Texas pastor Joel Webbon is a radical Christian nationalist who advocates something called general equity theonomy, a far-right Christian theology that asserts that laws and rules set out in the Old Testament still apply today. While those laws and rules may have originally applied to conditions and circumstances specific to the ancient Israelites, general equity theonomists assert that the general principles behind those rules ought to still be in effect today.
This idea was the driving force behind legislation unabashed Christian nationalist pastor and Oklahoma state Sen. Dusty Deevers introduced earlier this year that would have amended the law for "willfully, knowingly and without probable cause [making] a false report" alleging that someone committed a crime by changing the penalty so that those found guilty would face the same punishment that the falsely reported crime carries.
Filing a false report was already illegal in Oklahoma, but Deevers' wanted the legislation changed simply so that the punishment will be in accordance with the Bible, repeatedly citing the Bible's various "eye for an eye" provisions found in the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy.
Webbon, who is a close associate of Deevers', used a recent sermon to advocate for this sort of legislation, asserting that it could be used to publicly execute women who file false reports of sexual assault, which is perfectly in keeping with Webbon's virulent misogyny.
"In Israel, and this should be the law of the land in our country and every country still to this day, this is a timeless principle, a timeless, universal truth," Webbon preached. "If you perjure yourself by bearing false witness accusing somebody else, whatever the penalty would have been for that person had they been found guilty, then that penalty should fall on your head for falsely accusing them."
"So if you accuse in a court of law, falsely accuse someone of murder and it turns out in the final analysis that that person is not guilty of murder," Webbon continued, "and the penalty for murder should be capital punishment—life for life—then you, even though you have not committed murder, because you falsely accused someone else for murder and the penalty for that crime would have been death, you should be put to death."
"If that were to occur and the just penalties were to be enforced, you, the false accuser, is now put to death," Webbon declared. "And that's a public death. It's a public sentence, publicly carried out, then the citizens of these United States of America, you know what they would do? #MeToo would end real fast. False accusing, playing the victim when you're actually not; you know how to end that real fast? All you have to do is publicly execute a few women who have lied."
In 2023, Webbon was among the contributors to a document called “The Statement on Christian Nationalism and the Gospel.” Drafted by Christian nationalists like Deevers, former Trump administration official William Wolfe, and others, the document declared that the United States must formally “acknowledge the Lordship of Christ” in all its laws, “abolish abortion,” outlaw marriage equality, and “recapture our national sovereignty from godless, global entities who present a grave threat to civilization.”
In addition to serving as pastor at Covenant Bible Church in Texas, Webbon is also the founder of Right Response Ministries, through which he organizes events like next year’s “Christ Is King: How To Defeat Trashworld” conference that is scheduled to feature a variety of far-right Christian nationalist activists like Deevers, Steve Deace, Stephen Wolfe, Auron MacIntyre, Andrew Isker, and others.
