“Joshua
fit the battle of Jericho
Jericho, Jericho
Joshua fit the
battle of Jericho
And the walls came tumblin' down “
– well-known African-American spiritual
What walls? What battle? The lyrics allude to the biblical story of the Battle of Jericho, in which Joshua led the Israelites against Canaan (Joshua 6:15-21). The song tells how Joshua captured the city of Jericho when he ordered the Israelites to blow trumpets until the walls fell down.
“When the trumpets sounded, the army shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the men gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed; so everyone charged straight in, and they took the city. They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it – men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.”
– Joshua 20-21
The origin of this well-known African American spiritual is lost to time, but it was probably composed on the fly by a slave or slaves working on a plantation in the antebellum Deep South. It is almost as if the creators of this song were saying, “If Joshua could achieve victory over evil through the blowing of trumpets, then we can ultimately achieve victory over evil (slavery) through the singing of our songs!”
On December 12, 2020, people of “faith” for Donald Trump held the “Jericho March” and “Stop the Steal” protest on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The websites promoting the event (#JERICHOMARCH and #STOPTHESTEAL) read …
“This Election
Jericho March™ (Yep, it's trademarked.) will culminate in a massive
national peaceful prayer rally protest in Washington, D.C. on Dec.
12, 2020 called 'Let the Church ROAR!' where we will march around the
U.S. Capitol seven times to send a very clear message to national and
state leaders as they hear patriots and people of faith roar in
support of election integrity, transparency, and reform.
“The
mission of Jericho March™ is to call upon people of faith to
prayer, fasting, and peaceful protest in the service of God, and in
defense of life, liberty, and justice. (This included a ink to
purchase your own shofar” – “Shofar, So Great, made in Israel”
– a percentage of the profits will be contributed to
JerichoMarch.org )
The participants in the Jericho March believe in a “multi-layered, multi-dimensional” conspiracy involving hundreds of people in several states, rejected by almost every court. And Trump is the center of their belief system. He is, to his religious followers, a male, patriarchal figure who cannot be questioned and must be obeyed.
These true believers of Trump believe their mandate to change the result of the election is from God himself. In a total suspension of judgment, they cut through American culture and our democratic institutions.
As Andrew Sullivan – political commentator, former editor of The New Republic, and writer of the blog “The Daily Dish” reports …
“And if God Almighty calls for the overturning of a democratic election by force or violence? Then let the walls of Jericho come tumbling down.”
During the Jericho March, the leaders of the event – conservative Christians, including quite a few Catholics and one actual bishop – insisted that God told them there was some mistake and Trump was the real winner. They gave speeches, tooted on shofars, prayed, testified to having holy visions, and even danced to “YMCA” and James Brown's “Living In America.”
One pastor onstage compared Trump supporters to Israelites about to cross the Red Sea. Mark Burns, a televangelist and longtime Trump supporter, railed against “Marxists” and “demons.”
“These are our devils. And we will kill them now,” Burns shouted, thrusting his shofar up in the air.
So, there was even some kind of exorcism or “deliverance prayer” delivered by Fr. Greg Bramlage, a Catholic priest. He “rendered all evil spirits and demons impotent and paralyzed” in the U.S. or somewhere “in 5,000 miles in all directions.”
Stuart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia group made up of police officers and veterans, also took the stage. Wearing a black cowboy hat, Rhodes suggested Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, which enables the president to deploy the military and National Guard to repress civilians.
“If [Trump] does not do it now while he is commander-in-chief, we will have to do so later in a much more desperate, much more bloody war,” Rhodes added.
Trump's first national security adviser Michael Flynn, whom the president pardoned after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador, key-noted the event.
"We're in a spiritual battle for the heart and soul of this country," Flynn told those gathered. "We will win."
And, straight out from the heavens, Trump, their anointed leader, flew over the crowd aboard Marine One, looking down on his loyal supporters protesting the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit aiming to overturn the results of the election.
Trump touted the demonstrations in a tweet, saying "thousands" were gathering in D.C. to march in support of his efforts to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory. He said he didn't even know the Jericho March was taking place. Huh?
(Will Sommer. “Trump Flies Over D.C. Protesters Shouting ‘Destroy the GOP.'” Daily Beast. December 12, 2020.)
Elements of this bizarre Christian movement vow to support Trump “do or die.” You think now? Remember on its official twitter account, the Arizona Republican Party made a call to arms and asked supporters if they’re ready to fight to the death in support of President Donald Trump’s doomed attempts to cling on to the presidency (December 8).
