The epiphanies of January 6, 2021

There was a premeditated coup to overturn American democracy. Religious support for the Republican Party's continuing coup is premeditated heresy.

In newly released footage filmed by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, the House Speaker is filmed speaking to the Democratic caucus on January 6. She notes that it is the Feast of the Epiphany, when the wise men visit the newborn Jesus. She asks Democrats to pray that the American people, including Republicans, may have an epiphany that day about the oaths politicians take to abide by the peaceful transfer of power.

As it turns out, we did have an epiphany on that day, though probably not the type that Pelosi expected. But our eyes are open now. We know the task before us. Do we have the courage to protect our integrity, our country and our democracy? I pray we do. 

The work of the January 6 congressional committee has provided additional revelations. The committee's hearings, which ended Thursday, have clearly proved that Donald Trump attempted a coup on the United States government to stay in power after he was voted out of office. 

Several direct quotes from Trump emerged in yesterday’s proceeding, in which he privately and angrily acknowledged that he lost the election, including, “I don’t want people to know that we lost.” That is a totalitarian strategy, as Trump and his supporters have lied about the election ever since. And Donald Trump has been lying his whole life. 

After Biden’s win, Trump did everything he could to deny, block and obstruct the peaceful transfer of power, including the use of violence. The transfer of governance, which every other President from every other party has accepted and affirmed, is at the core of our democracy. Trump’s methods to overturn democracy were first legal, then extra-legal, then corrupt and coercive at the state level, then the attempted manipulation of the congressional process of certification and – when all else failed – resorting to political violence that he incited and hoped would succeed. And the committee’s evidence shows that Trump deliberately failed to stop the violence at the Capitol when nobody else could – as law enforcement officers were being attacked and the lives of the nation’s political leaders being threatened.

Trump knew his crowd was armed, as the committee’s investigation has shown. But he still asked that his supporters – with their weapons – be allowed to pass through the security systems. Using violence to disrupt the process of presidential certification, they hoped to create chaos, after which Trump would declare martial law.

Nancy Pelosi’s daughter is a filmmaker, and happened to be with her mother at the Capitol on January 6, as the violent crowd was screaming, “Bring her out!” The stunning footage we saw Thursday followed the Speaker of the House during the insurrection and, in one extraordinary scene, intently calling governors and other officials pleading for the National Guard and other law enforcement to come to protect people’s lives at the Capitol. 

“Unbelievable” was the word Nancy Pelosi used while seeing the crowd led by the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers breaking windows and doors and attacking the Capitol police as they stormed the Capitol.

We saw Pelosi surrounded by the Congressional leaders of both parties, who were taking shelter together, as she tried to protect the Capitol. One of those leaders who we can clearly see was Rep. Steve Scalise, the Minority Whip for the Republicans, who later lied by saying Pelosi had never called the National Guard. Turns out, Scalise was in the room watching and listening to her make the calls on speaker phones. Again, such absolute lying, which has always been the tactic of autocrats, has become the regular habit of the Republican Party. 

Trump’s coup is not over.

The enormously effective Jan 6 committee has revealed the next coup but has not been able to stop it. The new President Joe Biden and the Democrats have not been able to stop it. The Department of Justice has yet to stop it. And, most dangerously, the Republican Party has taken up the Trump Coup, an unprecedented move for an American political party. A whole political party is campaigning on the Big Lie that Trump tells about the 2020 election being stolen, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Evidence doesn’t count anymore, another characteristic of totalitarian politics. They have put “election deniers” into critical roles as election workers for this next election and beyond. They are training what they call “challengers” and “interrogators” to intimidate and seek to block the votes of American citizens in the upcoming midterm elections. And they admit that their challenges will be only focused on polling places where Black and brown Americans vote.

This indeed a coup, a racist coup, based on obstructing the votes of people of color by making it harder for Black and brown voters to cast their ballots, and then refusing to count as many of their votes as possible. Voter suppression is a Republican way of life.This is also a fascist coup, not based on legitimately competing political philosophies, but by gaining power by any means necessary. In reality, this is a racialized fascist coup designed to preserve white minority rule. And this race-based facism, based on the old ideology of white supremacy, has a religious component in support of it which is an old heresy called White Christian Nationalism, an anti-biblical doctrine and grievous sin. 

Because White Christian Nationalism is a false gospel, it is drawing mostly white Christians away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Just as racialized autocracies throughout history have abused religion as a tool for their power, maga/mega churches are offering a captive and compliant church for this movement toward an American white nationalism. The evangelical pastors who  proclaim the false gospel of WCN are preaching a false faith and should be denounced as heretics. Just as the Nazism of the 1930’s needed the compliance of the German church, the racial fascists seeking power in America are needing the support of the White Christian Nationalists. And just as the German church were likely the only ones who could have stopped the rise of Hitler, it could be our churches who could stop the rise of this authoritarian movement – and a growing number of multi-racial Christians intend to do that. The Confessing Church in Germany, led by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and others, failed to stop Hitler, but has continued to inspire and inform us in what we can and must do in such situations. I am making that comparison because while history doesn’t repeat; it often does rhyme.  

A compelling moment for me in the hearings yesterday was when Nancy Pelosi was filmed talking on the phone with Vice President Pence, who was hiding in a Capitol parking garage discussing how to resume the process of certifying the election of President Biden. That was the kind of bi-partisan commitment to the peaceful transfer of power that the country is used to and which Trump has destroyed. More than that, this was two politicians who likely agree on very little – both targets of an angry mob – demonstrating a shared commitment to the peaceful transfer of power and a concern for each other’s safety and well-being.  

As committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin has said, the words of Mike Pence saying to the Secret Service, “I am not getting into that car,” were perhaps the most chilling to be revealed by the Jan 6 committee hearings. Pence seemed to worry that taking him away from the Capitol was part of the plan, perhaps with the help of Trump’s Secret Service, to prevent the final certification of the new President. The role of Secret Service agents during the Trump administration and during the insurrection requires further investigation. 

Roger Stone, a close advisor to Trump, said in footage revealed by the Jan 6 committee, that “the key is to declare victory no matter what happens.” Another Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, also said that whether Trump won or lost, he would claim victory to distract, disrupt, and overwhelm the process. Asked to answer for their words by the Jan 6 committee, Stone plead the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination and Bannon refused to testify.

The Trump coup is not over. It is racial and totalitarian, and supported by a major American political party. The Republican Party has been overtaken by a power hungry demagogue whose cult of personality has awakened the worst demons in America and threatens the future of democracy in our country. And  a rising evangelical maga/mega church movement is proclaiming an idolatry called White Christian Nationalism in support of the continuing racial coup. 

Every movement for justice must decide who is persuadable and who must be defeated. We want to win back the freedom of those who have lost the truth that Jesus says can make us free, and who have unwittingly supported Trump and his coup. But we must and will defeat a racialized Republican Party and the false prophets of White Christian Nationalism.

The time for the battle for the Soul of the Nation is now on. We would benefit from more hearings for more truths to be told. The Secret Service, at least, must be investigated. And we must work for the resistance to the grievous sin and heresy of White Christian Nationalism to deepen and grow. And let us all pray that we can pass this test of both democracy and the integrity of the church.