Christian Nationalism is on the rise in the USA. What is it? I’m an evangelical, and Evangelicals for Democracy, which opposes Christian Nationalism, has a pretty good definition of it in their brief article, “The Truth About Christian Nationalism.”
Christian Nationalism is a group of professing Christians, mostly among white evangelicals and Pentecostals-Charismatics, who are extremely political and determined to take political control of this nation. Their ideology begins with the premise that the U.S. began as a Christian nation. IMO, that is false!
Yes, Christians had a major influence on the founding of the USA. But that does not make it a Christian nation. Such language suggests that a majority of Americans during the early years of the nation were genuine Christians. I doubt that.
Although our founding fathers likely were more Christian than today’s government leaders, some of our most prominent founding fathers were Deists, such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and Charismatics strongly reject Deism as being Christian.
What is Deism? It is not easy to define, largely because it never really became an organized movement anywhere in the world. Deism existed in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and North America merely as an ideology. But there was no creed or stated essential principles of Deism. The main axiom advocated by Deists was that a deity created the universe and then allowed for it to proceed according to natural laws, thus without divine intervention. Yet Deists debated whether this deity was a personal being or not.
All of this is quite contrary to Christianity as present in the Bible’s New Testament. The Bible presents a personal God who made humans “in the image of God” (Genesis 1.26-27; 5.1; 9.6). So, since we humans are personal beings, the God of the Bible must be a personal being. Furthermore, much of the Bible is about how God enters into the affairs of human beings, thus intervening sometimes. However, I don’t think the Bible indicates that God does that indiscriminately, thereby being deterministic to the point of nullifying human choice, as many so-called Reformed Christians believe.
These Christian nationalists are trying to “take back America for God.” I agree with some of what they advocate. But forcing your religion on others, who will surely resent such a thing, is not the true Christian way as found in the Bible’s New Testament. Consider what Jesus taught, which was not original but in the Torah, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12.31; cf. Matthew 5.44; Leviticus 19.18).
Lauren Boebert is a Christian nationalist politician. She is a young, pretty, Republican Representative from Colorado. She describes herself as “a born-again Christian.” I agree with some of her moral positions which are contrary to the direction our nation has been taking in the past few decades, such as homosexuality and same-sex marriage. Yet she says the concept of separation of church and state is “junk that’s not in the Constitution.” Well, it’s not expressly so stated, but many keen minds in our nation’s history have argued that it is there implicitly, which I believe is correct. For example, if our government adopted a particular religion, such as Christianity, then that would most certainly result in opposition to a basic fundamental of our Constitution, which is the freedom of religion.
Boebart further claims, “the church is supposed to direct the government.” Not so, at least according to the Bible’s New Testament. Directing the government would be the harlot Babylon riding the beast in Revelation 17. That symbolizes man’s religion controlling the government as Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is trying to do with his war in Ukraine. I explain this in my two posts, “Comparing ‘Russian World’ Teaching to Mystery Babylon,” in Part 1 and Part 2. Ms. Boebert should read them.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In