{"id":122987,"date":"2025-10-06T15:10:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T19:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/?p=122987"},"modified":"2025-10-09T18:42:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T22:42:39","slug":"pastoral-leadership-in-a-time-of-christian-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/anxiousbench\/2025\/10\/pastoral-leadership-in-a-time-of-christian-nationalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastoral Leadership in a time of Christian Nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We hear much about Christian nationalism these days, and for good reason. Pastors, pundits, and presidents alike champion control and dominance as means to recover an imagined, nostalgic, strong Christian America. While <\/span>most Americans (70%) remain skeptics or rejectors of Christian nationalism, the ideology is embraced at higher levels by older, less educated, and churchgoing Americans. <\/span>Around half of those who attend religious services weekly or more qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents or Sympathizers (51%)<\/span><\/a>. The Church is split, almost evenly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent research also finds, somewhat surprisingly, that pastors play a large role in how congregants view Christian <\/span>nationalism. In her recent article, <\/span>\u201cWe Should all be Christian Nationalists\u201d: Elite Influence on Identification with Christian Nationalism,\u201d<\/span><\/a> Amy Brooke Gauley argues that \u201celite cues\u201d\u00a0 \u201csignificantly affect identification\u201d for those without strong pre-existing views. People in the pews are looking to their spiritual leaders for guidance about how to think about issues of faith and power. As Gauley concludes: \u201c<\/span>elite discourse plays a powerful and enduring role in shaping public support for Christian Nationalism.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So how should pastors think and talk about Christian nationalism? That was the urgent question taken up last week by invited scholars, clergy, students, and laypeople at Candler Seminary at a conference dedicated to <\/span>\u201cPastoral Leadership in a Time of Christian Nationalism.\u201d <\/span><\/a>\u201c<\/span>In a time when Christian nationalism is gaining both cultural and political traction,\u201d the organizers asserted, \u201cthe work of pastoral leadership requires renewed theological reflection, moral clarity, and prophetic courage.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over two days, a slate of four speakers offered their perspectives on the current historical and theological moment we face. <\/span><\/p>\n

First,\u00a0 Dr. Kristin Kobes du Mez, author of <\/span>Jesus and John Wayne<\/span><\/i><\/a> (and former Anxious Bench-er)\u00a0 spoke on \u201cJesus and John Wayne and the Evangelical Reckoning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Next, Tim Alberta a journalist and\u00a0 author of <\/span>American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump <\/span><\/i><\/a>(2019) and <\/span>The Kingdom, The Power and the Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Extremism<\/span><\/i><\/a> (2023), gave a lecture\u00a0 \u201cA Ringside Seat to the Messianic Revolution.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The following day, Dr. Matthew Taylor, author of <\/span>The Violent Take it by Force<\/span><\/i><\/a>, then gave a moving sermon, \u201cRender Unto Ceasar: Preaching the Gospel in an Era of Christian Power,\u201d before Katherine Stewart, author of, among others, the recent <\/span>Money, Lies, and God<\/span><\/i><\/a>, spoke on \u201c Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Though varied in emphasis and scope, taken together, three themes emerged:<\/span><\/p>\n

The danger of this moment<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every speaker addressed this. Kristin explained how fellow Christians tried to get her fired, they made \u201cunscholarly\u201d criticisms of her work, and most troublingly,\u00a0 they lied about her in dehumanizing language. A historian at a Christian university, a professing believer in Christ, Kristin was labeled \u201c a child of the Devil,\u201d a \u201cfalse teacher.\u201d With an academic background that includes expertise in the German Christian Movement, Kristin explored how such language serves to permit cruelty, disdain, and hatred and to sanction authoritarianism. Social media and the commercial dissemination of bad history and bad theology adds to the problem, as people are radicalized online. Katherine addressed the flow of capital into authoritarian efforts, the \u201cwell-networked machine\u201d of think tanks, private organizations and right-wing individuals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Theological Conflict inherent in Christian nationalism and the Gospel of Jesus\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tim and Matthew in particular addressed the divergent understandings of Christianity at the heart of the conflict between professing Christians in regard to religious authoritarianism. Framing his remarks around Jesus\u2019 entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, that showdown of powers, Tim encouraged those opposed to Christian nationalism to address it using the gospel of Jesus. He claimed: Bad politics plagues us, but good politics cannot save us; bad communication plagues us, but good media cannot save us; \u201cbad theology plagues us but good theology can in fact save us!\u201d Christian pastors should assert this \u201cgood theology\u201d in the face of Christian nationalism, recovering the Jesus, who, on a confrontation course with Pilate, rejected earthly power and domination, even as those with a \u201cringside seat\u201d to the triumphal entry call for him to save them from Rome. \u201cFrom the front lines,\u201d he implored, \u201cthe only thing that can change people is the theology piece of it.\u201d Matthew Taylor, too, movingly explored the theological crisis, comparing it to Matthew\u2019s account of the gospel of Caesar and the gospel of Jesus. Both Caesar and Jesus declared divine evangelion. Caesar\u2019s way was that of power and dominance and prosperity, Jesus\u2019s one of suffering, serving, and sacrifice. Too often, though, Christendom had tried to have both ways, with devastating effects. What do we do when Ceasar is\u2026Christian? Taylor encouraged that \u201cwe must recover the gospel of powerlessness and marginality in every pulpit\u2026the subversive gospel of Jesus.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The need for courage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every single speaker asked the pastors and students assembled to have courage. These are dark days, full of uncertainty, that will require the bravery to speak out and resist. Kristin concluded her remarks with admonitions from Hanna Reichl and from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, encouraging pastors to not obey in advance, to avoid complicity, to boldly proclaim the gospel of Christ, and to resist the \u201cworship of power.\u201d \u00a0 Tim, too, encouraged folks to love their Christian nationalist neighbors, to engage them theologically, to reach out. Matthew, by describing the powers of empire, reminded listeners of the subversiveness of their faith. Bearing the eikon of God, Christians must see the ceasars for what they are: fading \u201ctinpot tyrants\u201dand treat them as such. Even if we die, he reminded Christians, we live. Finally, Katherine urged vigilance. \u201cDon\u2019t despair,\u201d she concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Q & A response was informative and ranging, with questions about the role of social media, political means and ends, about subgroups and the role of Pentecostalism<\/a>.\u00a0 Overall, it was an important gathering at a critical moment. The speakers were unflinching in their assessment of the moment we are in, rife with religious extremism and authoritarianism. But they were also resolute in encouraging theological defenses of the gospel, Christian subversion, and pastoral courage. Conferences like the one at Candler offer space for those Christians who are not Christian nationalists to see that they are not alone and to gather courage and insight for the theological crisis they are in.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We hear much about Christian nationalism these days, and for good reason. Pastors, pundits, and presidents alike champion control and dominance as means to recover an imagined, nostalgic, strong Christian America. While most Americans (70%) remain skeptics or rejectors of Christian nationalism, the ideology is embraced at higher levels by older, less educated, and churchgoing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4702,"featured_media":123095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8728,475,28,8977],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-122987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ansley-lillian-quiros","category-boenhoffer","category-christian-nation","category-christian-nationalism"],"yoast_head":"\nPastoral Leadership in a time of Christian Nationalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We hear much about Christian nationalism these days, and for good reason. 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