Capital Christian merge sets Sacramento’s destiny: Christian nationalism is here to stay | Opinion

Placer County’s insidious brand of Christian nationalism has infiltrated the Capital City: Rocklin’s Destiny megachurch will take over leadership of Sacramento’s Capital Christian Center and Capital Christian School, located in the Rosemont suburb.

The local rise of Christian nationalism, emboldened since Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, is the culmination of a conservative backlash against a changing, progressive — and increasingly secular — society. According to a 2021 Pew Research study, nearly three in 10 American adults now say they are unaffiliated with a religion.

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Christian nationalism holds that America should be a kind of theocracy. “The word of God is written to change culture,” Destiny Pastor Greg Fairrington said in a sermon in June of 2022. “Not for culture to change the word of God.”

In practice, that belief translates to anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion ideologies; the incorporation of Christian beliefs in the classroom and in politics; severely limiting diverse perspectives in schools; and undermining voting and civil rights for marginalized groups.

This is exactly what Destiny Church stands for. And the megachurch’s pastor isn’t shy about admitting as much.

“Are we afraid of a vaccine, liberal school boards, racial social agendas, (critical race theory), LGBTQ agenda?” Fairrington asked his congregation in August of 2021. “The gender-neutral doctrine, anti-America, radical groups like Black Lives Matter?”

Destiny’s role in spreading a dangerous, anti-Democracy, anti-American Christian nationalist agenda extends further than its church doors: Tanner DiBella, who serves on Destiny’s executive leadership team, is president of The American Council, a Placer County advocacy group with a mission to insert a “biblical worldview” into California politics. The advocacy group endorses a Christian nationalist movement.

“Secular culture spends billions of dollars influencing public opinion and behavior,” the American Council website states. “We are working diligently to counter those effects.”

If you think this brand of fringe conservatism isn’t winning elections in Placer County, you’d be wrong. Candidates who were trained and endorsed by the American Council have been elected to local school boards and other public offices.

Meanwhile, Capital Christian’s reputation in the Sacramento region has suffered severely in the past few years. Last year, at least nine former students filed a lawsuit against Capital Christian and the Arden Church of Nazarene for abuses suffered at the hands of teacher and coach Dave Arnold. The lawsuit alleges that Capital Christian founder Glen Cole covered up Arnold’s abuse.

Capital Christian, wrecked reputationally and financially by self-serving, egotistic leaders, will soon be taken over by Destiny’s own self-serving, egotistic leadership team.

Sacramentans, living in a more urban city core, sometimes like to write off Placer County as a homogeneous, conservative monolith. And it’s true that Placer does have a Christian nationalist problem. But now Sacramento is facing the exact same problem.

Can our two communities overcome a growing tide of bigoted conservatism and religious zeal? That remains yet to be determined. One thing, however, is certain: Destiny’s influence in Northern California is only growing stronger, and that should frighten us all.