The “Christ Is King” Shibboleth

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As a pastor and professor of theology, you can imagine I’ve been asked a number of questions over the years on a wide variety of topics. But recently, someone asked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas a question related to his Christian faith that I confess has never been posed to me before:

Would he be willing to repeat the phrase “Christ is King?”

And even more surprising was that Cruz seemed to want to skirt the question.

“Look, let me explain my hesitancy,” he began. As the New York Times (NYT) reported:

“A practicing Christian and Southern Baptist, he went on to repeat a loosely worded variation of the phrase, adding that the expression was associated with a ‘weird online phenomenon.... There are some using it in a hateful way.’”

Yes, they are.

Again, from the NYT, worth quoting at length:

The three-word declaration “Christ is King” may sound like a harmless statement of Christian values. But lately it has become the locus of a thorny linguistic debate. On one side sit supporters of America First-style politics, who embrace a nationalism centered on Christian belief and whose loudest voices include the commentators Candace Owens and Nicholas J. Fuentes, both known for their antisemitic views; on the other are conservatives like Mr. Cruz, who believe that the phrase has been weaponized against Jews.

Across the online realm of the far right, the phrase is commonplace, embedded in posts and bandied about on podcasts. On platforms like X, MAGA influencers and young America First conservatives alike can be found posting it as a neutral proclamation.

... the expression has an eye-of-the-beholder quality and can be seen just as frequently in bigoted screeds from more extreme voices. Jake Shields, an MMA fighter turned right-wing podcaster, has used it in a troll-like way against Jews and Muslims. “I use Christ is King because it makes Jews angry,” he wrote once on X….

The flare-up over this phraseology comes during a long-running dispute within the Republican Party over mounting antisemitism within its ranks. Young Republicans, in recent months, have been linked to group chats praising Hitler and sharing bigoted remarks against Jews….

What’s emerged is a still unsettled tug-of-war between a younger cohort of conservatives, drawn to Christian traditionalism and increasingly skeptical of America’s ties to Israel, who view “Christ is King” as a declaration of their faith and political leanings, while an older set of Republicans, firm in their support for the Jewish state, view the phrase as an antisemitic provocation.

Critics have called it a “dialectical trap” intended to “other” Jewish conservatives and drive them out of the right.

In a recent interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr. Cruz said that saying “Christ is King” is just one way of saying “I hate Jews.”

It brought to mind an exhibit I once viewed in London. It stretched 548 feet across the vast, open space of Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern in London, the national gallery of international modern and contemporary art. Titled “Shibboleth,” the Colombian sculptor Doris Salcedo had created a jagged, open crack down the length of the museum’s massive concrete floor. It began small at the top of the slope as a hairline crack, and then widened as it progressed, gaining depth and creating additional, smaller fissures.

The meaning?

From the museum: “A ‘Shibboleth’ is a custom, phrase, or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to a particular social group or class. By definition, it is used to exclude those deemed unsuitable to join this group.” Or from the Oxford English Dictionary, shibboleth is “a word used as a test for detecting people from another district or country by their pronunciation; a word or a sound very difficult for foreigners to pronounce correctly.” 

Delving further into the title’s origins, the museum explained the biblical incident recorded in the book of Judges, “which describes how the Ephraimites, attempting to flee across the river Jordan, were stopped by their enemies, the Gileadites. As their dialect did not include a ‘sh’ sound, those who could not say the word ‘shibboleth’ were captured and executed. A shibboleth is therefore a token of power: the power to judge, reject, and kill… [Salcedo] invites us to look down into it and confront discomforting truths about our world.”

The idea is that such fractures will, in the end, undermine everything that may attempt to rest upon it.

Upon seeing it myself, I resonated with the reviewer in the London Telegraph who wrote: “After I left the hall, ‘Shibboleth’ rattled around in my head all day, and it haunts me still. When I ask myself why, I realize it is because it looks like a wound, a gash that can’t heal. It offers no hope, leaving you feeling as empty as the abyss it opens up beneath your feet.”

Let’s state the obvious. Christ is King. King in the sense of being Lord of all. But not “king” in any type of political sense. His words to Pilate before His sentencing made that patently clear. And certainly not in a purposefully dividing sense outside of theological orthodoxy. The King who is Christ wants nothing more than for everyone to enter His Kingdom. Here’s a taste of how deep this missional current ran in Him:

“Who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting outsiders, not insiders—an invitation to a changed life, changed inside and out.” (Luke 5:32, Msg)

“Your Father in heaven... doesn’t want to lose even one....” (Matthew 18:14, Msg)

“[I] came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10, NIV)

“Go out... into the streets and alleys of the town and bring [them] in.... Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.” (Luke 14:21, 23, NIV)

And what would that Kingdom look and feel like? He was clear on that as well:

“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28, NLT)

So let’s be clear about the dividing lines that necessarily come with Christ as King. Yes, there are some shibboleths that must be erected. This is the heart of Jesus’ teaching of the narrow road and the narrow gate (Matthew 7).

But when His people are the ones erecting such shibboleths, or as Christian journalist and podcaster Mike Cosper has noted, when “Christ is King,” as the phrase is used today, has been largely stripped of any doctrinal meaning and reshaped into a “hostile” cultural signifier,

... one wonders how deep and wide the fracture may grow before we can bring the unifying news of Christ to bear on a deeply fractured world.

Sources

Nathan Taylor Pemberton, “Why Has ‘Christ Is King’ Become a Controversial Statement?” The New York Times, April 23, 2026, read online.

James Emery White, Christ Among the Dragons, get the eBook HERE.

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James Emery White is the founding and senior pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former professor of theology and culture at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, where he also served as their fourth president. His latest book, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age, is now available on Amazon or from your favorite bookseller. To enjoy a free subscription to the Church & Culture blog, visit churchandculture.org where you can view past blogs in our archive, read the latest church and culture news from around the world, and listen to the Church & Culture Podcast. Follow Dr. White on X, Facebook, and Instagram at @JamesEmeryWhite.