Christ is King. King in the sense of being Lord of all. But not “king” in any type of political sense. His words to Pilate before His sentencing made that patently clear. And certainly not in a purposefully dividing sense outside of theological orthodoxy. The King who is Christ wants nothing more than for everyone to enter His Kingdom.

As a pastor and professor of theology, you can imagine I’ve been asked a number of questions over the years on a wide variety of topics. But recently, someone asked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas a question related to his Christian faith that I confess has never been posed to me before:

Would he be willing to repeat the phrase “Christ is King?”

And even more surprising was that Cruz seemed to want to skirt the question.

“Look, let me explain my hesitancy,” he began. As the New York Times (NYT) reported:

“A practicing Christian and Southern Baptist, he went on to repeat a loosely worded variation of the phrase, adding that the expression was associated with a ‘weird online phenomenon….There are some using it in a hateful way.’”

Yes, they are.

Again, from the NYT, worth quoting at length:

The three-word declaration “Christ is King” may sound like a harmless statement of Christian values. But lately it has become the locus of a thorny linguistic debate. On one side sit supporters of America First-style politics, who embrace a nationalism centered on Christian belief and whose loudest voices include the commentators Candace Owens and Nicholas J. Fuentes, both known for their antisemitic views; on the other are conservatives like Mr. Cruz, who believe that the phrase has been weaponized against Jews.

Across the online realm of the far right, the phrase is commonplace, embedded in posts and bandied about on podcasts. On platforms like X, MAGA influencers and young America First conservatives alike can be found posting it as a neutral proclamation.

…the expression has an eye-of-the-beholder quality and can be seen just as frequently in bigoted screeds from more extreme voices. Jake Shields, an MMA fighter turned right-wing podcaster, has used it in a troll-like way against Jews and Muslims. “I use Christ is King because it makes Jews angry,” he wrote once on X….

The flare-up over this phraseology comes during a long-running dispute within the Republican Party over mounting antisemitism within its ranks. Young Republicans, in recent months, have been linked to group chats praising Hitler and sharing bigoted remarks against Jews….

What’s emerged is a still unsettled tug-of-war between a younger cohort of conservatives, drawn to Christian traditionalism and increasingly skeptical of America’s ties to Israel, who view “Christ is King” as a declaration of their faith and political leanings, while an older set of Republicans, firm in their support for the Jewish state, view the phrase as an antisemitic provocation.

Critics have called it a “dialectical trap” intended to “other” Jewish conservatives and drive them out of the right.

In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr. Cruz said that saying “Christ is King” is just one way of saying “I hate Jews.”

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