{"id":4753,"date":"2025-09-22T11:12:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/?p=4753"},"modified":"2025-09-22T11:12:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:12:16","slug":"rebuttal-to-lincoln-squares-christofascist-smear-of-benny-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/2025\/09\/22\/rebuttal-to-lincoln-squares-christofascist-smear-of-benny-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebuttal to Lincoln Square&#8217;s &#8220;Christofascist&#8221; Smear of Benny Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-4754\" src=\"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-1024x902.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-1024x902.png 1024w, https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-300x264.png 300w, https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-150x132.png 150w, https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-768x676.png 768w, https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot-850x749.png 850w, https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lincoln-Square-screen-shot.png 1292w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">If you have any doubt that America is close to becoming a Christofascist country, this clip of paid Russian propaganda pusher Benny Johnson&#8217;s speech from the Charlie Kirk memorial should erase that doubt.<br \/>\nThis is not what America is supposed to be.<br \/>\nScary shit. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5jlvwyIVaY\">pic.twitter.com\/5jlvwyIVaY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Lincoln Square (@LincolnSquareHQ) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LincolnSquareHQ\/status\/1970171440201871427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 22, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em><strong>Lincoln Square&#8217;s assessment is a textbook example of hyperpartisan fear-mongering that collapses under scrutiny.<\/strong><\/em><\/span> Their characterization reveals more about their own ideological blindness than any legitimate threat to American democracy.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>1. The &#8220;Christofascist&#8221; Label is Historically Illiterate<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Fascism has specific historical characteristics: ultranationalism, totalitarian control, suppression of opposition, and the subordination of individual rights to state power. <span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Johnson&#8217;s speech advocates for the <em>opposite<\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u2014limited government that protects individual rights and allows peaceful disagreement.<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em><strong> &#8220;I want to live in a country where the good and the faithful and the moral people of our nation can live in peace, debate in peace, disagree in peace, and start families in peace.&#8221;<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>This is classical liberalism, not fascism. Lincoln Square cheapens the memory of actual fascism victims by throwing around this term so carelessly.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>2. The &#8220;Russian Propaganda&#8221; Red Herring<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Ad hominem attacks don&#8217;t refute arguments. Even if Johnson has problematic associations (which would need verification), <span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>dismissing biblical theology as <em>&#8220;Russian propaganda&#8221;<\/em> is intellectually dishonest.<\/strong> <\/span>Are we to believe Romans 13 is a Kremlin creation? This lazy guilt-by-association fallacy avoids engaging with the substance of what Johnson actually said.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>3. Constitutional Ignorance on Religion&#8217;s Role<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Lincoln Square&#8217;s shock at religious language in political discourse betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of American history.<\/strong> <\/span>The same Constitution that protects religious freedom has always allowed\u2014indeed, expected\u2014religious perspectives in public debate. From abolitionists citing Scripture against slavery to civil rights leaders invoking biblical justice, American reform movements have consistently drawn on religious authority.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>4. Misrepresenting Traditional Governance Theory<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Johnson&#8217;s invocation of Romans 13 isn&#8217;t revolutionary\u2014it&#8217;s how Western civilization has understood legitimate authority for centuries.<\/strong> <\/span>When he speaks of rulers wieldin<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><em><strong>g &#8220;the sword for the protection of good men and for the terror of evil men,&#8221;<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>he&#8217;s describing basic law enforcement. Should we not want criminals to fear justice? Should we not want law-abiding citizens protected?<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>5. The Real Authoritarianism<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>The truly concerning authoritarianism comes from Lincoln Square&#8217;s position: that certain theological perspectives should be excluded from public discourse entirely.<\/strong><\/span> <em>That&#8217;s<\/em> what &#8220;America is not supposed to be&#8221;\u2014a country where particular religious viewpoints are deemed inherently illegitimate in civic life.<\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>6. Missing the Actual Message<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Johnson explicitly calls for peaceful coexistence and legitimate governmental authority.<span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong> Lincoln Square&#8217;s hysterical reaction suggests they either didn&#8217;t listen to the actual content or are deliberately mischaracterizing it for political gain.<\/strong> <\/span>Neither reflects serious journalism.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Lincoln Square&#8217;s assessment isn&#8217;t analysis\u2014it&#8217;s partisan performance art designed to generate clicks and outrage. Their inability to distinguish between mainstream religious political thought and actual extremism reveals the very ideological tunnel vision that makes productive democratic discourse impossible.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A truly dangerous development would be allowing such inflammatory mischaracterizations to shut down legitimate religious voices in American political life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you have any doubt that America is close to becoming a Christofascist country, this clip of paid Russian propaganda pusher Benny Johnson&#8217;s speech from the Charlie Kirk memorial should erase that doubt. This is not what America is supposed to be. Scary shit. pic.twitter.com\/5jlvwyIVaY \u2014 Lincoln Square (@LincolnSquareHQ) September 22, 2025 Lincoln Square&#8217;s assessment&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[178,137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-plain-dumb","category-liberalism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novus2.com\/righteouscause\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}