In a 1970 letter to Angela Davis, James Baldwin observed how Americans measure safety in “chains and corpses.” In the same letter, Baldwin wrote of the militant who implement deplorable, obscene, mock-systems of justice while singing the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

He added, “The nation, if America is a nation, is not in the least prepared for this day. It is a day which the Americans never expected to see, however piously they may declare their belief in progress and democracy. Those words, now, on American lips, have become a kind of universal obscenity: for this most unhappy people, strong believers in arithmetic, never expected to be confronted with the algebra of their history.” 

Andrew Krinks, whose work introduced me to the Baldwin quotes above describes this “salvation” rooted in “chains and corpses” as a religion. It’s “ministers” are necro-priests whose vocation is to ensure bodies and lives are sacrificed to appease the insatiable appetite of people entrenched in a sadomasochist relationship with themselves, their communities, and their gods. The religion is absolutely committed to never seeking mercy, justice, or humility. Rather, it is always hunting for its next sacrifice. 

What makes it especially insidious is how it postures itself as a beacon of hope for the people it treads upon. Consider this critique from a French philosopher Régis Debray:

“You served the Roman Emperors; you served the feudal Lords; you served the absolute monarchs; you served the triumphant bourgeoisie. You have always (though not without subtle maneuvers to show your independence and superiority) been on the side of the strongest, and you have made yourselves even stronger than they by your pretense of defending the weak.” 

The poor are a talking point that satisfy those who measure salvation in chains and corpses. The governors, CEO pastors and cabinet heads are necro-priests who seek to steal, kill, and destroy as they prowl like a roaring lions. And to borrow a phrase from the band Counting Crows, they “talk just like lions, but sacrifice like lambs.” 

Last week, I heard a story of a mega-church pastor/CEO who gives an annual award to the staff member who most offered themselves as a sacrifice for the previous year called a Rammy. Since I live in Nashville, and a good fraction of folks who find themselves in the Spiritual Warfare Military Industrial Complex were at some point aspiring musicians, the Rammy is a nice little play on Grammy. 

This particular sacrificial award’s name also comes from the story of Abraham being willing to offer his own son as a sacrifice to appease the demands of a sky god, but being met with a lamb in a thicket being provided instead. A sermon from this particular CEO included a detail about God always providing a sacrifice from the community.

A wealthy businessman who was also an avid hunter was so inspired by the message he killed himself a ram and brought it back to the CEO after it was skinned, cleansed, and preserved by a taxidermist. I’m told the ram “lives” mounted in the office of the CEO and the annual award is a kind of little, unlucky ram substitute. 

The surname “Ramos” comes from a root meaning “brush, bushes, or thicket.” It is commonly thought of in connection to the Genesis 22 story of a ram being caught in a thicket. Five-five-year-old Liam Ramos has spent this week in a detention facility in Texas after being captured in an ICE raid at his elementary school in Minnesota. 

In the Rammy ethos, children like Liam are considered to be the rams caught in the thicket that the necro-god has provided for the sacrifice. It completely misses any sane interpretation of the Genesis event which is that God doesn’t require child sacrifice. In fact, to trust Jesus is to believe the way, the truth, and the life is to desire mercy and not sacrifice. 

The governor of Tennessee worships at the Rammy church. His name is Bill Lee and has got to be a frontrunner for Trump’s version of a Rammy, as he is also familiar with fleecing the people he pledged to serve. Inviting federal agents into Memphis to give the talking heads a sentence or two about law and order in a blue part of a red state is one of his offerings.

Lee has also rejected millions of dollars of federal funding for programs like HIV research and healthcare because he doesn’t want federal funds to get in the way of our state’s progress. A member of his staff once told me the funds were rejected because “there were strings attached.”

Currently, he and his regime are inviting folks like Steven Miller and Elon Musk into the state to build Tesla tunnels and for-profit prison complexes. I’m sure there are no strings attached. 

Necro-priests like these men claim to be charitable by sending their missionaries into prisons without lifting a finger to change the systematic theology that measures salvation in chains and corpses.

I could go on and on and on about how this movement sacrifices people in order to keep marching to the beat of its death drum. Take a look at other potential 2026 White House Rammy winners. Kristi Noem, Greg Bovino, Steven Miller, Marco Rubio, and Joy Deficient Vance, They’re all in contention and they’re all sitting around their idol asking if he needs their sacrifice while praying it’s the weaker lamb across the table that gets offered first. 

I can’t stress this next part enough. This sacrificial system of chain and corpse death cults will never be more suspicious of you than when you begin to question the need for anyone to be scapegoated—which is ultimately what got Jesus killed. 

I’ve been part of private Christian schools as a teacher, coach, and student—including the one where Bill Lee sent his kids—and I’ve never been involved with one that hasn’t told a senior girl who was pregnant that she couldn’t walk in her graduation ceremony. This is by men who overwhelmingly support Donald Trump and his band of infidelity. 

It’s not a councidence Alex Pretti was killed immediately after stepping in between the principalities of insecure men with guns and a woman. There are sacrifices Baal demands. Join or be sacrificed. People like Renee Good and Alex Pretti don’t show up to the ICE revivals in order to catch rams, but to prevent the next killing. 

Here’s a quick litmus test for our gods, our country, and our soul. Are we worshiping a bloodthirsty deity whose armed ministers prowl like a roaring lion seeking to devour those deemed unworthy of belonging? Does that make us feel safe, saved, secure? Does it make our soul feel pure? 

If it does, we are more appropriately served by a taxidermist than the resurrected Christ who has defeated death by never—not once—looking for a scapegoat.