Bruce Fanger on Jesus’s Theology of No Kings

Michigan-based digital creator Bruce Fanger has written an insightful and inspiring commentary on “the rebel Christ” and the “theology of No Kings” that he espoused.

I consider Bruce’s commentary to be a timely reality-check for all you claim to be followers of Jesus, myself included. Thank you, Bruce!

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I do not believe Jesus was killed for being kind. Rome did not crucify gentle teachers or pious mystics. Crucifixion was reserved for one crime alone: insurrection. The sign nailed above his head didn’t say Blasphemer – it said, THIS IS JESUS, KING OF THE JEWS. That was not theology. That was treason.

We’ve been told to picture a meek lamb, but no empire executes lambs. During Passover, Rome staged its dominance – Pilate entering Jerusalem from the west on a war horse, iron and banners clattering through the gates like thunder. Jesus answered from the east, not on a stallion, but swaying atop a borrowed donkey, dust rising behind him like laughter at Caesar’s parade. It wasn’t humility. It was mockery. A counter-procession. A rival king with no army – but a crowd.

He wasn’t followed by philosophers or polite fishermen. One of his own was Simon the Zealot – Rome’s word for terrorist. Jesus didn’t gather a book club. He gathered men ready to die for liberation. And when he entered the Temple, he did not tidy altars – he flipped the tables. Silver exploded across stone like shrapnel. That was the financial heart of the priestly elite and Rome’s tax machine. It wasn’t a sermon. It was an act of economic sabotage.

They tested him next with taxes: “Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?” He held the coin up – Tiberius’ face glinting like a false god. “Whose image is this?” Caesar stamped himself divine on the money. Jesus stamped God divine on humanity. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s – and unto God what is God’s.” The coin goes back to the emperor. But you – made in God’s image – belong to no throne.

There it is: the theology of No Kings.

Let’s be honest. Jesus was not killed for preaching love. He was killed because his kingdom threatened theirs. Because his movement cornered both Pilate and Herod – empire and corrupt religion. Pilate feared uprising. Herod feared truth. One washed his hands. The other washed his conscience. Both chose order over justice.

“He took water and washed his hands . . .” Pilate wasn’t innocent. He was convenient. He condemned a man he knew was innocent because neutrality was safer. I see Pilate everywhere today – in judges, in pastors, in neighbors who whisper, “I don’t agree, but it’s not my fight.” Neutrality is empire’s favorite disguise.

What passes today as Christianity is not faith – it is endorsement. A golden calf draped in a flag. An idol with a Bible pressed in its grip. They bless border cages and call it law. They quote Christ and serve Caesar. They would crucify him again and hashtag it patriotism.

I refuse. I do not serve kings. I don’t care if they wear crowns or flags or corporate logos. “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” That is the line. If Jesus returned today, he would not be seated at their prayer breakfasts. He’d be outside the gates – with the migrant, the prisoner, the one empire has declared disposable.

That is why I stand with No Kings. Because faith without resistance is decoration. And silence in the face of empire is betrayal.

Which brings me to October 18.

They will call it chaos. Extremism. Disorder. Let them. October 18 is not about flames – it is about witness. We come not to burn, but to remember the truth Pilate could not wash away: you cannot kill a kingdom of conscience. I will not wash my hands. I will not call injustice “complicated.” I will not stand aside while kings devour the people.

Pilate took the towel.

I take the cross.

No Kings. No Idols. No Silence.

– Bruce Fanger
“The Rebel Christ: Toppling Thrones Then and Now”
October 11, 2025

Related Off-site Links:
Pope Takes Aim at MAGA’s False Gospel – Sophia Tesfaye (Salon, October 12, 2025).
Still No Kings: Millions to Protest Trump On Saturday – Whitney Curry Wimbish (The American Prospect, October 13, 2025).
Republican Leaders Smear Upcoming “No Kings” Marches as “Hate America Rallies” by “Terrorists” – Brad Reed (Common Dreams, October 10, 2025).
Republican Leaders Call “No Kings” Protest a “Hate America” Rally, Baselessly Suggest Terror Link – Arthur Delaney (The Huffington Post, October 10, 2025).
They’re Calling It a “Hate America” Rally – Robert Reich (RobertReich.Substack, October 13, 2025).
Who Are the Real American? We Are – Kirk Swearingen (Salon, October 11, 2025).
We’re All ANTIFA, Donald – John Pavlovitz (The Beautiful Mess, October 9, 2025).
As Trump Escalates Attacks on Dissent, October 18 “No Kings” Protests Set to Be Even Bigger Than June – Julia Conley (Common Dreams, September 30, 2025).


See also the following Wild Reed posts:

JESUS
• The King of Love My Shepherd Is
• Revisiting a Groovy Jesus (and a Dysfunctional Theology)
• Why Jesus Is My Man
• Jesus: Mystic and Prophet
• The Mystic Jesus: “A Name for the Unalterable Love That All of Us Share”
• Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
• Jesus and Social Revolution – Part 1 | 2 | 3
• Mysticism and Revolution
• Jesus: Our Guide to Mystical Love in Action – Part 1 | 2 | 3
• Palm Sunday: A Sacred Paradox
• The “Incident” in the Temple
• Jesus: The Upside-down Messiah
• Time to Grow Up
• The Model of Leadership Offered by Jesus: “More Like the Gardener Than the Owner of the Garden”


CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
• Bowing to an Idol
• James Greenberg on the Identity Politics of MAGA
• Memes of the Times – September 2025


THE RISE OF FASCISM IN THE U.S.
• Derek Johnson on the “Courage to Call Fascism by Its Name”
• “This Is Fascism”
• “This Is How Democracy Unravels”
• Jason Stanley on How Fascism Works
• James Greenberg on Trumpism: “The Tactics Are Unmistakable”
• Tony Pentimalli on Trump’s “Death Warrant for Democracy”
• The “Creeping Fascism of Trump’s America”: A View from Australia
• “This Is What Fascism Looks Like”
• Ralph Nader: “We’re Heading Into the Most Serious Crisis in American History”
• Why the Democratic Party Is Not Going to Save Us From Fascism
• Butch Ware: Quote of the Day – October 6, 2025
• Jason Duchin: Quote of the Day – September 24, 2025
• Peter Bloom: Quote of the Day – June 10, 2025
• James Greenberg: “I Am in Mourning for America”
• An Incident That Feels “Ripped from a Dystopian Novel”
• Will Potter on Trump’s War on Dissent: “This Is What Fascists Do”
• Staying Strong in Trump’s Fascist America
• The Silencing of Jimmy Kimmel: “This Is What Fascism Looks Like in Practice”
• Garrett Graff: “America Tips Into Fascism”
• Marianne Williamson: “We’re Moving Into Totalitarianism”
• Jason Duchin: “It’s Here, and We Are Sleepwalking Through It”
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad on Donald Trump’s Militarization of Law Enforcement
• Brent Molnar on the “Cold War in Our Own House”
• James Greenberg: “The Choices We Make Matter”
• Brent Molnar on the MAGA Cult and Its Intentions
• The Choice Before Us
• “This Is Essentially Viktor Orbán’s Playbook”
• Historian John Lestrange on the Meaning and Manifestations of Fascism, Past and Present
• “To Be a Rib in This Body of Our Country”
• The Declaration of Resistance
• “No Kings”? Absolutely. But Also “No Oligarchy”
• The “No Kings” Protests of June 14, 2025

Image: Artist unknown.