How Trump’s Victory Affects The Civil War In Evangelicalism
Evangelical leaders have increasingly aligned with the leftist ruling class, while many in the pews maintain more conservative views.Evangelical leaders have increasingly aligned with the leftist ruling class, while many in the pews maintain more conservative views.More than a countdown: Do you know the full meaning of Advent?
Today is the beginning of Advent, the Christian season of preparation and anticipation leading up to Christmas.
For most Christians, Advent is a time to slow down, to spend time with God and community, to serve others, and to prepare oneself for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. This is good and right.
But focusing only on the birth of Christ robs us of Advent's full meaning.
The word "Advent" is derived from the Latin word adventus, which can be translated as "arrival" or "coming." The word adventus, moreover, is used to translate the Greek word parousia, the word used in the Greek New Testament to refer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Why is this important?
It means that Advent is not only a season of anticipating the arrival of Jesus — the long-awaited and hoped-for Messiah — but it's a season to anticipate and prepare for Christ's return.
Let us prepare our hearts not only for the Incarnation, but for the triumphal return of Christ and the consummation of all creation.
During Advent, we should reflect on how the two arrivals of Jesus are, according to Bible scholar Dr. Jonathan Gibson, "distinctly contrasted" but "inseparably connected."
"If he came the first time in quiet humility to the few, he will come the second time in rapturous glory to the many. If in the first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and attended by animals, in the second he will be wrapped in blinding light and attended by angels. In his first coming, he was seen in a lowly manger by the magi; in his second coming, he will be seen on an exalted throne by the multitudes," Gibson observes.
Why is this important? Because, as Gibson explains, the first and second coming of Christ "bookend" His redemptive work.
"In his first coming Christ came to inaugurate his kingdom (Mark 1:15) and secure redemption for his people (John 6:39). But the kingdom was only provisionally realized; the redemption only partially applied in that first coming. The consummation of the kingdom will only be fully realized (2 Timothy 4:1) and the completion of redemption only be fully applied (Philippians 1:6) in Christ’s second coming," Gibson explains. "What Christ began to do in his first coming, he will return to complete in his second coming."
The season of Advent, then, is full of temporal tension.
As we remember Christ's first coming and prepare for His second, we get to embrace living in the "already but not yet." That means letting the hope of Christ's return and His impending triumph over all creation shape how we live today.
At the same time, Advent is a time to cultivate joyful expectation. God is faithful, and Christ will return to make all things right. Though we have long awaited His return, the faithfulness of God gives us hope and strength to persevere as we continue to wait for that glorious day.
So as we light Advent candles, open Advent calendars, and sing Advent hymns, let us remember the full meaning of the Advent season. Let us prepare our hearts not only for the Incarnation, but for the triumphal return of Christ and the consummation of all creation.
A prayer for the first Sunday of Advent
From the Book of Common Prayer.
Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Don't miss the key detail in Gabriel’s message to Mary: Why Jesus' name matters
Old Testament readers will notice that the significance of a character can commonly be found even in that character’s name. The names Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, and many others carry with them some kind of verb or noun that connects to their origin, demeanor, or purpose.
And every once in a while, the name of a character is announced before the birth. When that happens, the reader can be especially intrigued because announcing a person’s name ahead of time raises our expectations for what that character will be and do.
Mary and Joseph were to name the child Joshua because, through the birth of this child, salvation had come.
When the virgin Mary was in Nazareth, the angel Gabriel revealed to her that she would have a son and that her son would be the promised king who would rule on David’s throne (Luke 1:30–33). She would give birth to the Messiah.
Gabriel told her, “You shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). He told Joseph the same thing: “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Matthew 1:21). What’s interesting in Joseph’s case is that Gabriel explained the name: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (1:21).
The angel not only made an announcement, he also gave an instruction.
Joseph and Mary could not name the child whatever they liked. The son would have a name that connected to his mission. Naming the child Jesus would be an act of obedience on their part.
