As President Donald Trump struggled to publicly condemn the alt-right, white supremacists, and KKK members and sympathizers that were involved in the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, Christian leaders were quick to denounce the methodology and ideology of these groups as raciest and antithetical to Christ’s teachings.
Earlier this week, Matthew Chandler of the Village Church became the latest pastor to publicly speak out against the so-called alt-right, explicitly drawing a line between Christianity and the “demonic” culture perpetrated by the hateful groups. Lamenting the fact that he even needed to clarify his church’s stance on the issue, Chandler issued a stern condemnation that he called the “official position” of the Village Church and its leaders.
“White supremacy and the alt-right is incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Chandler said. “It is evil and from the pit of hell.”
He went on to clarify that his position is not a “political statement,” rather he is simply explaining that one “cannot call Jesus ‘king’” and believe the “nonsense.”
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“I just want to go on record saying this is so despicable and disgusting that it needs to be called out for what it is: bigotry, hatred, racism,” Chandler proclaimed. “You cannot attach the name of Jesus Christ to it. In fact, even doing so reveals how ignorant and foolish you are… In no way can you tie this to Biblical Christianity.”
After joking that Jesus would “look far more brown than he would white” and heaven would be a white supremacist’s “worst nightmare” because of the level of diversity, Chandler doubled down on the “demonic” nature of the “despicable” and “deplorable” movement.
“I think what we are experiencing is deeply demonic… there is something underneath all of this. New laws are not going to solve it,” he explained. “All that we have seen in the last 48 hours is that you can educate but you cannot transform a heart. Without a heart transformed, you’ll get the same behaviors you’ve ever gotten.”
With that in mind, Chandler reminded his congregation that a true transformation of the heart can only occur through the teachings and practices of the gospel.
“Without the gospel of Jesus Christ, you are never progressing. You are only regressing,” he concluded. “It is only in the transformation of the human heart that the walls of hostility are broken down and a new people are formed that are marked not by ethnicity or socioeconomics or intellect or schooling or any of those things, but are marked rather by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that has created a new people where there once was not one.”