Dominionist Jurisprudence and the Evangelical Destruction of Gospel Testimony

https://www.propublica.org/article/paul-newby-north-carolina-supreme-court

There are enough stories like this to fill a book shelf. Christians believing they are serving God by wielding power and yet oblivious to their own corruption or willing to explain it away. Ignoring what the Bible says about power, money, ethics, and integrity they wage culture war and seek to transform America's Enlightenment Liberal society into the Kingdom of God. The result is a sham, a counterfeit and yet another occasion in which the name of Christ is besmirched.

Since the Far Right (and Christian Right) have lost the social consensus in its entirety and now constitute a minority they have determined to grasp control of the country by corrupting its institutions and ruling on an authoritarian basis. The courts are a critical part of this plan as it ties in with elections, voting, budgets, and the empowerment of everything from censorship campaigns to extra-legal law enforcement.

Gerrymandering has become a major story in the lead up to the 2026 mid-term elections. Re-drawing district maps used to be connected to the census every ten years. Now it's being done in an ad hoc fashion as the parties vie for power and states are responding to the actions of other states in an attempt to create guaranteed districts for their parties.

The tactics are dirty as the article reports - playing games with votes, making a mockery of transparency and due process, and utilizing impossible timetables to defeat their opponents. They're not even really pretending to follow the law any more. It's completely undemocratic. And of course Trump leads the way - just dismissing laws and legal rulings he doesn't like. It's a blatant power grab and given the state of society, the Christian Right is completely open to such authoritarian rule. Most at this point would willing embrace a fascistic leader such as Franco, Mussolini, Petain, Pavelic, or Antonescu.

Newby's ethic is very simple - the end justifies the means. That's all you need to know.

The Neo-Evangelicalism that emerged in the 1940's wanted a place at the table - Christians to participate and have influence within America's pluralistic order.

The Moral Majority era (1970s-1990s) was marked by an attempt for Christians to attain preferential pluralism - to have symbolic dominance and a great deal of actual influence.

The period from the late 1990's until 2010 was marked by uncertainty, distraction, and realignment. Dominionism was becoming the dominant form within the Christian Right and yet the defeat/debacle of the Clinton Impeachment was a setback. Bush proved disappointing and then the period after 9/11 was a distraction, focused on foreign wars and damage control concerning the many scandals associated with that corrupt administration.

Then Barack Obama was elected and this too generated some confusion at first but by 2010 the opposition movement had consolidated and Dominionism was given a shot in the arm. It had become something of a big tent movement. Christians wanted power and believed any means were necessary in order to attain it and stop the perceived and existential threats to their romanticised notions of America's supposedly Christian order.

The Tea Party resistance led directly to the Trump era and all the evil it has brought to the Church. People now speak of Christian Nationalism - the abandonment of any pluralism in most cases. There's a spectrum to be sure - from patriotic-libertarian ideology (often riddled by internal contradictions) to outright authoritarianism and even fascism. This period is marked by a raw and brutal quest for power.

This has enshrined the consequentialist ethic that shapes Newby's jurisprudence - which is not jurisprudence. It masquerades as such. Basically he's a political operative, the very sort of person that should not be a judge in any society in which the law is supposed to have real meaning. Newby believes the American system is 'Biblically based' only demonstrating his unfamiliarity with Scriptural teaching and his confusion regarding everything from history the ideology.

The former governor says Newby is sincere and no hypocrite - and yet the ethics he lives by demonstrates he is bent on casting aside God's commandments. He professes to be a Christian and then lives like something else. He may be sincere but still be a hypocrite. Such sociopathic behaviour is often the result of cheap grace and the sign of a seared conscience - even while believing that they are doing God's work. The Scriptures warn of this on more than one occasion.

If the reporting is accurate then it's safe to say Newby's religion is America and Christianity is a means to that end. Such apostasy is allowed to flourish because the churches themselves are largely apostate and often headed by corrupt compromised leaders.

The Right drones on about 'activist judges' and yet it's abundantly clear that their solution to this sometimes imagined problem is to fill the courts with - you guessed it, activist judges like Newby. It's like Trump's call to de-weaponize the Justice Department. It was tantamount to declaring that he was going to weaponize it - the very thing he has done.

These people hate journalists and anyone who will expose what they're doing. This is also why we should expect to see more censorship in addition to the corporate maneuvering and consolidation of media franchises. They are emboldened and so the threats issued to ProPublica are not surprising and they seek to create a culture of fear. I hear the same thing from people living in Lynchburg VA - there's a real fear when it comes to speaking out against Liberty University or opposing it locally. This smacks of mafia-style tactics, which is also in keeping with Trump's style. In his case he was tutored by Roy Cohn and the lessons of McCarthyism.

The article traces out Newby's conduct - a tale of corruption, the abuse of power, and complete disregard for both law and custom. It also shows how fragile some of these arrangements are. They depend on people feeling shame, having some kind of conscience - and having respect for the institutions they lead. Politicians, judges, and others have long engaged in dubious activity but generally when caught, and after a lost fight, they give in at some point. They don't want to face the public scrutiny or find it a challenge to keep up the facade once all the dirty laundry has been aired. Or sometimes they step back to keep more from coming out. Some act of shame or out of a sense of duty or loyalty. But in recent years the Right has (following Trump's example) proved defiant and unwilling to admit wrongdoing. It's ethic is to reject repentance, accountability, and conscience. So it is with Newby. Somehow this supremely anti-Christian ethic framework has become the preferred model of Christian leadership and in Trump's GOP those who won't strike back when accused are looked down upon.

As a consequence today's Christian Right lives by the ethic of Lamech and when you have someone powerful like Newby who stands for a kind of pseudo-Christianity combined with a pagan ethic - it's not pretty, and it is but another occasion for the world to hate Christians. It's one thing to be hated for the testimony of the cross and the gospel but that's often not the case. Many Christians are hated because of men like Newby - those who trample the Christian message and make a mockery of it in order to enrich themselves and ride high on dreams of power and glory, even while they trample institutions and ideals that (right or wrong) people deeply believe in. Or in many cases power-players like Newby are happy enough to trample not just institutions and ideals but actual people. As such the gospel testimony is undermined and made into something to mock and sneer at.