Gab founder Andrew Torba’s book is a guide to Christian nationalism.

• Gab founder Andrew Torba’s book was a bestseller on Amazon a week after its release.
• The book outlines the authors’ vision for a Christian nationalist society and how to get there.
• Christian nationalism has been increasingly embraced by conservative and GOP lawmakers.

Gab founder Andrew Torba’s new book serves as a guide to Christian nationalism, marking a recent shift in public acceptance of the idea.

“Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide to Kingdom Taking and Discipleship” by Torba and Andrew Esker, a Minnesota pastor. The self-published short book has been listed as the No. 12 bestseller on Amazon since its release last month. At the time of this writing, it has a 4.7-star rating with 745 reviews.

Christian nationalism can be combined with the general belief that Christianity should have a special place in American society.

Although it is not a new concept, it has become increasingly popular in recent years. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green has openly declared herself a Christian nationalist, peddling merchandise with the exhibit, while Rep. Lauren Bobert supported the “Church rules the state” bill.

“Simply put, Christian nationalism is a cultural framework — a set of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems — that aligns and empowers Christianity with American civic life,” sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry wrote in 2020. Book, “Reclaiming America to God: Christian Nationalism in the United States”. The book examines how Christian nationalism shapes Americans’ views on society and politics.

However, acceptance of an ideology is not black and white but rather a spectrum, with some Americans believing aspects of the ideology while rejecting others. Torba’s book shows this, because his description of Christian nationalism differs somewhat from academic understandings.

But his main theme is consistent: American society and government should be governed by Christian principles and led by Christians.

Building a parallel Christian community

Torba’s platform, Gab, was founded in 2011. The 2018 shooter at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue gained notoriety when he posted anti-Semitic remarks on the site before carrying out the attack, and has been linked to far-right groups. In the year When former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter in 2021, many conservatives flocked to the site.

Torba and Esker write that “Christian nationalism is a spiritual, political, and cultural movement composed of Christians striving to build a Christian community based on a biblical worldview.” King, the general Christian faith as the basis of state government, and state laws reflecting (as far as possible and reasonably) Christian morality and charity.

Such thoughts are on the same level as the common understanding of Christian nationalism. However, the book emphasizes that Christian nationalists do not consider the United States to have a special relationship with God, but rather the Christian’s mandate to disciple or convert people of all nations.

The book describes the moral decline of modern American society, where God has been rejected and Satan’s agents have invaded “every aspect of our country and culture.” The book says that our society is a society that has “half a century of legalized infant life” and a “month-long celebration of homosexuality” every year, rejecting abortion rights and gay pride. The authors also defend traditional gender roles and strongly reject transgender people.

These themes come up again and again in the book, which teaches American Christians how to live, discuss their faith, and convert others. But instead of seeking to convert society to Christianity, the book advocates the establishment of a parallel Christian society to take over when our current society collapses, which the authors say is inevitable.

“Our primary goal is to build a parallel Christian society, economy and infrastructure that will fill the void when the secular state collapses,” the authors write. The concept is not new to Torba, who often discusses his plans for a Christian economy.

Non-Christians are free to stay – but not serve in leadership roles.

The actual Christian country described in the book may include some non-Christians, the authors write. But at another point they say, “We are Christians and our worldview is in direct conflict and a threat to all other false worldviews. It’s time to start acting like it.”

In addition, he wrote that Christian principles should guide the entire life of the society, the government and the home, and that leaders and influential people should be Christians.

Torba – who has been accused of anti-Semitism, including by the Anti-Defamation League – and his co-author devote an entire chapter to the rejection of shared “Judeo-Christian” values, calling the term itself problematic. The chapter begins with a message to journalists who assume “CTRL+F” for “Jew” to “take out of context” quotes, and is dedicated to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and conservative commentator Ben Shapiro. Both Jews.

Torba Shapiro has already said that – just like any non-Christian, Jewish people, atheists or agnostics – is not accepted in the Christian movement.

The authors go on to describe Christianity and Judaism as “irreconcilable” and “irreconcilable” religions, but write that the Jewish people will and will convert to Christianity along with the rest of the world.

“Far from being ‘anti-Semitic’, getting this right shows a genuine concern for their souls!” “Christians should pray often for the Jewish people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,” he wrote.

Public acceptance of a certain forbidden concept

These ideas are not new to Christian nationalist scholars and Christian nationalists themselves. However, separation of church and state remains a widely accepted and mainstream view in the US.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty, said many of the ideologies now proudly espoused by Christian nationalists were less common in mainstream politics than they have been in recent years.

“It’s always been there, but it’s different and troubling that they’re openly accepting the label,” Tyler, a leading organizer of the Christian Nationalism Campaign, told Insider. can

Perry, one of the authors of “Taking America Back for God” by A Twitter Torba’s book and another recently released title, Christian Nationalism, include the title.

“We are now certainly well past the ‘no Christian nationalism’ and the ‘frame Christian nationalism’ arguments entirely to the ‘Christian nationalism is the only way forward’ arguments.”