This is a screenshot from a podcast with the guest pastor who spoke at a megachurch in central Indiana the other week. He is brandishing an axe, stating that he holds this while he prays for people as he “prays in battle against spiritual warfare.” “Christianity is war,” he exclaimed.
I was stunned to see this image. A weapon. Held while praying. I felt nauseated by this. I listened to the excerpt from the podcast a dozen times to make sure I really heard what he said. The more I listened, the more viscerally it affected me.
Friends, we need to talk about ‘spiritual warfare’. We need to talk about its Biblical references (which exist in concept, not terminology). We need to talk about its theology (which is widely discussed and poorly agreed upon in academic circles). We need to talk about its imagery…the weapons, the battle gear, and battlefield victories. We need to talk about metaphors and language. We need to talk about the way the theoretical concept of spiritual warfare physically affects our earthly minds and bodies.
Current use of the term ‘spiritual warfare’ is largely used by the American Evangelical church and is a rather modern (1970s-80s) concept, popularized by the author Frank Peretti in his ‘This Present Darkness’ (1986) novel. The basic concept of tension between forces of good and evil is as old as time. People from all walks of life and religions can largely agree that there is some generally accepted paradigm of good and evil. Different religions will describe it differently, but the overall idea is the same.
What sets the Evangelical ‘spiritual warfare’ narrative apart is the dramatic use of words, imagery, and metaphors, infused into seemingly every part of their life. Praying for a ‘shield of protection’ around their children as they go out to play; praying for protection from the forces of evil in our schools and civic life. They have paintings of White Jesus looking lovingly over their tender little ones as they sleep. There are books and songs about ‘putting on the armor of God’ (which is indeed from Ephesians 6). There are shields and swords; there are ‘wars’ to be fought in the name of Jesus. But context matters. Paul wrote Ephesians in a time when oppression from the Roman Empire did indeed look like warfare. Because it was. People were being imprisoned and crucified and mauled in the Colosseum. Jesus spoke of “the sword” (Matthew 10) and division in families at a time when his radical appearance on the scene was a threat to Jewish tradition and Old Testament law. He was challenging people to be brave enough to break from their family and religious traditions and follow him, not the Pharisees. To pluck these verses out of context and drop them into the USA in 2026…is quite the stretch. We are not in a battle to practice our religion. We are not in a battle to survive our evil empire. At least, not yet.
All of this paints quite the picture. Literal spiritual bloodshed…in the name of promoting the peace of Jesus. Incredible irony.
Just pause for one second: How does that axe-wielding guy make you feel? How does it feel in your body? What does your stomach feel like? Your heart rate? Think about your children: Do you shield them from violent images and movies? Think about anyone who has been the victim of violence or lived in a warzone: What does the metaphor of Christianity being a war feel like? I can say with confidence, none of these scenarios brings me peace. But they do bring anxiety and nausea.
I commented on the church Instagram Reel with these sentiments. And within minutes, the megachurch pastor personally replied to me. (Clearly, I hit a nerve. Maybe I made him think twice about the axe guy and the whole warfare thing. I don’t know.) He doubled down on the warrior imagery. He condescendingly ‘explained’ to me that it’s spiritual warfare, not a real battle. (As if I somehow naively thought they were trying to start a real war in central IN). He listed several scriptures in his defense. That’s called prooftexting. And it’s always a losing game, and theologically disingenuous. So I didn’t prooftext back, but easily could have. Cause there is no shortage of verses about Jesus coming to bring peace in an otherwise dangerous and chaotic world. A brave soul came to the pastor’s defense and chimed in. When I asked him to explain what he means by ‘spiritual warfare’, how does he see it? Recognize it? How does he know what to pray for as he prays for people in his ‘spiritual battle’? Crickets. Because it isn’t just spiritual…these ‘battles’ get blurred into seeing people as evil. Namely, non-Evangelicals or anyone who doesn’t espouse the same beliefs on abortion (ironically not a religious issue until the 1970s, but most of them don’t even know that history), LGBTQ rights, and history that believes America was founded as a Christian nation (it was not).
What is so concerning is the choice to go all in on the spiritual warfare metaphor. When so much of one’s life is consumed by battle language, everything becomes a war. And violence becomes normalized. First metaphorically, then by laws, then by physical force. This is how we got the Crusades; the Christian promotion of the KKK; Christian Nationalism; a Secretary of Defense leading a war in Iran under the belief that our troops are fighting a battle against evil and that the US is protected by God in this ‘good fight’. You see, it never just stays ‘spiritual’. They are giving too much credit to our earthly minds and hearts. If we think other religious beliefs in this world are a force of evil, then that makes other people in this world a force of evil. It just does. And that’s the danger and tragedy of ‘spiritual warfare’.
Living in constant ‘battle mode’, whether mentally, spiritually, or physically, is toxic to our earthly nervous systems. And no, you cannot live in spiritual ‘battle mode’ and shield your body and mind from the effects of that kind of violence prevention vigilance. That’s not how God made us. Remember the ‘Left Behind’ series by Tim LaHaye? His apocalyptic adventures left many of us with a whole other trauma: the Rapture (which theologians also have very disparate opinions and understandings of; No, the Rapture is not a clean concept in the Bible, and many mainline denominations do not believe in the sudden disappearance of Christians at some magical and unknown time). For years, many of us responded to every altar call, just in case, because we lived our lives in constant anxiety of being whisked away from our friends if we didn’t say the right prayer at the right time. That trauma lingers for a lot of us. These beliefs live in our earthly bodies as anxiety and fear.
There is a price to pay for choosing to live an otherwise peaceful and safe life in the USA in a warrior’s mindset. The natural progression is real-life violence- psychological, emotional, spiritual, or physical. Just because there are references to war in the Bible, it doesn’t mean we have to build our entire religious persona on it. Evangelicals don’t double down on avoiding shellfish or not wearing jewelry, both also referenced in the Bible. They will tell you they believe the Bible is the ‘inerrant word of God’ (which most mainline theologians don’t believe) and that every word is ‘God-breathed ‘. But there certainly seems to be some discretion when it comes to how they choose to build their rules.
If we can choose to understand the context of not cutting our hair, staying in separate tents and being ‘unclean’ during menstruation, and not working on the Sabbath (among dozens of other esoteric Biblical rules), I am sure we can read the Bible with the patience it takes to understand the context in which it was written and the context in which we need to use it today…in 2026 when it comes to ‘spiritual warfare’. If we don’t think the Bible can be relevant and dynamic and that God can’t live in new metaphors, we have put God in a tiny box, and we have decided that his purpose is to be a weapon for our biases, not an ever-fresh voice for peace and love in the world we live in now.
Disclaimer: My viewpoints are not necessarily reflective of my employer, or any local, regional or national organization that I belong to. As a matter of fact, I pretty much just speak for myself. Please keep that in mind.
