Titled “The Sermon the Church Needed,” an online video about the Christian Nationalist “God Bless the USA Bible” — a Trump-inspired King James Bible including the U.S. Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance and the Bill of Rights — is a viral warning about not mixing politics and religion. Still popular nearly a year after it appeared, the video depicts Senior Pastor Loran Livingston warning his congregation — the Central Church of Charlotte, North Carolina — that this politicized Bible is far worse than the fundraising grift for which it was published.
In the videoed sermon blasting the Bible as “disgusting” and “blasphemous” despite its welcome reception by many Christians, Livingston proclaims, “It’s a ploy! Are you kidding me? Some of you are so encouraged by that?” Taking aim at gullible believers, he insists, “People who don’t read and pray will get politics mixed up with the church. Some of you bring politics into the church. You think that politics is spiritual stuff. No!”
But the aggrieved minister is just getting warmed up, his anger rising still. “You can get mad if you want to, but I’m going to tell you something. If you glory in that kind of thing, you don’t have a prayer life. If you glory in that kind of political mess, you don’t know what the Word of God said.”
To the shock and dismay of many Christian Nationalists, Livingston is a conservative evangelical who is not afraid to preach a biblical message utterly rejecting white Christian Nationalism. “The Gospel is NOT an American gospel, it is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your duty is to serve your Lord and God with all your heart, mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as you love yourself!”
Having established that Jesus of the gospels has nothing to say about the United States of America, Livingston warns his audience, “You think that politics is spiritual stuff. Don’t be telling me I have a spiritual responsibility to vote. I have a civic privilege to vote” as an American citizen. “My real citizenship is in Heaven.”
Amid today’s fury and frenzy that is Christian Nationalism, Livingston’s sermon extolling church-state separation is refreshingly authentic. So authentic, in fact, to have gained the attention of notable Christian personalities.
“It is an exceptional sermon,” enthused Dr. Russell Moore, a conservative Southern Baptist who is editor of Christianity Today, in an MSNBC interview. Livingston “is not scared of his audience” nor is he a “Democratic liberal,” Moore marveled. What the vocal pastor lays out is “an old-fashioned sermon against idolatry,” warning “politicizing religion is not only destroying our politics, it is destroying our (Christian) religion.”
Some liberals, too, have become fans of the outspoken evangelical preacher. “Pastors these past seven years are scared about telling their congregations the truth,” said another Southern Baptist — MSNBC “Morning Joe” anchor Joe Scarborough. “Hatred and venom inside churches is shocking,” he continued.
Originally airing on April 14, 2024, the video of the sermon, freely broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, has made Livingston an online star along with his church, a Church of God congregation. Major television networks, print media writers, podcasters, bloggers and influencers have been drawn to the story of a conservative evangelical preacher berating Christian Nationalism. Once an obscure preacher, Livingston’s Sunday sermon broadcasts — now numbering in the dozens and growing — draw attention far and wide. One podcaster hailed the contrarian preacher as “a modern-day John the Baptist.”
Unfazed by fiery criticisms like that of Livingston, Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, has for months been trying to force his state’s public schools to teach from the Bible. This past September, Walters — a self-professed Christian Nationalist — announced plans to spend some $6 million over two years to purchase King James Version Bibles for public schools. Shortly thereafter, Walters issued a request for proposals for 55,000 leather-bound, King James Version Bibles that included the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance. The request for proposals appeared to be tailored to result in a contract award to purchase the Bible Trump endorsed. Though that request for proposals was subsequently withdrawn, Walters then spent $24,540 in state funds to purchase 532 of the Trump-endorsed Bibles.
Within weeks of Walters’ September announcement, Americans United and allies had filed a lawsuit on behalf of 32 Oklahoma parents, students, teachers and faith leaders who oppose Walters’ efforts to place a copy of the Bible in every public school classroom, a blatant infringement of constitutional church-state separation.
Walters also mandated that public school teachers from fifth through twelfth grade must teach from the Bible or risk dismissal. “Immediate and strict compliance is expected,” Walters threatened.
Walters’ Christian Nationalist pet project received a quick endorsement from some Republican state legislators. Rallying at the State Capitol Building, they waved signs proclaiming themselves the “Oklahoma MAGA Legislative Caucus.” Blowback was immediate. Officials in charge of eight of the state’s largest school districts emphatically said “no way.”
Despite immense opposition, including from many Oklahoma officials and religious leaders, Walters in mid-November “emailed all superintendents in the state and ordered them to show a video to students and send it to their parents,” AU’s Rob Boston wrote in a November “Wall of Separation” blog post. “In the video, entitled ‘Prayer for the Nation,’ Walters blames the ‘radical left’ and ‘woke teachers unions’ for ‘attacking’ religious liberty and then proceeds to deliver a prayer supporting President-elect Donald Trump. Walters encourages students to join in his prayer.”
In partnership with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law & Justice, Americans United “wrote to every superintendent in Oklahoma and urged them not to show this video,” Boston noted.
As the legal standoff continues, Walters remains determined to Christianize public education. He and his allies seek to “ensure we are not allowing the left to censure American history.” How would they do so? By mandating that public school teachers use the Bible as a study tool to “properly and accurately teach Oklahoma students the history of our country.”
In fact, the United States was established as a secular nation in which church and state are constitutionally separate, and religious liberty is protected equally for all. Recently, Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser, on a PBS news program, called out Walters for egregious “violations of the Constitution.”
Alongside history and our constitutional democracy, Christianity, too, is a victim of Walters’ crusade.
Following his sudden fame last year, Livingston in recent months has “moved on” from his notoriety, a Central Church staffer politely explained. He declines media requests, including mine.
Charles Arnold, a career journalist, has worked as a magazine writer, daily newspaper reporter and radio and television newsman in major U.S. media markets. A member of the Atlanta Press Club and formerly a member of various local chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists, he has especially focused on news writing and ethics and the news media rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.