The Fake & Fraudulent Prophets Around the President
September 4, 2026 |
Daniel Henderson
Once upon a time, the Bible was dangerous. It got people killed—not for reading it, but for living it. Prophets lost their heads. Disciples were hunted. Jesus got crucified by the state for disrupting the status quo. That’s not exactly the kind of scripture that makes for great patriotic wallpaper, which is why the empire had to fix it.
And fix it, they did.
Because nothing says “God Bless Our Agenda” like selectively quoting a few verses, slapping them on a bumper sticker, and calling it gospel. We’ve reached a moment where the Bible is less about liberation and more about legislation. Less Jesus flipping tables, more Jesus endorsing your foreign policy. Faith, once a fire in the bones, is now a branding strategy for the empire.
Take any national tragedy or power grab, and just wait. A politician will rise, Bible in hand, to moralize it all. War? Romans 13. Border walls? Nehemiah. Corporate greed? Proverbs and “personal responsibility.” Mass shootings? “Thoughts and prayers” and a sermon on sin. But never systemic sin. Never greed, corruption, or nationalism. Those aren’t sins, apparently—they’re just capitalism’s baptism.
The same text that once inspired slaves to escape and prophets to rage against kings is now used to defend tax breaks and militarized borders.
Jesus didn’t get killed for being polite. He got executed because he called out hypocrisy, confronted religious power, and told the empire it had no clothes. But now, Jesus has been scrubbed clean, had a flag draped over his shoulders, and is forced to smile through every culture war press release.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The rot set in early. Once Constantine co-opted Christianity and made it Rome’s official religion, it was game over for the revolutionary Jesus. We traded sandals for scepters. Baptism became a civic ritual, not a death to empire. And over time, the Bible morphed from resistance literature into an HR manual for Caesar.
The Sermon on the Mount doesn’t work well as wartime morale. So we swap it for cherry-picked verses and wrap it in red, white, and blue.
This isn’t unique to America—but damn, we’ve perfected it. American Christianity is so fused with nationalism it’s practically a denomination. You’re not following Jesus unless you’re also pledging allegiance to power, praying for CEOs, and clutching a gun. Anything less is “woke.”
Throughout history, the Bible’s been drafted into every imperial cause that needed moral cover. Manifest Destiny? God’s will. Slavery? Biblical. Segregation? Of course. The War on Terror? Jesus and George Bush walk into a bar…
MAGA churches today are just the latest update in this tragic tradition. They claim to love the Bible, but what they really love is control. The Bible is just their favorite hammer.
If Jesus walked into most churches today, they’d arrest him as an undocumented socialist who gives free healthcare.
January 6 didn’t happen in spite of the Bible. It happened because a bastardized version of it was weaponized in the service of white Christian nationalism. That wasn’t faith storming the Capitol—it was a Bible cosplaying as power.
The Bible, in its raw form, is a threat to empire. That’s why we neuter it. That’s why modern churches read Paul like he’s middle management and skip the minor prophets entirely. Amos wasn’t asking for donations—he was threatening the whole system. Micah wasn’t worried about your language—he wanted justice. Jeremiah didn’t post devotionals—he wept for a corrupt nation pretending it was still chosen.
But today’s church doesn’t want prophets. It wants influencers.
Prophets called out kings. Now pastors want to be one.
If your Bible isn’t making powerful people uncomfortable, you’re not reading it right. And if your church is always cozy with the culture’s winners, it’s no longer a church—it’s a PR firm for empire.
Faith was never meant to be safe. It was never supposed to make the rich richer or the violent feel justified. It was meant to disrupt. To confront. To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But when the Bible is edited for empire, it becomes a weapon—not of grace, but of conformity.
It doesn’t have to stay that way.
There’s still a prophetic spark in scripture if you’re willing to let it burn. There’s still liberation in the teachings of Jesus—if you dare to follow him instead of just quoting him. And there’s still hope, not in reclaiming power, but in rejecting the idolatry of it.
You want to read the Bible right? Start by asking who benefits from your interpretation.
Because if the answer is always you, your party, your pocketbook, or your power structure—then you’re not reading the gospel. You’re just selling state-sanctioned scripture with a Jesus sticker slapped on it.