The name “Jesus” in Greek is the equivalent of the name “Joshua” in Hebrew. And the name Joshua was a familiar one to readers of the Old Testament. The book called Joshua is named after the ancient successor to Moses. That Joshua led the Israelites across the Jordan River and into the promised land for the conquest. Through Joshua’s leadership and faithfulness, the Lord gave the Israelites victory and their inheritance.
Jesus — or Joshua — means “Yahweh is salvation.”
In the Old Testament, deliverance or salvation took different forms. An individual, like the psalmist, could celebrate God’s salvation from a threatening illness. A nation could receive deliverance from an external enemy — like the Philistines or the Amalekites. A penitent sinner could be delivered from divine discipline for transgressions.
Why is Jesus named “Yahweh is salvation”? Because he would accomplish the greatest and most far-reaching deliverance possible. He “would save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Jesus is a true and greater Joshua because he brought a greater salvation. Mary and Joseph were to name the child Joshua because, through the birth of this child, salvation had come. Salvation had a name.
Hear the angel say, “You shall call his name Joshua,” for that name will most easily connect us to the Old Testament background. Jesus didn’t come merely to promise deliverance or to sustain the hope for deliverance or to point us to some other source for deliverance. He came to be our deliverance. His name means “Yahweh is salvation,” and he is the deliverance we need.
We need to be saved from our sins, so we need the one whom the angel called “Jesus” — the new Joshua to lead the people of God into a land of everlasting life.
This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, Biblical Theology.
Advent's hidden power: How Christ restores what sin destroys
As we enter the season of Advent, let us reflect on Jesus’ work, through his incarnation, of restoring God’s image within his followers.
The divine image and idolatry
Psalm 115:2 asks: Why should the nations say, “Where, now, is their God?” The reply? “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases” (v. 3).
Indeed, Yahweh is “Maker of heaven and earth” (v. 15). By contrast, the gods of the pagan nations are lifeless:
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear; they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat (vv. 4-7).
Then we come to the arresting line: “Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them” (v. 8).
New Testament scholar G.K. Beale notes in his book "We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry" that as we compare such a text with Genesis 1, we find ourselves encountering a key theme in biblical theology: God created humans as “imaging beings who reflect his glory.”
Christ, who is the very image of the invisible God, came to restore that image that had been tarnished and obscured by sin.
As we see in Psalm 115, humans’ failure to commit themselves to God will result in their reflecting not him but something else in creation. We’ll either reflect the Creator or the creature. Idolaters resemble what they worship: “What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration.”
In Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, he writes:
A god is that to which we look for all good and where we resort for help in every time of need; to have a god is simply to trust and believe in one with our whole heart. As I have often said, the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol. If your faith and confidence are right, then likewise your God is the true God. On the other hand, if your confidence is false, if it is wrong, then you have not the true God. For the two, faith and God, have inevitable connection. Now, I say, whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your god.
Where we find our ultimate security and whatever claims our deepest loyalty, that is our god.
According to Old Testament scholar Christopher Wright in his book "The Mission of God," gods and idols may be gateways to the demonic world, but primarily the Scriptures view them as “the work of human hands, constructs of our own fallen and rebellious imagination.”
Wright adds: “The primal problem with idolatry is that it blurs the distinction between the Creator God and the creation. This both damages creation (including ourselves) and diminishes the glory of the Creator.”
Concerning Exodus 20:3-6, Beale asks: Do we have two commands or just one?
After all, having “no other gods” before the Lord meant not making “an idol, or any likeness” of anything in the world in order to be worshipped “since it was believed that the divine presence was to be contained in that image.” And even an image that represented the Lord — like the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-9) — was an assault on the Creator-creature distinction; such images were prohibited in order to “maintain a continuing consciousness among God’s people that there is a distinction between the Creator and the finite creation.”
To represent God in creaturely form was to idolatrously misinterpret him. God’s presence couldn’t be localized in an object; any attempt to do so diminished his incomparable glory (Isaiah 42:8).
The divine image and the Incarnation
This brings us to the point of the Incarnation and the mission of God.
