Burning of Churches, Defacement of Religious Statues Is Rooted in 'Hatred of God,' Eric Metaxas Asserts

Milton Quintanilla | Contributor for ChristianHeadlines.com | Updated: Jul 16, 2020
Burning of Churches, Defacement of Religious Statues Is Rooted in 'Hatred of God,' Eric Metaxas Asserts

Burning of Churches, Defacement of Religious Statues Is Rooted in 'Hatred of God,' Eric Metaxas Asserts

Conservative radio host and best-selling author Eric Metaxas said in a recent interview that he believes attacks on churches and religious statues are aimed at God and not a result of civil unrest.

As Christian Headlines previously reported, multiple churches were burned in arson attacks and statues were vandalized across multiple U.S. states over the weekend.

On Monday’s broadcast of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," Metaxas addressed a recent tweet by former DNC Chairman Howard Dean who considers Christianity to be a religion of hate.

Metaxas likened Dean’s post to how Emperor Nero blamed Christians for burning Rome in 64 A.D. and added that the underlying motive behind the attacks on churches and statues is likely rooted in a hatred of God.

“I think a lot of the nastiness that is being directed at these statues, it really has to do with something deeper, Tucker,” Metaxas noted. “I hate to say it, but there’s something very dark.  You saw this in the French Revolution. There was a hatred at the bottom of it of God, of any kind of authority.”

“These people are drunk with the idea that they can somehow be an authority themselves, that they can seize power,” Metaxas continued. “And if you really want to cut to the chase, you forget about statues of generals and things. You go right for God, you go right for the Virgin Mary. My goodness, you go right for churches. You cut to the chase.”

Metaxas also referred to Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick citing how Captain Ahab was “consumed with rage” and wanted “to murder God.”

Fox News Host Tucker Carlson added that the acknowledgment of God “suggests that you’re not the ultimate authority” in which “our leaders can’t stand it.”

“I do think, though, that Christian leaders play a role in this,” Carlson asserted, adding that Muslim leaders would speak up if they saw “mosques burn[ing] and Islamic monuments being defaced.”

“I don’t see Christian leaders doing the same, and I don’t know why,” he noted.

Metaxas reasoned that Christian leaders fail to respond because “they don’t understand the Bible.” He explained how Biblical characters stood up against evil in their day such as David killing Goliath and the false prophets of Baal were mocked by Elijah. But the notion of fighting for one’s faith nowadays “has been lost.”

“There are many people that have got a watered-down kind of Christianity, they’re offended by Trump. They seem to think that being nice is what it means to be a Christian,” Metaxas added.

In his highly acclaimed biography of German Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Metaxas noted that Bonhoeffer stood against Nazi Germany as their oppression of the Jews was “an attack on God Himself.”

“When Kristallnacht happened, Bonhoeffer knew that this attack on the Jews by these who, as far as I’m concerned, were animated by the spirit of Antichrist”, he said. “These were not just political mobs, there was something deeper and darker — he understood that this attack on the synagogues, it was an attack on God himself.”

“There’s a rage and a sense of envy, that you know, I don’t like to use the word too lightly, but there was something satanic about it,” Metaxas noted. He also warned that if the evil is not dealt with, then it is allowing more people to be harmed.

“And any Christian leader who doesn’t understand that this is a Marxist, violent organization. This has nothing to do anymore with George Floyd” Metaxas said.

He concluded that some people want to “burn down everything that has been built by good people over centuries,” namely from those who are professing Christians.

Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Pool

Video courtesy: Eric Metaxas 


Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for Christian Headlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.



Burning of Churches, Defacement of Religious Statues Is Rooted in 'Hatred of God,' Eric Metaxas Asserts