The Washington Stand, the Family Research Council’s “outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview,” published a commentary Wednesday from Kansas pastor Kyle Lammott that reveals what FRC and its allies mean by a “biblical worldview.” It appears to be a lightly edited version of remarks Lammott made last Sunday at an event with FRC President Tony Perkins and dominionist New Apostolic Reformation figure Jim Garlow.
Lammott’s Exodus Church in Wichita is a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, a network founded by hard-right Christian nationalist and Pete Hegseth spiritual mentor Doug Wilson.
Lammott is an example of religious-right leaders’ habit of demeaning the faith of Christians who don’t share their religious and political worldview. He wrote an open letter attacking Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton, pastor of the largest United Methodist church in the country, and calling on him to drop out of the Senate race “rather than carry the name of Christ into an office you intend to use to mock God by shielding those who desire the blood of the innocent.”
In his Washington Stand commentary, Lammott cites the biblical book of Revelation in asserting that Jesus is “’the ruler of kings on earth’ right now, in real history. He is the ruler of presidents, governors, senators, and representatives.”
According to Lammott, elected officials are “called by God to be his civil servants,” and anyone who enacts “godless laws” or “legalizes evil” is “committing high treason against the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth.”
Lammott cites the concept of sphere sovereignty, an idea promoted by Christian Reconstructionists and adopted by much of the dominionist religious right:
God has established distinct spheres. The church holds the keys of the Kingdom and wields the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The state is ordained by God in Romans 13 to hold the steel sword to maintain public order, suppress evil, and execute justice. But both institutions are under the supreme sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
The magistrate exists under the sovereignty of Christ. The president, the governor, the Senate, and the House are called by God to be his civil servants. And when a magistrate enacts godless laws, approves tyranny, or legalizes evil, he is committing high treason against the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth.
“We do not negotiate with the spirit of the age,” Lammott writes. “Scripture is not a collection of pious suggestions; it is the infallible, inerrant Word of the living God, sharper than any two-edged sword. Human laws are only valid to the degree that they conform to the Law of God.”
He gets specific in his denunciation of those who support legal access to abortion:
If the magistrate’s God-given purpose in Romans 13 is to wield the steel sword to punish evildoers and protect the innocent, then there is no greater systemic failure in our land than the legal butchery of the unborn. Abortion is not merely a political debate or a health care choice. It is an abomination that cries out to heaven for judgment. And the soil of Kansas is soaked in the blood of the unborn. May God grant the church and the state repentance for allowing such evil.
The church’s prophetic message to the magistrate must be loud, clear, and relentless: God gave you the steel sword to defend the innocent. Use it.
One party has told us plainly it will leave the sword sheathed while the innocent die. One party openly champions laws that defy the Law of God.
In the spoken version of his remarks, he added, “One political party has already told us that they do not hold to the authority of God’s word. One political party has already told us that salvation is not by faith alone in Christ alone.”
Lammott ends with marching orders for “the church”—by which he means that portion of Christianity that is aligned with his religious and political worldview:
So, we do not flinch. We do not apologize. We do not bow to the idols of our age. We must repent of our cowardice, take up the Sword of the Spirit, put on the armor of light, and march forward as the army of the living God, bringing the crown rights of King Jesus to bear on every sphere of society.