In Wright’s words:
Since God’s mission is to restore creation to its full original purpose of bringing all glory to God himself and thereby to enable all creation to enjoy the fullness of blessings that he desires for it, God battles against all forms of idolatry and calls us to join him in that conflict.
Thus, we “need to understand the whole breadth of the Bible’s exposure of the deleterious effects of idolatry in order to appreciate its seriousness and the reason for the Bible’s passionate rhetoric about it.”
The church father Irenaeus wrote: “He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man … might become the son of God.” That is, Christ, who is the very image of the invisible God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15), came to restore that image that had been tarnished and obscured by sin. He is the most true human, the very archetype of humanity — the second Adam who came to undo the damage of the first Adam.
His incarnation, death, and (especially) resurrection have ushered in a new creation. As a result, we who have put on the new self are “being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of [Christ]” (Colossians 3:10).
As Advent is upon us, we are reminded of these themes. Charles Wesley’s hymn “Since the Son Hath Made Me Free” puts it this way:
Heavenly Adam, life divine,
Change my nature into thine;
Move and spread throughout my soul,
Actuate and fill the whole;
Be it I no longer now
Living in the flesh, but thou.
And in his “Let Heaven and Earth Combine,” he writes:
He deigns in flesh to appear,
Widest extremes to join;
To bring our vileness near,
And make us all divine:
And we the life of God shall know,
For God is manifest below.
And again in “All-wise, All-good, Almighty Lord”:
Didst thou not in thy person join
The natures human and divine,
That God and man might be
Henceforth inseparably one?
Haste then, and make thy nature known
Incarnated in me.
This article is adapted from a post that originally appeared on the Worldview Bulletin Substack.
Fatherhood and the death of self
This year, I became a father.
They say that becoming a parent changes everything — and I agree. In the first moments that I held my son after he emerged from the safety of his mother's womb, I thought to myself, "My life is over."
When I take for myself, I flourish. But when I give up myself, my family flourishes.
But that is good — and for that, I am thankful.
Western culture today prioritizes self-actualization and the liberation from external influence. Subjectivity, personal feelings, and internal perceptions of identity are propped up as chief goods. And the dominant narrative we are told is this: I am the author of my life — and the story is all about me. My happiness is the most important currency in my life. If anything hinders my version of the good life, which I get to define, then I must immediately erase it from my life.
To have children is the ultimate way to fight back against this poisoned worldview. It is to embrace death of self.
Parenting, as I have experienced in my short 3.5 months and as I have witnessed in the lives of my friends, requires an identity shift. Parenting is not something that I do. Rather, I am a father.
But I am not a father in the margins of life. I am first a husband and father — and the rest of life is crafted around those vocations.
The compass that guides me is not powered by my personal feelings and desires. Instead, I am motivated to provide for and to protect my family, to serve and to lead them, and to pour myself out for them because I want them flourish.
When I take for myself, I flourish. But when I give up myself, my family flourishes. My self loses — but my family wins. Self-sacrifice and others-centered love is the name of the game.
In parenting, this is intuitive. The survival of our children requires us to spend years meeting their every need, sacrificing me for them. They would literally die if we did not prioritize them. The journey of parenthood, therefore, is an invitation to death.
But there is good news. Not only will embracing the death of self lead to a more fulfilling life — one in which we discover that true joy is found not in self-indulgence but in self-giving love — but it leads to life itself. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, "Whoever pursues after his own life to preserve it will lose it; but whoever loses [his own life], he will be given life" (Luke 17:33, my translation).
Ultimately, it is my faith that motivates me to embrace the death of self. To be a Christian, after all, means accepting Jesus' invitation to follow him into death and through it to resurrection life.
This thanksgiving, I thank God that he called me into fatherhood and gifted me the end of adolescence. He has trusted my wife and me to embrace the death of self to care for His son.
There is no escape hatch, and there is no going back. And for that, I thank God every day.
How Christians propelled Trump to victory — and why Democrats will continue to lose
Donald Trump won the White House because he earned a historically significant share of votes from Hispanics, black men, young Americans, and the working class.
