The AP, which allegedly stands for Associated Press but in practice translates to Always Promoting (Kamala), has outdone even its usual self with an October 18, 2024 story bearing the hellfire and brimstone-breathing title “ What’s a ‘Jezebel spirit’? Some Christians use the term to paint Kamala Harris with a demonic brush.” The headline immediately conjures images of angry old white men in large flat-brimmed hats and long black coats spewing venom in backwoods churches filled with backward people. That’s not pulpit pounding you hear; it’s war drum beating! Except it’s not actually drums since drums are the devil’s heartbeat, leading the flock astray with every syncopated beat or something.

The story declares that “some” Christian leaders, more specifically Christian nationalist leaders, are besmirching the fair maiden Kamala as one who bears the “Jezebel spirit.” In case you haven’t cracked open the Old Testament lately, Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, one of Israel’s kings. She was not a nice person. Jezebel worshipped the false god Baal, had assorted prophets killed, and tried to have Elijah killed. In time, she met an appropriately wretched end, featuring her corpse eaten by wild dogs. You don’t get more Old Testament than that. 

Jesus, when He was speaking to John in the beginning of the book of Revelation, used her name in His sharp rebuke to the church in Thyatira.

“To the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets, ‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’

To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations — that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’ — just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give that one the morning star. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Whether Jezebel was this woman’s actual name or being used by Jesus as an illustration of the false teacher’s wicked ways is unknown. The point is she was evil personified and led others astray. Yet, despite this, she was given every opportunity to repent. God is merciful like that.

The expression “Jezebel spirit” never appears in Scripture. Its modern-day usage is to identify someone with a mindset directly contrary to Biblical teachings regarding Christianity’s theological and applied fundamentals. Some used it in the past to disparage women of color, in extreme cases justifying abuse of minorities in complete violation of Scriptural mandates regarding God’s love and sacrifice for all, regardless of skin color.

So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Colossians 3:11)

However, this abominable usage is no longer in practice. While the term has fallen out of general use, ceding control of it or any other such phrase due to previous connotation is playing a fool’s game. We cannot allow the left to use words that once were misused by those who died and were buried long ago as a cudgel against contemporary thought regarding eternal truths.

Back to the AP story. One would be safe in assuming that given its title, its authors would cite multiple examples of people accusing Harris of having a Jezebel spirit; in other words, evil personified. The story provides only one, attributed to Lance Wallnau. Wallnau, whose importance to contemporary culture cannot be understated, is a pastor of no discernible influence on anyone outside his immediate congregation. He is the kind of American Christian “leader” of whom 99.9944 percent of all American Christians have never heard, and the remaining 0.0056 percent don’t care. He is the ministerial equivalent of all hat and no cattle. Nevertheless, the story puffs him up as a leader of the Christian nationalism movement, which, aside from assorted progressive rantings, has had exactly zero effect on current society.

A common leftist tack is seizing on any given member of the lunatic fringe and pushing the notion, via implied guilt by association, that said individual is far more influential than is the case and somehow represents a great fundamental flaw in conservative thought. Kamala Harris’ guilt by association is not rooted in American fundamentalist Christianity or one preacher using an antiquated descriptive phrase. It is through being part of an administration that has wrecked our economy and substantially weakened our national security. The left can attempt to divert attention from their candidates’ shortcomings via whatever attempts at painting the majority with the views of an overzealous few it desires. Most Americans have the wherewithal to see through the ruse. The concern is not whether Kamala Harris has a “Jezebel spirit.” She does not. The spirit that is far more concerning is the jacked-up spirit that has possessed grocery and fuel prices.