Along the shore of a storm-tossed sea, there may be many different lights shining in the darkness. Some of those lights are meant to guide a struggling ship to safe harbor; some are meant to warn that ship away from rocks and from disaster. In the Bible, we meet a wide array of individuals. Some show us the path that leads to the safe harbor of God’s embrace; some warn us about the rocks of destruction.
We live in strange times when some of those who claim to follow Jesus are having a hard time recognizing one path from the other. In fact, there seems to be an intentional program of “baptizing” the rocks of destruction, of pointing to the warning lights and saying, “Let’s go toward those.”
One example of that trend is the appearance in recent days of the slogan, “One of ours; All of yours,” on the official podium of the Department of Homeland Security. The origins of that slogan have been hard to pin down. As of this writing, I’m not aware of anyone coming forward and taking responsibility for it. Despite claims to the contrary, there does not seem to be any evidence that the slogan was in use by the German Nazis, though it does resonate with their practice of collective punishment. What is certain is that the slogan “One of ours; All of yours” has absolutely nothing to do with justice. It’s pure vengeance and nothing else. It is the core value system of the tyrant.
My thought when I first saw the slogan on Kristi Noem’s podium was of the biblical character, Lamech. So, let me introduce you to this figure from the misty, early chapters of Genesis. He styled himself one of the “great” ones, and since “greatness” seems to have become quite the goal of many American Christians in these days, Lamech the “Great” is someone we should all get to know. We meet him in Genesis 4:18-24.
The text gives us a few pieces of background information about this man, Lamech. He was the great-great-great-grandson of Cain. So, he comes from a lineage in which the violent assertion of self over others was the hallmark. He had two wives, whose names were Adah and Zillah. We’re also told the names of three of his sons and what accomplishments each is most noteworthy for.
The most important part of the passage about Lamech is the song he sings to his wives.
“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.” Genesis 4:23-24 (NIV)
The song seems to celebrate a conflict that Lamech had with some unknown and unnamed “young man.” The nature of the conflict is not described because the nature of the conflict was irrelevant to Lamech’s concerns. Issues of justice and righteousness are not in play in this situation. Lamech cares nothing for justice. From Lamech’s point of view, all that really matters is the contest of dominance between him and this “young man.”
The injury or wound that Lamech refers to in the song may very well have been a physical wound, but the more important aspect of the injury really had nothing to do with Lamech’s body. The real issue for Lamech was the injury to his status, to his dominance over everyone around him. For Lamech, what mattered was that the injury he suffered threatened his perceived domination over everyone else. It would seem that what Lamech valued most was his ability to impose his will on others.
Lamech is interested in vengeance, not justice. Vengeance has nothing to do with justice. For Lamech, revenge is not about getting justice. Rather, it is about asserting his domination over the young man who injured him and over anyone else who might challenge him.
Lamech is the patron saint of all those who put their trust in coercive power, who make the defining aim of their lives that of dominating others and imposing their will on their neighbors. Lamech is the model for those who see vengeance as the proper means of redressing wrongs and who see forgiveness as weakness. Lamech is the guide for all who define morality and justice solely in terms of self-interest. “Righteousness is anything that serves my purposes,” says Lamech. “And wickedness is anything that hinders my purposes.” Lamech is the patron saint of MAGA Christianity (which is not Christianity at all).
“One of ours; All of yours” is the very essence of the spirit of Lamech. It is not the path to greatness. It is the path to degenerateness and degradation. “One of ours; All of yours” is the very antithesis of Jesus. And so, it is no surprise that the MAGA love of the Lamech spirit would make that movement pretty much allergic to Jesus.
It is not surprising that those who grasp after coercive power and the ability to impose their will on their neighbors would find Jesus inconvenient. “So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; instead, whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45 NRSV). Lamech would have hated that. So does the MAGA version of Christianity.
The Jesus, who called himself “gentle and lowly,” doesn’t satisfy the Lamech spirit. The Jesus, who commanded his followers—“But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28 NRSV)—clashes with the Lamech spirit and the tough guy version of MAGA world Christianity.
So, will it be Lamech or Jesus? Of course, the government of the United States has no obligation to follow Jesus. They can feel free to make Lamech their patron saint and guiding light. But Christians, those who really want to follow Jesus, are not free to make that choice. For us, it is either Lamech or Jesus. They go in opposite directions; you can’t follow both.
© Gary A. Chorpenning 2026
Related posts:
Pastor Note #70: True National Greatness
Pastor Note #138: The Way of Jesus: Selfless Service OR Coercion and Domination?
Pastor Note #33 — Kindness and the Gospel in a Broken World
Bible Note #64: Zechariah 7:9-10–A Rightly Ordered Society in God’s Eyes
Pastor Note #143: Coercion & the Kingdom of God
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