But there's one group of voters who broadly supported Trump that has received "virtually no attention," according to George Barna, director of the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University: Christians.
'Donald Trump, for all of his perceived and ridiculed faults, did a better job than did Kamala Harris of representing hallowed Christian characteristics.'
Barna's post-election research found that Trump won 56% of the vote from self-identified Christians. That may not sound like a large number, but according to the CRC, because Christians represented a whopping 72% of voters who participated in the election, their majority support helped propel Trump to victory.
Vice President Kamala Harris, on the other hand, won only 43% of the vote among self-identified Christians.
"Thanks to relentless Christian-bashing by the mainstream media, as well as the dramatic impact of today’s culture on the lives of Christians, Americans forget that two-thirds of adults in this nation consider themselves to be Christians," Barna observed.
The reason, then, why Christians supported Trump over Harris is simple: His agenda aligns better with Christian values.
"Donald Trump, for all of his perceived and ridiculed faults, did a better job than did Kamala Harris of representing hallowed Christian characteristics of family, the rule of law, limited government authority, financial responsibility, and the like," Barna explained. "In contrast, Vice President Harris's doubling down on abortion-on-demand, open borders, transgenderism, and central tenets of socialistic governance clashed with the core values of the nation’s dominant spiritual perspectives."
"Millions of President Trump’s votes came from people who would not vote for him as the nation’s pastor or as a behavioral model for their children, but who perceived he would protect their traditional, cherished values and lifestyle preferences while Mrs. Harris was more likely to limit or ban such ways of life," he noted.
The strong Christian support for Trump highlights a shifting attitude among Christian voters, specifically concerning a political candidate's character.
For years, bad-faith critics have argued that Trump-supporting Christians are hypocrites because of Trump's history of questionable character decisions, including his multiple marriages and allegations of adultery.
'In today’s climate, the character that matters most is embedded in the policies our leaders support.'
But Pastor Erik Reed argued in an essay for Blaze Media that while character still matters, it is now outweighed by the categorical policy differences between Republicans and Democrats.
"To be clear, we still want leaders with strong character. But when both parties present candidates with moral failings, we must prioritize other factors. For many, the question has become, 'Who will support policies that reflect the character we want to see in our society?'" Reed wrote. "This shift is not about justifying sin or minimizing integrity; it’s about the stakes in today’s political landscape."
If we understand the changing political landscape, it becomes clear how policies actually reflect a candidate's — and a political party's — character.
"Policies reflect a form of collective character. They determine the moral and ethical direction of society," Reed argued. "Today, policies reflect values that will shape the future, determine rights and freedoms, and frame the moral fabric of the nation."
"So does character matter? Absolutely. But in today’s climate, the character that matters most is embedded in the policies our leaders support. That’s not hypocrisy; it’s an adaptation to a political landscape where our values face unprecedented challenges," he explained. "In this environment, we must weigh the complete character of a candidate — both his personal life and the values his policies will bring to the country."
If Reed is right, the future implications are clear: more losing for Democrats.
Until the Democratic Party realizes it is out of touch with most Americans and drifting only further into the abyss, Republicans will continue to win.
As this last election proved, Republicans are better aligned with not only Christian voters but the majority of the voting population.
Toxic empathy and the spirit of antichrist
Christian philosopher Rene Girard once suggested that we face two types of evil: The evil of the far right, which he labeled as "Satan," and the evil of the far left, which he labeled "antichrist."
The idea is that Lucifer was overtly proud and power-hungry. The Nazis were possessed by the Luciferian spirit.
But the far left is more subtle. Its evil is also Satan-inspired, but it’s more deceptive because it seeks to pretend to be more Christian than Christianity. It’s antichrist because it uses the teaching of Christ like love for the individual, concern for the marginalized, and justice for the oppressed and seeks to redress these issues while denying the person of Christ and the saving message of the Gospel.
The apostle John wrote about these kinds of teachers, saying, “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19), and we can know that “This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22).
The conceit of the far left is to take the values and moral intuitions of the Bible while denying their connection to Christ himself.
These antichrist doctrines give us compassion without sin, judgment without forgiveness, and love without salvation.
