Joel Webbon is a Christian nationalist pastor at Covenant Bible Church in Texas and the founder of Right Response Ministries. Through his ministry, Webbon organizes events like “Blueprints for Christendom 2.0: Seven Doctrines for Ruling the World,” which took place earlier this year and featured militant Christian nationalists like Doug Wilson and Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers as speakers.
Webbon also hosts a podcast called “Theology Applied,” which he uses to promote his far-right theology, as he did during a recent episode in which he declared that the American people have become such “degenerates” that the Constitution is no longer adequate and therefore they must be governed by a Christian dictator who “just rules with an iron fist.”
Christian nationalist pastor Joel Webbon says Americans are “degenerates” and therefore the Constitution doesn’t work anymore, so this nation needs a Caesar-like dictator who “Constitution be dammed, just rules with an iron fist.” pic.twitter.com/2sDev7ZFy1
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 8, 2024
Last month, Webbon delivered a sermon called “Why Many Christians Don’t Want A Christian Nation,” during which he laid out this theocratic worldview in greater detail, asserting that people are too stupid and cowardly to govern themselves and thus must ruled by a Christian leader who “comes in with a sword” and forces everyone to, at the very least, “pretend to be Christian.”
“The average person is a coward. They are,” Webbon declared. “And the average person is not intelligent. They’re not. And the average person is not a free thinker.”
“Men must be governed,” he continued. “They must. That is absolutely true. Men must be governed. Now, ideally, men would govern themselves … but when you don’t have a populace that is capable of self-governance—when the fruit of the Spirit that is self-control has left the building for decades and nobody seems to have it—then men must be governed. And if they will not govern themselves, then someone else needs to govern them.”
Webbon said that “must be governed” by someone who will “outwardly legislate in accordance with God’s law” and grant “special privileges and favor for his people.” When that happens, Webbon promised, it will influence all the weak, ignorant people in the nation to begin to identify as Christians and “start putting a Christian flag in their bio on social media because they’re not free thinkers, they’re not courageous, they’re not intelligent.”
“They’re men, and men must be governed,” Webbon proclaimed, “and if they must be governed, then our prayer as Christians is that they will be governed in the right direction at least, for the good of the church.”
Earlier in his sermon, Webbon asserted that throughout human history, the proper form of government has always consisted of God appointing “some kind of ruler who is unapologetically Christian and he comes in with a sword and says, ‘I’m sorry, but lawlessness and wickedness will not be tolerated anymore.'”
“He doesn’t go around forcing conversions,” Webbon insisted, “but instead, what he does is he forces external morality. He doesn’t force a change of heart; only the Gospel can do that. But what a king can do is he can say, ‘Whether you’re regenerate or not, you’re going to pretend. You’re at least going to pretend to be Christian.'”
| Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share. |
