Victor Marx is dangerous, not evil. The distinction matters enormously. If you think someone has the wrong ideas, you anticipate that those ideas, if put into practice, will have harmful consequences. Challenging bad ideas requires thought, argument, and advocacy.
Calling someone evil, on the other hand, tends to bypass argument and justify, or rationalize, more extreme forms of opposition. That is why Marx is wrong to call his political opponents wicked and to associate them with demons, and that is why Marx is dangerous.
He is not very dangerous, though, given that polling shows him losing badly, that many within the Republican Party despise him, and that Greg Lopez is running a fairly strong independent campaign that will split the Republican vote. Still, insofar as Marx encourages others on the right to demonize their political opponents, he remains dangerous. (I mean “dangerous” in the sense of having bad ideas that would lead to harmful consequences, not in the sense that Marx explicitly embraces.)
The Danger of Scapegoating
We who live in the aftermath of the Holocaust should need little reminding of the potential horrors of scapegoating. Yet it continues to go on all around us, as it went on in the past, as with “witch” murders and various religious conflicts. Here are a few extreme examples:
• Scapegoating is behind much of the horrific ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• “Anti-Rohingya hate speech” accompanied mass violence in Myanmar.
• “Vigilantes in South Africa have carried out violent xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals.”
• “At least 207 people were killed on the orders of the leader of a Haitian gang, who accused the victims of using witchcraft to kill his son.”
I’m not saying that scapegoating rhetoric necessarily leads to violent actions; I’m saying that scapegoating often inspires and helps motivate violence. Yet, despite the obvious dangers of scapegoating, Marx continues to demonize his political opponents.
How Marx Demonizes Others
On September 15, the Marx campaign released a video in which Eileen Marx, Victor’s wife, said, “As we get closer to the election, I’m sensing that God is wanting his people, who were called by his name, to a fast, starting September 21 through October 11. We understand clearly that this is not just an election, but this is a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness.”
Eileen Marx appeared in the video with Lou Engle, who endorsed the fast with prayer, suggested that Victor Marx is “greatly beloved” by God, and predicted that “a miracle could take place in Colorado” in Marx’s political favor. (See also news stories by Peter Montgomery and Kyle Clark.)
Engle, who called the election “a spiritual battle,” has done more than his share of scapegoating. In 2024, reports Montgomery, Engle organized a “Million Women” event in Washington, D.C., timed, as with the Marx fast, to align with Yom Kippur. There, speakers blamed a “demonic principality” for the existence of transgender people and said that Kamala Harris was a “Jezebel,” who in the Bible worshipped false gods, persecuted the righteous, and eventually was fed to the dogs. One speaker said, “We are the light and we will eradicate the darkness that’s on the face of the Earth.” Elsewhere, Engle has said abortion results in “national blood guilt.”
Marx similarly has said demons are behind transgender self-identification. In 2023, Marx said we’re “in a battle between good and evil, demonic, the devil, God and his angels,” and demons can “lie in a person’s mind enough where a kid saying, ‘I think I am a girl.'” And Marx has described abortion as “occultic.” In general, as 9News reports, fighting alleged demons has been at the center of Marx’s religious career.
That said, Marx does not always talk about transgender self-identification in terms of demons. During a radio show with Ross Kaminsky, Marx said that he once struck up a friendly conversation with Caitlyn Jenner and continued a friendly relationship with Jenner, whom he called “he” throughout the radio interview, and he described gender dysphoria as a “mental health issue.” Marx said, “We have to love the person, whoever they are.” So, although Marx hardly is accepting of transgender people as transgender, he tends to describe them as victims of demonic forces. Although still crazy, that’s far less dangerous than casting transgender people as willing participants in demonic plots.
As I’ve pointed out, others in Colorado have used more incendiary language.
Although she did not name Phil Weiser, Marx’s Democratic opponent, in the video, in saying that Marx is running against the “forces of wickedness,” Eileen Marx strongly implied that Weiser is the face of Marx’s wicked opposition.
We must take Eileen Marx’s remark in the aftermath of Sean Pond’s portrayal of Weiser, who is Jewish, with devil horns. Although Pond said he hadn’t even realized Weiser was Jewish, the Anti-Defamation League condemned the imagery as antisemitic. Marx, far from condemning such imagery, replied to Pond’s post on X by saying Republicans must be united against Weiser.
Christianity’s Criticism of Scapegoating
Obviously, strains of Christian doctrine, even if considered misinterpretations, can inspire scapegoating, as with the murders of “witches.”
But Christian theology can also be taken as a powerful argument against scapegoating. René Girard argues that the murder of Jesus was the consequence of “contagious violence” and the ultimate repudiation of such scapegoating. And Jesus’s admonition to “love one another” straightforwardly warns against scapegoating.
Regarding transgender identities and abortion, two key political issues for Marx and Engle, the religious-right position is not grounded in Christian scripture anyway. As I’ve argued, “The Christian Bible does not say anything clearly ruling out a transgender identity.” Likewise, the Bible never directly addresses abortion. (Note: Even if it were the case, counterfactually, that the Bible clearly ruled out transgender identities or abortion, that would not imply that a modern nonsectarian society should base its policies in ancient mythological books.)
The more convincing explanation of some right-wing Christians’ obsession with issues such as transgender identities and abortion is that those issues help organize conservative social and political movements. Waging war against “wicked” enemies can be a lot more motivational than arguing for incremental policy changes. The podcast episode on abortion from “Things Fell Apart” reviews how Francis Schaeffer’s son Frank, through his cinematic ambitions, helped spur the Protestant political movement against abortion; Frank later regretted promoting that movement.
If you call your political opponents “wicked” and say they’re driven by demons, you don’t have to actually make arguments for the merits of your position. You don’t have to try to explain why the psychological dimensions of gender supposedly always must match genitalia in the usual way. You don’t have to justify banning abortion even before a fetus has the capacity for consciousness, even in cases of incest and rape, even at risk to the mother’s health. Wicked, demon-driven people don’t deserve arguments.
Marx and other Colorado Christians of a similar mindset should take a lesson from their own best religious traditions and stop scapegoating people.