This reveals that behind these movements is not just another satanic power-grab but one that works better in a society heavily influenced by Christian ideals. Concepts like compassion, empathy, and love are being untethered from the Gospel, truth, and the rest of Scripture and are being weaponized against those who actually follow Jesus.
These antichrist doctrines give us compassion without sin, judgment without forgiveness, and love without salvation. They try to achieve justice through injustice, to overcome racism through racist acts, and to enforce equality through unequal application of the law.
John was the last apostle to write his New Testament books, and he saw that the greatest threat to the church would not come from those teaching the antithesis of Christ but those who distort the message of Christ. Even in his day, he warned that “many antichrists have come” (1 John 2:18).
That’s why we’re seeing Christianity succeed in Asia and Africa — because of its power to overthrow satanic strongholds — while at the same time shrinking in the West because the Western church hasn’t learned to overthrow the spirit of antichrist.
One example that I’ve seen personally is how many churches are afraid to teach biblical truths about the family because it might make those experiencing broken families feel bad. This is empathy weaponized against the truth.
Many churches want to be a hospital for the broken by neglecting our call to train disciples. It’s like a country deciding not to teach reading out of compassion for the blind. This is not Christ — this is antichrist.
Yes, we need compassion and empathy for those who are suffering, but without falling prey to the strategy of antichrist to use kindness to shame us from speaking the truth.
Antichrist in the West is growing and splitting up families, churches, and whole denominations.
So when you hear Christian leaders hiding clear teachings in Scripture out of a toxic compassion, you can know that “this the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:3-4).
This essay was adapted from an article originally published at Jeremy Pryor's Substack.
5 truths that prove the Bible is not like any other book
As we think about the Bible, we need to think about it like Christians. Plenty of folks might read the Bible without any right conviction about what it is. They may read it as if it’s like any other book they’ve read.
But the Bible is not like any other book, so it must not be interpreted just like any other book. There are Christian convictions — or assumptions — about scripture that uphold not only the task of biblical theology but also the importance of studying scripture at all.
We wouldn’t describe other pieces of literature in the way these assumptions describe scripture.
Here are five assumptions about scripture we should have if we’re going to read it as Christians.
1. The Bible is inspired by God
This fact immediately sets apart all scripture from all literature outside scripture. The Holy Spirit has inspired the writings of Genesis through Revelation.
More than 40 human authors were involved in the composition of scripture, but human authorship is only part of the origin question. The very testimony about the Bible from the Bible is that it is the word of God. A proper doctrine of scripture will give unrivaled prominence to the divine inspiration of the text.
2. The Bible does not teach error
This second truth derives from the first. If a holy, righteous, and omnipotent God has inspired the biblical writings, then we can trust what they teach about God and about the many subjects they address. The Bible will not contradict itself. While some teachings may be complementary to other teachings, the Bible will not teach what is true in one place and then contradict it elsewhere.
In a world permeated with deceptions and delusions, the scripture is reliable. It is inerrant, and its inerrancy is inseparably connected to its inspiration. The Holy Spirit’s work through the biblical authors has ensured the accuracy of what they’ve written. When scripture speaks, God speaks. And God is not a being who can err.
3. The Bible is authoritative
This truth derives from the first two. Since scripture is both divinely inspired and without error in what it teaches, scripture possesses an authority that trumps all competing authorities. Christians must come to the text as those under authority. There are truths to behold, exhortations to follow, prohibitions to heed.
Everyone walks according to some authority. Our beliefs, our convictions, come from something or someone — even if it’s just our imagination and subjective whims. Scripture is the supreme court of authorities. As divine authority, scripture brings correction to error, light to ignorance, and guidance to confusion. In studying the sacred text, we should come ready to receive and submit to what we find therein.
4. Later biblical authors rightly interpret earlier biblical authors
Have you seen edited volumes where one contributor will disagree with another contributor? This sort of thing can happen in merely human books. Contributors haggle through arguments, push back on a given thesis, and reach different conclusions about things. The Bible is not like an edited volume with different contributors.
