Recently, two Republican members of the Texas state legislature, Reps. Daniel Alders and Brent Money, appeared on the "Kings & Statesmen" program to discuss the importance of "Christian political influence" in government.
During the program, Money declared that he sees his role as an elected official not to do what his constituents want and elected him to do but rather to do "what God wants me to do."
It was no surprise to learn from Money that he was deeply influenced by theocratic Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, which was abundantly clear in his explanation of how he governs like "a true Christian" as a legislator.
Money recalled that during his run for office, he would tell voters that, 'I'm here to serve you, I'm here to do what you want to do," but realized that he didn't really mean that.
"I'm sitting there going, 'Man, I'm here to do what God wants me to do," Money said. "That doesn't mean you ignore the will of the constituents, but there are things that I think we're called [to do]. If you're put in a position of power and authority, and you're the only one that says, 'This is what the word of God says,' and it's going to cost you, that's still primary. I'm not going to do anything, I hope, that says, 'Well, I think this is what God wants me to do, but this is what my constituents want me to do and so I'm going to have to [do that].' That is just not the way that I see the world."
Later, Money revealed that he had recently read the book "King of Kings: A Reformed Guide to Christian Government," which he said had strengthened his conviction that "government must promote Christianity as the one true religion."
"[I] went back and actually read all of the people that I read for everything else in theology and doctrine and they all have a lot to say about politics, and we have just lost a lot of that," Money said. "We read what they say about soteriology, we read what they say about church governance, we read what they say about family, and then we get to politics and we go, 'We don't want to talk about that.'
"This idea that Christians should not be imposing our religion on people is brand new," Money griped.
“King of Kings” is published by Founders Ministries, which is led by Tom Ascol, a right-wing pastor aligned with evangelicals who believe that social justice teachings are poisoning the evangelical church. Speaking on a CPAC panel in 2019, Ascol said that the devil “has effectively enticed many churches to welcome godless ideologies into their environments. And he’s done it through the Trojan horse of what is commonly called social justice. In the name of racial reconciliation, honoring women, showing love and respect for the sexually confused, evangelicals are welcoming in ways of thinking that undermine the very teachings of the word of God…”