Evangelicals believe that God gave them dominion over the Earth and all its inhabitants. Progressive Christians will suggest that “dominion” actually means stewardship; that Christians are to care for and protect the natural world. Evangelicals — with a few noteworthy exceptions — ain’t having none of that. No sir, God gave them control of the Earth and they are free to do whatever they want with it. This, by the way, is the theology driving men such as Secretary of Illegal Wars Pete Hegseth, to do unspeakable things in the name God, freedom, and manifest destiny. Left to their own devices, the Pete Hegseths of the world will burn everything down because they can, all the while praising Jesus for giving them the “victory.”
If there is one thing Americans do well it is this: we kill anyone or anything that gets in the way of our personal, religious, or political fulfillment. Currently, U.S. military forces are bombing the hell out of Iran, slaughtering countless civilians, including 175 children at a school. Our Liar-in-Chief, Donald Trump suggested that the Iranians got a hold of one of our Tomahawk missiles and used it to kill their own children. Typical Trump. Always blame someone else. Name the last time Trump stood before the American people and confessed that he made a mistake or he acted without understanding a matter? Never, that I know of. Kristi Noem did what Trump wanted, yet because she embarrassed him in testimony before Congress, he fired her. Trump never complained when Noem’s storm troopers beat and killed scores of American citizens and peaceable, family-loving undocumented immigrants. Why would he? Of late, Trump has uttered murderous, violent threats against the leaders of countries such as Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Columbia, causing war mongers such as Senator Lindsay Graham to repeatedly cream their pants. (Link provided for Fundamentalist Christians who are euphemism-challenged and think they need to buy coffee creamer to put in their pants.) All of this traces back to dominionism: the establishment of a Christian kingdom on earth by exercising control over every aspect of society. It should surprise no one that Pete Hegseth is a devotee of Doug Wilson, a Fundamentalist reformed pastor in Moscow, Idaho. Wilson has long been a theocrat, with a nasty Calvinistic bent.
Who is primarily behind attempts to rollback advances made on the climate change front? Evangelical Christians. Who gives a shit about climate change? Evangelicals say. The rapture is imminent! Why build out wind and solar infrastructure when Jesus is fixing to come to Earth to remove all Christians before he destroys the environment and every living thing in it. (See what God has in store for us in the book of Revelation. God is one sick puppy.) Why worry about the environment when God will soon set the Earth on fire? This sort of thinking drives Evangelical indifference towards the plight on immigrants and the poor. Jesus — the God of erectile dysfunction — is coming again soon, so all that matters is getting saved. Oh, Evangelicals will give lip service to ministering to “the least of these,” but don’t be deceived by their superficial acts of charity. Their goal is to get fat on preaching, Bible study, and praise and worship music as they wait in their megachurch bunkers for the second coming of their lover, friend, and car key finder. Yes, there are exceptions, but all exceptions do is what, class? Prove the rule.
If you happen to be an Evangelical preacher who wants to challenge my claims about how churches minister to “the least of these,” please send me a copy of your FULL church budget and income/expense statement. I want to run the numbers and see how much your church really cares for people outside of the four walls of your building. Not the summary budget you use to hide how money is really spent. I want to see the complete, in-depth budget. I first made this challenge over a decade ago. So far, not one pastor/church has provided these documents (which should be readily available, but are often hidden from prying eyes). Why? They know that I am not an outsider. I know how things really work behind the scenes. Further, having a business background helps me to quickly see through the bullshit church leaders often peddle to obfuscate how money is really being spent.
Thirty years ago, I was the co-pastor of Community Baptist Church in Elmendorf, Texas. One of the first conflicts I had with my fellow pastor was over the church budget. I asked, “Why don’t we provide complete financials to church members?” My co-pastor replied, “How much do they really need to know?” With raised voice, I said, “EVERYTHING!” I won this battle, but I suspect my colleague didn’t like having to be accountable for how he and his fellow elders spent money. Sadly, this kind of thinking is all too common.
Bruce, I thought this post was about moles. It is, as I shall now make clear. I live in rural northwest Ohio, the land of God, guns, and Trump. Seven out of ten local voters voted for Trump three straight times. I give them a pass on their first Trump vote, thinking they were ill-informed about our Fascist-in-Chief’s beliefs and lifestyle. Many of them convinced themselves that Trump was a “baby Christian” — a phrase coined by James Dobson. However, I refuse to give them a pass on the 2020 and 2024 elections. They knew better, but they voted for Trump anyway.
Evangelicalism dominates rural America, and that’s certainly the case in northwest Ohio. And with Evangelicalism comes the belief that God gave them dominion over the Earth and all its inhabitants. If one of those non-human inhabitants gets in the way of Evangelicals controlling and dominating the natural world, the solution is to kill them.
I read several local groups on Facebook. These groups are largely filled with gossip, questions about what time this or that business opens, or rants about local government. I find these groups quite entraining, though it troubles me that I live around so many ignorant people. One such discussion had to do with moles.
For readers who are unfamiliar with moles:
Moles are small, subterranean mammals. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.
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Moles may be viewed as pests to gardeners, but they provide positive contributions to soil, gardens, and ecosystems, including soil aeration, feeding on slugs and small creatures that eat plant roots, and providing prey for other wildlife. They eat earthworms and other small invertebrates in the soil.
I find moles to be fascinating creatures. “But, Bruce, moles make trenches and holes in my pristine, dandelion-free yard.” And your point is what, exactly? Evangelical dominionists say, “Die, mole, Die! How dare you mess up my weed-free, chemical-laden, perfectly green yard!” This is why the mole discussion featured ways to effectively kill moles:
- Put moth balls down their burrows
- Dump grub poison down their burrows, killing a primary food source for moles
- Pump propane into the tunnels and set it on fire
- Dump anhydrous ammonia (a dangerous fertilizer) down the tunnels
- Flood the burrows with water, drowning the moles
- Find the moles and kill them with a spade
This is what Evangelical dominionism looks like, stripped of all of its flowery theological verbiage. Kill anything that gets in your way, be they moles, ground hogs, raccoons, stray cats, or Iranian school children. Why? Because God told them they could.
I wanted to leave a comment on the mole discussion, but since I was using my partner’s Facebook account, I refrained from doing so. I wanted to say, “What the fuck is wrong with you people? How about leaving the moles alone? They have a right to live too. They aren’t hurting anyone.”
As long as dominionism infects the collective American mind, we will continue to rape the land in the name of freedom and kill anything that gets in the way of fulfilling our wants and whims. And that includes killing people in faraway lands all because their political, religious, and social systems are different from those of God’s chosen people — white Christian Americans. The goal is nothing short of the domination of every corner of the world, from the heights of outer space to the depths of the seas. What makes this thinking so dangerous in this present world is that Evangelical dominionists now control the U.S. government. Their magnum opus? Project 2025; which Evangelicals in the Trump administrations are feverishly trying to implement before we run the whole lot of them out of office.
It may seem that “moles” are a silly subject for me to write about, but as a pacifist and animal lover, I think ALL life is important, even moles. This post is also a metaphor for what Evangelical dominionists plan to do to usher in the iron-fisted rule of Jesus on earth. Get in their way and they will metaphorically chop off your head with a Bible spade.
Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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