The Gospel According to Josh Hawley

Thirteen years ago, Josh Hawley wrote about the dangers of utopian politics. In his article “A Christian Vision for Kingdom Politics,” he quoted philosopher Eric Voegelin’s warning against totalitarian movements that use political force to create heaven on earth. Hawley claimed to reject this idea. Yet, in that very same article, he proposed doing exactly that: using government to promote a religious definition of justice based on his narrow and cruel interpretation of Christianity.

He penned his article just before entering politics. One cannot help but think that he was telegraphing exactly the sort of politician he intended to become. Since then, he became the Missouri Attorney General for a few years before running for—and winning—a seat in the U.S. Senate.

In the article, Hawley warned about political overreach in the name of spiritual transcendence, then made a 180-degree turn and argued for Christians to go ahead and bend government to his definition of God’s kingdom. He claimed he wasn’t calling for a theocracy. Still, if you read closely, you’ll find something just as insidious: a vision of governance where one religion’s values define justice, dictate law, and determine who is worthy of dignity.

That’s not democracy. That’s theocracy by stealth. Ultimately, it’s totalitarianism, not unlike Trump’s vision for America. This would explain his infamous raised fist during the January 6 insurrection. He saw the possibilities in hijacking popular grievance into his twisted definition of a Christian kingdom.

An example of Hawley’s twisted ideas can be found in his vision for America as anti-woman. In the article, he writes that Christians should help women gain equal standing in society. That sounds noble, until you read it in more detail. In his words, “Women must be welcomed as full and equal participants in society as women­—including as mothers—and not required to behave as men in order to achieve social standing.” Wow! Margaret Atwood could hardly do better when she wrote The Handmaid’s Tale. Hawley’s vision for women reeks of patriarchy, where men are men and women know their place. Naturally, we must ask: Who gets to define what it means to be a woman in society? Josh Hawley? Religious orthodoxy? The implication is that women have a designated role, where equality is not absolute but relative. This helps explain why most Republicans are obsessed with the definition of “woman.” In Hawley’s view, women are merely vessels for bearing children, and they can have what he defines as “equality,” so long as they conform to his definition of “woman.”

This isn’t liberation. It’s misogyny in moral camouflage.

And then there’s labor. Hawley places the value of a human being squarely on their ability to work. He writes, “Labor, and the ability to earn one’s own way, is central to dignity.” No, Josh. Dignity comes before labor, not after it. If your worth depends on your productivity, then those who cannot work—because of poverty, disability, mental illness, or circumstance—are treated as disposable. When the state demands proof of your labor before extending compassion, it dehumanizes the most vulnerable among us. Hawley might benefit from reading Matthew 25:35, where Jesus speaks of serving others as a demonstration of true faith and love for Him. Sorry, Jesus—dropping carpentry to wander the countryside, feeding the hungry and healing the sick, doesn’t count. Pick up a hammer and get to work!

We’re seeing this play out now in Missouri and across the nation. New rules require Medicaid recipients to prove they are working, adding bureaucratic obstacles for the sake of ideological acceptance. It’s a cruel test: Prove you are “deserving” of healthcare by selling your labor. What’s next? Work camps? There are echoes of a darker history, where slogans like Arbeit Macht Frei masked horrific atrocities behind a thin veil of moral order.

Hawley’s theology of governance isn’t just wrong. It’s dangerous. It replaces pluralism with dogma, justice with hierarchy, and democracy with dominion. His vision may not wear jackboots, but it marches in the same direction: toward a society where dissent is sin, where rights are contingent on obedience, and where government is no longer of the people—but of the chosen.

America isn’t a church. Our laws must serve everyone, not just those who share the faith of the powerful. Justice is not Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or atheist. It’s human. And when politicians like Josh Hawley twist scripture into legislation, they betray both their country and their God.