Andrew Sullivan sees the entire movement as a fundamentalist invasion of party, church and state …
“In a manner very hard to understand from the outside, American evangelical Christianity has both deepened its fusion of church and state in the last few years, and incorporated Donald Trump into its sacred schematic. Christianists now believe that Trump has been selected by God to save them from persecution and the republic from collapse. They are not in denial about Trump’s personal iniquities, but they see them as perfectly consistent with God’s use of terribly flawed human beings, throughout the Old Testament and the New, to bring about the Kingdom of Heaven.
“This belief is now held with the same, unwavering fundamentalist certainty as a Biblical text. And white evangelical Christianists are the most critical constituency in Republican politics. If you ask yourself how on earth so many people have become convinced that the 2020 election was rigged, with no solid evidence, and are now prepared to tear the country apart to overturn an election result, you’ve got to take this into account.
“This faction, fused with Trump, is the heart and soul of the GOP. You have no future in Republican politics if you cross them. That’s why 19 Republican attorneys general, Ted Cruz, and now 106 Congressional Republicans have backed a bonkers lawsuit to try to get the Supreme Court to overturn the result.
“Biden’s victory was not God’s will. Therefore it couldn’t have happened. That’s the core conviction. That no court and no judge, including conservative ones, can find any evidence for it in over 50 lawsuits does not matter. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. 'Who cares what I can prove in the courts? This is right. This happened,' declared influential evangelical Eric Metaxas this week, asserting Trump’s victory as a metaphysical truth.”
(Andrew Sullivan. “Christianism And Our Democracy.” The Weekly Dish. December 11, 2020.)
The “heart and soul” of the GOP also brought – intentionally or through indifferent complicity – other, more physically threatening groups with them to the Jericho March. The Proud Boys with their violent resistance took their place with the movement in a dark and unholy alliance – an alliance endorsed by Donald Trump.
At the event on December 12, Jericho organizer and evangelical broadcaster Eric Metaxas told the crowd:
“When God gives you a vision, you don’t need to know anything else”
Rod Dreher, senior editor at The American Conservative, said this of Metaxas's visionary comment …
“It’s one thing to claim that God told you to change churches, or something like that. It’s another thing to claim, especially if you have a national microphone, that God told you that the election was stolen, and that people need to prepare themselves to fight to the last drop of blood – an actual quote – to keep the libs from taking the presidency away from Trump.”
(Rod Dreher. “What I Saw At The Jericho March.” The American Conservative. December 12, 2020.)
When Joshua “fit the battle of Jericho,” he “destroyed every living thing in the city.” He did so when God told him to do it in order to “devote” to destruction the wicked Canaanites in the Promised Land, Joshua trusted that God had a plan, and that if he followed it, it would turn out well for him and his people.
What plans do Trump evangelicals follow? Why would they threaten American democracy and the rule of law? Trump is not the “chosen one.” He does not, as some supporters believe, “wear the full armor of God.” Instead, he uses religion to accomplish his own personal goals of domination and power. The deep corruption seems to be condoned by Christians as an extension of support of abortion and Second Amendment rights.
Protestant minister and political activist William Barber II says he is troubled anytime he sees Christianity used “to justify the injustice, deception, violence and oppression that God hates.” According to Barber, the distorted moral narrative so-called Evangelicals for Trump have embraced is contrary to God’s politics, which have nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican. But, Barber says, “This misuse of religion is not new. It has a long history in the American story.” He explains …
“Misuse of religion is an American tradition. Colonists who cheated Native Americans out of land and forced enslaved Africans to build a new nation worshiped a God whose demand for justice troubled their conscience.
“'I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just,' Thomas Jefferson wrote, acknowledging the basic moral contradiction between the principle of liberty he had appealed to in the Declaration of Independence and the practice of bondage that his plantation and the economy surrounding it depended upon. This conflict did not only exist within Jefferson’s soul. It divided every major denomination of the American church in the 19th century.”
(William Barber. “Evangelicals using religion for political gain is nothing new. It is a US tradition.” The Guardian. January 8, 2020.)
Kill the demons, exorcisms to hell, visions from God, bloody wars in the name of Jesus – all of this allusion makes me wonder “what walls” need to tumble? I don't know the entire story of the actions of Joshua at Jericho; however, I do know Donald Trump claims an exclusionary view of whom he considers can be American and who can lay claim to the rights and privileges of citizenship.
Trump's remarks and actions suggest that “real Americans” are precisely two things: white and Christian. He continues to build barriers – walls – that divide. And now Trump gathers his faithful to employ religion in a futile, misguided effort to overturn the election.
And, for the benefit of Christians everywhere in these divisive times, here is another Bible verse to keep in mind …
“For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.”
– Mark 13:22, King James
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