I am a Christian
Do you ever read, or hear, something and then a bunch of dots suddenly come together and offer clarity? That happened to me this morning. I learned something new about myself.
I’m a race traitor. I’m also a class traitor. I learned that this is why people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti are called “domestic terrorists,” “Marxists,” and “leftists.”
White Christian Nationalism is about hierarchy. It’s about a hierarchy built on race, religion, and gender. It’s about wealth and power and who gets to have them.
As one who is near the top of the pyramid, I am supposed to appreciate the structure, because it benefits me. When someone like me says that the pyramid should not exist, and works to destroy the pyramid, we are deemed traitors. And Marxists.
I am not a Marxist, which implies a communist system that does not value the individual. I quit my job a year ago after my salary was arbitrarily reduced and was told repeatedly that my performance, experience, skills, and education were irrelevant. I believe in meritocracy.
Then, I decided to try my hand at writing books, because I would still like to be compensated for my work, even though it was risky and I have only lost money (so far!). I believe in a capitalist economic system.
I can advocate for equality before the law, in equal access to equal health care and education, and also for limits to poverty and caps on wealth, but still believe in capitalism.
Resisting racial hierarchies, patriarchy, authoritarianism, oligarchy and monarchism is not leftist. I resist these systems of inequality because I am a Christian.
To use biblical language, these systems of inequality are “the ways of the world.” They are the ways of Empire.
Unfortunately, much of American Christianity has been deceived into believing that the God of Empire is the God of Jesus and that the political implications of Scripture are to be ignored.
It’s easy to pull Bible verses that support the ways of Empire, but what the Bible reveals is that those who wrote it, an oppressed indigenous people, believed that the Most High God was on their side, and fought with them against the powers of this world, the powers of Empire.
My mission is to offer a more faithful lens through which to read and understand the Bible - as resistance literature. This is not ideological or political, it is spiritual. It’s about resisting power structures that fail to see the image of God in one another, wherever they present themselves.
I am not the first person to bring this perspective, but because it’s new to me, I want to do the hard work and explore it myself. I also recognize that I am not oppressed, so I come to the text as an outsider and one considered to be a traitor. But, I am not a domestic terrorist.
I do not advocate for violence, but repentance. I ask that people consider new information, be open to changing their minds, then turn and go in a new direction.
I have struggled to define my “target audience” in my capitalistic venture, but I think I have clarity now.
My work is for you if you reject the ways of Empire and want to explore how an oppressed people living 2500 years ago came to believe that the Most High God of the universe was on their side; then changed their beliefs and accepted that the freedom and salvation “their” God offered was open to all.
It is not merely a political exercise, it is a spiritual journey. It is both/and. We will not exclude one for the other.
My books read like devotionals, short readings with a passage of Scripture. They can be used for small groups or book clubs where discussion is encouraged and can be purchased here: https://www.angelambecek.com/shop
I have completed and published the first two books of a series that will walk through the Bible and Christian history and follow the threads God and Empire. The third book is expected to be ready by summer, 2026.
The article that inspired me this morning: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/magazine/minneapolis-good-pretti-race-traitors.html