The writings of the biblical authors are inspired by the spirit of the living God. This ensures that a later writer will rightly understand and interpret an earlier writer. The Old and New Testaments were composed over many centuries, so the miracle of scripture’s coherency and unity is ultimately due to the divine authorship of the biblical canon. Across the long progression of divine revelation, later biblical authors rightly develop, interpret, and apply earlier biblical writings. Not only do later Old Testament authors clarify earlier Old Testament texts, the New Testament authors bring greater clarity to the Old Testament itself.
5. The messianic meta-narrative is why the Bible exists
Attentive readers will notice the messianic hope that permeates the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament promises a deliverer who would come, and the New Testament announces the deliverer’s arrival and tells us his name. These two testaments trace the promise and fulfillment of messianic hope.
This messianic meta-narrative is the big context to understand the many micro-stories and teachings in scripture. By God’s design, the biblical canon has a christological shape. Once we recognize that scripture has a messianic meta-narrative, we will see that the covenants and history of Israel, as well as the many themes and storyline threads, are all serving the greater purpose of the Messiah’s advent.
These five assumptions are crucial for a Christian posture toward the word of God. We wouldn’t describe other pieces of literature in the way these assumptions describe scripture. Truly, the Bible is a book unlike any other book.
This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, Biblical Theology.
Anti-Christian attacks on Trump nominee reach hilarious climax with viral tweet
No, the Jerusalem Cross is not a symbol of white supremacy or Nazism.
Under normal circumstances, this statement is self-evident. Everyone — literally everyone — knows the cross is first and foremost a Christian symbol. But these aren't normal circumstances.
'Deus Vult' and the Jerusalem cross are uniquely Christian media with over 1,000 years of use among Christians.
In the days following Pete Hegseth's defense secretary nomination, bad-faith critics have attacked Hegseth for two specifically Christian tattoos on his body.
The first, on his right bicep, is a tattoo of the words, "Deus Vult," which in ecclesiastical Latin means "God wills it." The second tattoo, located on his chest, is of the Jerusalem cross.
The Jerusalem cross is a large cross surrounded by four smaller crosses in each of the "quadrants" created by the larger cross. Some believe the five crosses represent the wounds Jesus Christ suffered on the cross while others believe the large cross represents Christ and the smaller four crosses represent the four Gospel authors. Still others believe the symbol represents the gospel message spreading to the four corners of the world.
It is important to remember that "Deus Vult" and the Jerusalem cross are uniquely Christian media with over 1,000 years of use among Christians.
And yet, Hegseth's critics — or, more broadly, critics of President-elect Donald Trump, conservatives, and Christians — are now trying to associate "Deus Vult" and the Jerusalem cross with so-called Christian nationalism, the Christian "far right," white supremacy, and Nazism.
The absurdity of the accusations reached a hysterical climax on social media over the weekend.
A man named Matthew Stokes went viral when he promised to pay $5 to "any standard evangelical over the age of 40" if they could prove to him that "the Jerusalem cross was a normal symbol of their faith upbringing."
— (@)
It turns out that Stokes has a lot of money to disburse because his post went viral when thousands of people did exactly what he requested.
The end result is that Stokes proved the exact opposite outcome than the one he intended: The responses that his post generated proved the Jerusalem cross is not only a normal Christian symbol but that it's an ecumenical one too.
Presbyterians use it. Publishers use it. Catholics use it. Lutherans use it. Communion wafers are imprinted with it. Coptic Christians use it. Episcopalians and Anglicans use it. It's used in jewelry. The Greek Orthodox use it. Vestments use it.
The Jerusalem cross is clearly a ubiquitous symbol among Christians of all churches and denominations. Attempts to tarnish it as a symbol of racism or Nazism not only fail, but they're actually an attack against all well-meaning Christians who display their faith allegiance through symbols like the Jerusalem cross.
The attacks, as Vice President-elect JD Vance said, are "disgusting anti-Christian bigotry."
Christians are not Nazis. Christians are not white supremacists. Christians are not racist.
