 or “Christian nationalism” — little evidence was proffered or needed, apparently, aside from more out-of-context quotes. Hibbs told the Times that he “would challenge Huffman ‘to produce any connection I have with Jan. 6, because I do take that as a slanderous statement when in reality, I had nothing to do with it.’”
But then, that really has nothing to do with the letter.
Huffman and Co. are angry because someone called legislators who blatantly ignore the Bible and push for laws that mandate parents and doctors must be given the right to chemically and surgically mutilate minors in the name of “transgender tolerance” are guilty of “national sin” and are required to repent, as the Bible commands.
If Rep. Huffman or the 25 other Democrats who signed onto this letter don’t believe this, that’s fine. They are not required, in this world, to believe in God or follow His Word. Nobody is forcing them.
All Pastor Hibbs said on Jan. 30 was that, eventually, those who mock God and His law will be called before Him to answer for their transgressions. All of the out-of-context pull-quotes from Media Matters and scary terms like “Christian nationalism” isn’t going to affect His judgment on their actions.
The choice to heed or disregard Pastor Hibbs’ warning is theirs.