From the Department of Far From God:

Townhall columnist and “pastor“ of “Clash Church“ (no relation to Joe Strummer and the boys), Doug Giles recently penned a missive to the flock he is attempting to gather.  In “Dirty Harry Goes To Church,“  Giles wonders aloud, while describing the visit of Detective Harry Callahan to an “effeminized church” :

There has got to be a church where a man doesn’t have to sacrifice his masculinity in order to be a believer. 

Last week, in “Do You Have A Pit Bull Attitude?“  Giles described the ideal Christian leader:

God intended His believers—especially Christian leaders—to be spiritual warriors, to be pit bulls who smash demonic strongholds, stand for truth and bring life, light and healing to this great planet.

And his Church?  Read on:  

For men, we embrace a masculine spirituality.  We believe God created men to be men without apology.  We believe that Biblical masculinity is necessary for the church to be the overcoming organism God intends for it to be.  Therefore, we avoid the feminization of men and the spiritual emasculation of God’s rowdy warriors that usually accompanies most evangelical churches.  

We are Clash Christian Church.

Mr. Giles' words echo those of other right-wing Christians, the so-called “Deutschen Christen“ or “German Christians” who emerged from the early days of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany:

The “German Christians“ described their creed thusly:

“Christian faith is a heroic, manly thing.  God speaks in blood and Volk a more powerful language than He does in the idea of humanity.“

Like Mr. Giles, they were political--see this description of a church election from Victoria Barnett's For The Soul of The People:

Church elections were planned to be held in all regional churches on July 23, 1933 to elect delegates to a national synod that would officially elect a new Reich Bishop.  In a few regional churches, the Young Reformation Movement, an opposition group, placed its candidate on the ballot; but in many regions, the lists of candidates were almost exclusively “German Christian.”  The Nazi party open supported the “German Christians.”  Three days before the elections, party chief Rudolf Hess ordered all party members to get their names on the elections lists in their parishes, reminding them that “participation in the election is mandatory.“  On election eve, Hitler himself openly supported the “German Christians“ in a nationally broadcast radio speech.  Church members entering their churches to vote were confronted by rows of SA members wearing sandwich boards carrying the names of the “German Christian“ candidates.  Nationally, the “German Christians“ won two-thirds of the vote, giving them the majority in regional synods throughout Germany. . .

Protestant outrage reached its peak after the national “German Christian“ rally, held at the Berlin Sportspalast on November 13, 1933.  A series of speakers called for the removal of all pastors unsympathetic to National Socialism, the formation of a separate church for Christians of Jewish descent, and for implementation of the “Aryan paragraph“ and the removal of the Old Testament from the Bible.

If seeing these passages next to Mr. Giles' lines isn't enough to chill your veins to ice, then think this over:  Look to see the ideological cohesiveness of the Church corrupted by those who see it as a popular vehicle for their own purposes.  In such a situation, there will be a free-wheeling adoption of Christ's name to any number of causes, including political movements of all kinds.

These times present great dangers to lovers of freedom.  That is why we must fight with everything we have now.  We can and will be triumphant, but vigilance, wisdom and strength will be needed.