Fortunately, the "anti-Christian bigotry" that Vance identified will no longer exist within the Defense Department under Hegseth's leadership.
"They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD," Hegseth promised.
Blaze News original: Christians to provide happy Thanksgiving to hurricane victims in Western North Carolina
As devastating as the images were coming out of Western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene in late September, sadly, it is all too easy for those of us personally unaffected by the storm to move on with our lives. Emotions were high leading up to the election, and now supporters of President-elect Donald Trump have focused much of their attention on the prospects of his second term.
Not so for those in North Carolina. Though voter turnout was still remarkably high in North Carolina, exceeding turnout in 2020 by more than 100,000 votes and exceeding 2016 numbers by more than 1 million, much of the western part of the state, normally protected from the storms that batter the coast with some regularity, remains wiped out from flooding.
Not content to carry on with the holiday season while their compatriots across the state still suffer, some Christians in an eastern region of North Carolina have made preparations to provide supplies, Bibles, and a hearty Thanksgiving meal to those in need.
To learn more about what has been dubbed Operation Thanksgiving Blessings, Blaze News spoke with the man behind the plans, David Burke, who in turn prefers to give all the credit to someone else.
"No way in the world would all this stuff ever have happened if it wasn't for God," he said, adding with a laugh, "I'm not that smart."
Operation Thanksgiving Blessings
Blaze News spoke with Burke on multiple occasions and can verify that he is, indeed, that smart. By trade a project manager for a metal fabrication company, Burke has also been known to dabble in some cooking competitions.
"I was ranked as high as #3 in the state of North Carolina for whole-hog BBQ competition with the Roth Carolina Pork Council," he noted proudly in a message to Blaze News.
After attending church one Sunday morning in early October, just a week or so after Hurricane Helene ravaged his state, Burke sensed that he had to do more for the victims than pray or write a check.
"The Sunday school lesson was on home community service, of all things," he said. "I'm 59 years old. Never once have I had a Sunday school lesson on community service until about three weeks ago, four weeks ago."
After a series of coincidences, putting Burke in touch with people living hours away, he finally figured out what he was going to do: arrange to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for those living in an area that has thus far received little help from the government.
Citing Newland, North Carolina, Mayor Derek Roberts, who claimed his daughter received just $300 from FEMA after losing her entire house to the flooding, Burke claimed that government assistance has been almost nonexistent in some cases and that the people of Western North Carolina have more or less had to fend for themselves.
"I knew right then that's where we needed to go," Burke told Blaze News.
Burke lives near Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, a rural area about 100 miles northeast of Raleigh and more than 260 miles east — about a six-hour drive — from Elk Park, the area he intended to feed. The distance and the scope of his plans meant that Burke needed help.
As so many people do these days, Burke turned to social media, creating a Facebook page as a landing site for those interested in getting involved. And, as it were, the floodgates opened.
Famed turkey company Butterball donated 100 turkeys weighing about 24 pounds each. Glover Construction is providing enough ingredients to make 300 gallons of Brunswick stew, a local staple that Burke described as "a thick vegetable soup." Even an area prison with a farm on its grounds reportedly offered 180 dozen eggs — more than 2,100 total — for the effort.
Restaurants such as Napoli Pizza and Italian Restaurant in Murfreesboro chipped in by holding fundraisers. By pooling all proceeds from the fundraiser — including tips — Napoli's alone collected $4,000 for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.
Napoli's owner, Mari Rizo, told Blaze News she was thrilled with the success of the fundraiser.
"At Napoli's Pizza and Italian Restaurant, we’ve always believed in the power of community. When we heard about the devastating impact of the hurricane on families in Western North Carolina, we felt compelled to help. Our team wanted to do something meaningful to give back, especially with Thanksgiving approaching," Rizo said in a statement to Blaze News.
"To the families in Western North Carolina who are facing difficult times, we want you to know that we are thinking of you. We hope that this gesture helps to bring some comfort and joy to your holiday. Our hearts are with you, and we will continue to do everything we can to support you through this difficult time."
