In June, a variety of far-right pastors gathered in Utah for a “Building Christian Boroughs” conference organized by the New Christendom Press. Among the participants was pastor Joel Webbon, an ardent Christian nationalist who believes that the American people are too degenerate, stupid, and cowardly to abide by the Constitution and therefore must be governed by a Christian dictator who “just rules with an iron fist” and forces everyone to, at the very least, “pretend to be Christian.”
Webbon—who wants to see the Apostles’ Creed added to the Constitution; abortion, pornography, no-fault divorce, in vitro fertilization, and birth control outlawed; and women banned from voting—participated in a conference panel discussion on “Christian Nationalism, Women in Politics, & Jewish Influence on American Society” during which he declared that immigration must be curtailed and the southern border sealed because his neighborhood in Texas is being overrun by non-white non-Christians.
“We can’t afford to lose Texas,” Webbon said. “Unless something drastically happens, I think by 2028, Texas will officially be blue in presidential elections, in large part because of the border.”
“I walk around my neighborhood and it’s not that there are [just] different shades of white and brown,” he added. “No, it’s like full, straight-up Hindu garb at our neighborhood swimming pool that my daughter is asking [about and] I’m trying to explain.”
“I don’t even know what country I’m in, in my own neighborhood,” Webbon declared. “I don’t know where I am.”
“When we go on a family walk, the number of Pakistanis, Hindus, [there are] all these different not just ethnicities but religions with visible religious outfits on,” Webbon griped. “And the same thing when we go to Costco. I’m like, ‘Where am I?'”
“We’ll go on a family walk and every now and then we’ll pass by, you know, a white family that’s a man and a woman and has more than one kid,” he continued. “And every time I see it, I’m like, I don’t want to be this way but I feel this small sense of relief. Like, ‘I I see you. I’m glad you’re one of my neighbors.'”
Insisting that his outrage is “not about whiteness,” Webbon claimed that his concern is that “at the end of the day, if things get rough, I don’t know if my Hindu neighbor is going to fight to save the lives of my children.”
“I love this country. I am willing to fight to defend it. A lot of people here I don’t think are,” Webbon asserted. “One thing that it’s time for is to shut down the border.”
In addition to serving as pastor at Covenant Bible Church in Texas, Webbon is also the founder of Right Response Ministries, through which he organizes events like “Blueprints for Christendom 2.0: Seven Doctrines for Ruling the World,” which took place earlier this year and featured militant Christian nationalists like Doug Wilson and Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers as speakers.
| Every day, Right Wing Watch exposes extremism to help the public, activists, and journalists understand the strategies and tactics of anti-democratic forces—and respond to an increasingly aggressive and authoritarian far-right movement. The threat is growing, but our resources are not. Any size contribution will help us continue our work and become more effective at disrupting the ideologies, people, and organizations that threaten our freedom and democracy. Please make an investment in Right Wing Watch’s defense of the values we share. |
