Last year, racist antisemitic fascist Christian nationalist theocrats Joel Webbon and Wesley Todd called for the government to literally seize the assets of "wicked" churches who do not share their radical views and redistribute their holdings to "faithful churches" that do.
On the most recent episode of their Right Response Ministries podcast, Webbon and Todd doubled down on this position while urging Christian nationalist political candidates to "hide your power" by never openly advocating for such a position.
"I absolutely think that the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas National Guard, should go through downtown Austin, find churches flying Pride flags, depose their ministers—that is, defrock them, remove them from the pulpit—take the property, and auction it off to faithful churches," said Todd
"That is what I believe should happen," he continued. "That will not happen in Texas, at least in the next 10 years. Who knows what the Lord does? Practically speaking, though, we're very far away from that. You, if you are a politician running for office, don't say that. We have to live in the real world."
"Let me pause for a second and make sure that's abundantly clear," Webbon chimed in. "If you are a Texas politician or aspiring, you're campaigning or want to be, don't say that."
"On this particular topic, you've got to hide your power levels," Webbon added. "The people aren't ready for it."
"In principle, that is perfectly permissible," Webbon continued. "Not only was that permissible, it was righteous in the sight of God. So in principle, in theory, the state going into the city of Austin and deposing, seizing the church buildings, property of every Pride flag-flying church and saying, 'I'm sorry, you're losing your property [and] you're going to prison.' 'For what?' 'For peddling blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ publicly.' 'So you're going to prison or you're paying some crazy fine that effectively renders you impotent in your role as a minister because you're not a minister, you're a wolf and we're deposing your property and we're going to auction it off to faithful churches.'"
"There would be historical precedent for that even within our American context," Webbon insisted. "It's not just biblical, it's American. We say, 'Hey, the Founders, we got to get back to our roots. We got to get back to our American heritage.' You want to get back to your American heritage? Amen. That's wonderful. Start punishing blasphemers and also reinstall Sabbath laws. That's American. It's not just biblical, it's American."
"Not only is it permissible, it's righteous, it's ideal, it's virtuous," Webbon proclaimed. "But here's the deal: In terms of application, although it's good, it's not achievable and it will actually sideline you. That kind of purity spiraling will put you on the bench. It'll sideline you. It'll function as a liability. So, you don't run on that, and you don't talk about that as a politician, yet. But that is the goal."