The Seaboard Lions Club, of which Burke is a member, has also collected monetary and supply donations and stored them on the organization's 20-acre site.
"Everybody knows somebody, and in our world, the more people you know ... [the] better off you are," Burke said of the growing network of donors and volunteers involved with Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.
Burke told Blaze News that his initial goal was to cook and serve about 5,000 total meals on Thanksgiving Day, but that goal expanded after he spoke with a woman who had a similar idea about feeding others living near Fletcher, North Carolina — about 90 miles away from Elk Park — on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
"We got another 40 turkeys donated and another 20 hams, and so what we're gonna do is we're gonna cook all that food for those 500 as well on Thanksgiving Day, and we'll pack it in bulk and send it to her. And then all she'll have to do is warm it back up and serve 500 people on Saturday as well," Burke explained.
As generous as a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal is, the food represents just a tiny fraction of the goods and services Operation Thanksgiving Blessings will offer those in Western North Carolina.
Burke and his team have loaded 53-foot trailers with other supplies as well, including clothes for the winter, heaters, blankets, baby supplies, gloves, hats, personal hygiene items, paper products, and cleaning supplies. ORBIS Corporation even donated 750 plastic bins for storage, a necessity for folks who lost not only all their possessions but a place in which to keep them.
"ORBIS is honored to support this incredible cause and support the people of Western North Carolina in their time of need," the company told Blaze News.
The details
The crew from the Roanoke Rapids area has already begun packing up trailers and trucks, ready to haul everything out to the western part of the state just a day or so before Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving Day, they will set up shop at Cranberry Middle School at 6051 N. U.S. Hwy 19E in Elk Park, North Carolina. Folks can begin arriving at 11 a.m. and sit down and enjoy their meal or pick one up and take it to go.
Burke told Blaze News that his group has all the supplies and donations it can handle. He suggested that anyone still interested in making a monetary donation mail a check to the Seaboard Lions Club at P.O. Box 76, Seaboard, North Carolina, 27876. Sending it to David Burke's attention and including "OTB" on the memo line of the check will help earmark it for Operation Thanksgiving Blessings.
Burke emphasized to Blaze News that "every red penny" the Lions Club receives will be distributed to people living in and around Elk Park. Ever committed to transparency, Burke even offered to have Blaze News share his private phone number in this article, an offer that we politely declined.
"I don't want people to sit around and wonder what we're doing," he explained. "I want them to see exactly what's going on and see God at work."
Feeding bellies and souls
Burke, a devout Christian, takes the biblical call to love and serve others seriously, and he is happy to use his talents as a project manager and as a chef to give those who have lost all their material possessions a Thanksgiving meal they will never forget.
However, he believes that evangelizing them for Christ is even more important.
"We're looking for that one person out there that doesn't believe, doesn't think God is real," he told Blaze News, "and it is our hope that we can change his mind or her mind."
"By showing them that people care and that God has been working this whole time to make all this come together, maybe, just maybe, we'll save that one," he continued.
Burke is hardly the only Christian involved in Operation Thanksgiving Blessings. In fact, he has teamed up with members of churches across the state to identify and reach people in need.
For instance, Burke connected with a pastor from his hometown of Murfreesboro but now living in Boone, North Carolina, who began collecting supplies sent via Amazon from all over the country. Burke also made contact with the student body president of Appalachian State University, who once attended Sunday school taught by Burke and his wife.
"I called and talked to her, and I told her ... 'Go out there, and you tell these people that you're gonna come bring some help to them at Thanksgiving. ... And I'll be standing right behind you,'" he recalled to Blaze News. "I said, 'You've been on mission trips with me before. You know exactly what I want to get done. So let's see if we can make it happen.'"
Burke acknowledged to Blaze News that some people, especially those who lost their homes, pets, and even loved ones in Hurricane Helene might struggle to believe in a loving, all-powerful God. But he added that faith in the face of doubt is still the answer.
"Why did God let this happen? I can't answer that question, but it's all within His plan," he explained. "His plan has meaning. He doesn't make any mistakes, and so all we have to do is we have to have the faith."
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