'Take it up with Jesus': Theologian slams JD Vance for conflating 'individualism' with Christianity

31 January

During a late January appearance on Fox News, Vice President JD Vance tried to make a Christian argument in favor of President Donald Trump's MAGA/America First ideology. But his comments are getting some pushback from theologian Joash Thomas.

Vance is popular among Christian nationalists and far-right white evangelicals because of his extreme social conservatism, including his attacks on women who don't have biological children. The vice president, however, is not an evangelical Protestant, but a convert to Catholicism. And on Fox News, he claimed that MAGA Republicans have a better understanding of Christianity than the left.

Vance told Fox News' Sean Hannity, "I think it's a very Christian concept that you love your family, and then you love your neighbor — and then, you love your community. And then you love your fellow citizens and your own country. And then, after that, focus and prioritize the rest of the world. A lot of the far left has completely inverted that."

The vice president continued, "They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to ruin a society. And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is a simple concept: America first."

But Thomas argued that Vance's thinking is flawed.

In a Thursday, January 30 thread on X, formerly Twitter, Thomas wrote, "I am a theologian trained at one of America's top conservative evangelical theological seminaries. This is *not* a Christian concept; it's a western individualistic one."

Thomas continued, "I've studied Augustine. He was right on some stuff and way off on others. According to your logic, executing our theological enemies for heresy is 'Christian' too. If it doesn't look like Christ, it shouldn't be called 'Christian.' The Jesus I worship taught us to love enemy…. And he showed us how to love our enemies by laying down his life for his enemies. Don't like my definition of Christian? Your beef isn't with me. It's with Jesus. So take it up with him."

Watch the JD Vance interview below or at this link.

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