Popular author and preacher Beth Moore has issued a stern warning to fellow believers over the dangers of Christian nationalism and has called on followers of Jesus to "move back" from supporting US President Donald Trump and his rhetoric.
Moore, who is one of the most recognisable female Christian speakers in the US, tweeted that she had not seen anything "more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism".
"I do not believe these are days for mincing words. I’m 63 1/2 years old & I have never seen anything in these United States of America I found more astonishingly seductive & dangerous to the saints of God than Trumpism. This Christian nationalism is not of God. Move back from it," she wrote.
"Fellow leaders, we will be held responsible for remaining passive in this day of seduction to save our own skin while the saints we’ve been entrusted to serve are being seduced, manipulated, USED and stirred up into a lather of zeal devoid of the Holy Spirit for political gain."
Moore also urged Christians not to put all their hope in Trump's successor, Democrat Joe Biden.
"God help us, we don’t turn from Trumpism to Bidenism," she tweeted. "We do not worship flesh and blood. We do not place our faith in mortals. We are the church of the living God. We can’t sanctify idolatry by labeling a leader our Cyrus. We need no Cyrus. We have a king. His name is Jesus."
Relevant Magazine senior editor, Tyler Huckabee, responded with praise. "I’m sure I’m not alone in this: the last five or so years of watching respected Christians from my formative years falling for Trump truly has the effect of making me feel crazy," he wrote. "So the blistering courage of this woman has, some days, been one of the few things keeping me sane."
Not everyone was on board with Moore's sentiments, however. Allie Beth Stuckey, a conservative Christian commentator, said that while she agreed that "political idolatry of any kind is dangerous", Moore "would do well to show the same vigor toward the threat social justice ideology poses to Christians who have traded in Biblical faith for a secularism that merely uses Christian vocabulary".
Fundamentalist pastor, Greg Locke, went further. "Ma’am, you’ve honest to God lost your mind," he tweeted in reply to Moore's claims. "This trashy rhetoric is why America is in the place that she is. You say “move away”. I rebuke you in the name of Christ. You are NO friend to babies, Israel, religious Liberty or the nuclear family. SIT DOWN."
It is not the first time that male preachers have attempted to silence Moore's voice. When asked for his reaction to the name "Beth Moore" at a conference last year, well-known pastor John MacArthur — who doesn't support female preachers — caused outrage when he replied: "go home".