Unleashing Operation Epic Fury on neoconservatism in Beyond the Lost Assault
Beyond the Lost Assault is more than a dystopian survival novel. It calls out neoconservatism and Christian nationalism for what it is.
Beyond the Lost Assault is a warning about what happens when ideology and power fuse together. Since Donald Trump reneged on his peace platform—not like I didn’t see it coming—we’ve seen an escalation of Christian nationalist rhetoric in American politics.
We’ve already seen echoes of that dynamic creating controversy. Earlier in March, Senator Tim Sheehy joined Capitol Police in forcibly removing a Marine Corps veteran who interrupted a Senate hearing to protest U.S. involvement in Iran. During the struggle, the protester’s arm was broken after it became pinned in a door—an incident that ignited debate over force, free speech, and political dissent.
We’ve seen pastors praying at the White House. We’ve also seen a contingent of Christian commentators claim that this war is meant to bring about the end times prophesied in biblical scripture. Taken together, moments like these threaten to blur the line between faith and state power.
When violence is justified in the name of ideology—whether religious or political—it always walks the same dangerous road.
Know who else has already walked that dangerous path? The antagonist in Book II of my dystopian survival trilogy, Beyond the Lost. To avoid spoilers, I won’t name drop, but here’s what this cat values:
- Theocracy
- So-called peace through force
- Erasure of any culture or value they don’t like
- Destruction of any book they feel goes against god and its teachings
The Christian nationalist hellbent on bringing about a new world order
They justify their actions in the name of Jesus, the Cross, and the Christian faith. They admit that when someone challenges the community too loudly, they’re “released.” If you ever read The Giver by Lois Lowry, you know where I’m going with the term released.
But they go beyond releasing anyone they deem a threat to the community for simply disagreeing with them and their committee. No, they order their guards to automatically assume people who are walking alone or in small groups near this community are armed drifters. In a best-case scenario, they order their crew to apprehend these people. In the worst? They kill them.
Their short-term goals? Find other post-apocalyptic communities like the one that they built and “offer” a merger. In actuality, they want to forcibly put as many colonies under them as they can. If that colony resists, that’s when the killing starts.
What’s their endgame?
This person wants to help drive out the terrorists who overran America—and who doesn’t? But they’d like to go even further. Driving others out isn’t enough. Not by a longshot.
No, they want to bring about a new kind of America—one with their version of Christianity as the State religion. This means destroying other religious and philosophical symbolism, regardless of how many people they need to kill.
It also means sending their people on missions to burn books on other religions and philosophies. Even modern-day scientific texts are a threat, and they therefore want to destroy as many of those texts as they can.
Once they unleash their plan to rebuild America, then guess what? It’s back to square one—back to the same retaliatory attacks that landed America in the mess it finds itself in to begin with in Beyond the Lost—establish a global military presence, but a more brutal one.
One that doesn’t just set up bases in 80-plus countries. Far from it. An America that leads the West in a violent yet holy war to force a Christian Earth. But that antagonist’s version of Christianity is primitive and violent—and one you’re seeing a few long for right now.
Those are the people the antagonist in Beyond the Lost Assault symbolizes.
The scariest part? Characters like this don’t come from imagination alone
In Aug. 2021, I ran into an individual who I had, for years, gotten a bad vibe around. A few people close to me who I’d talk with—I don’t want to say politics—about the state of affairs in America and across the world, mentioned them.
They’d tell me, “Yeah, TC, (Insert Name) is the one to talk to about this. They know what they’re talking about and what’s going on.”
I never approached them until I had this chance encounter during the COVID “crisis.” I knew what their viewpoint would be on it before they opened their mouth, and it matched my own. To that extent, we agreed on everything.
Then, their true colors showed. They had a vendetta against the so-called modern-day “Axis of Evil”—Iran, Russia, and China. They were the exact useful idiot regarding the Russo-Ukrainian conflict—pulling for Ukraine and soaking up all the pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian propaganda that outlets like Fox News spewed.
And they fell for the “Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism because Fox News told me it was” type. They never claimed to be Republican, but instead said, “I vote Bible.”
This person isn’t what a good Christian looks like
“Voting Bible” hasn’t stopped them from saying heinous things like wishing America would basically do what they’re doing now to Iran. Or fantasizing how not long after the Gaza War started—going after pro-Palestinian protestors and “dropping gloves” with them at their events. They said something else, but I’m not going to write it down.
I can go on for hours, but you get the gist. This antagonist was molded after them. And I’m sure—if you read Beyond the Lost Assault—you could probably relate this antagonist to hardcore Christian nationalists that you know.
But before you read Book II in the series, devour Book I—Beyond the Lost Horizon. This character won’t appear in it, but when you learn Quinn Cozens’ worldview, you’ll know why they’ll butt heads in Book II.
Get Beyond the Lost Horizon at The Rebel Lore Vault.
This article first appeared on The Rogue Scribe.
