The bill, which is sponsored by 10 state representatives and two state senators, was submitted on January 30 by GOP Rep. Nico Rios and reads as if it were written by a theologian.
“Christ said all power is given to me in heaven and in earth (Matthew, 28:18), not only spiritual, but civil, including over this great state,” it states. “Christ is named the ruler of Kings on earth and the King of Kings and presented with crown and royal robe (Revelation 1:5, 17:14, 19:12-13, 16).”
The one-page resolution then calls on North Dakota to “acknowledge the Kingship of Jesus Christ over all the world so that this great state may at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace, and harmony.”
At present, the Republican Party has a stranglehold on North Dakota’s legislature. It controls 42 out of 47 seats in the state senate and 82 out of 94 seats in the state house. Whether GOP Governor Kelly Armstrong is inclined to approve the measure should it ever be passed remains to be seen, though hearings are scheduled to begin this week on Thursday, February 13.
Rios previously worked for Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz in Washington, D.C., before running for office in North Dakota, where he won a seat in the state house in 2022. His bill is sure to engender intense reaction among both liberals and conservatives across the U.S. Local media has already pushed back against it by pointing to the First Amendment.
But critics seem to forget that that was intended to prevent the federal government from having an established religion. Many states in the late 1700s did have ties to specific religious denominations.
What the practical impact of Rios’ bill might be is rather unknown, as it does not call for specifics and seems more like a symbolic gesture meant to honor Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
At the same time, one day before Rios filed his resolution, a measure calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its 2015 ruling that redefined “marriage” to include persons of the same sex was also introduced. That proposal criticizes the court’s decision as “dangerous fiction.”
LifeSite has confirmed that Rios’ resolution was written by Christian Wagner, a popular Catholic writer who uses social media to promote the faith.
The document that he drafted includes language that mirrors the teachings of past Catholic popes, especially Pope Pius XI, who, 100 years ago in his 1925 encyclical Quas Primas, affirmed, “when once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
The pontiff also noted that “it would be a grave error, on the other hand, to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs, since, by virtue of the absolute empire over all creatures committed to Him by the Father, all things are in His power.”
Discussions over the Kingship of Christ went viral last year after Candace Owens was forced to leave the Daily Wire because she frequently invoked the phrase on X and on her podcast.
Executives at the
company, which is run by Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro, claimed the phrase had “anti-Semitic” connotations.