Christian Nationalism on our Doorstep

Christian Nationalism on our Doorstep

I still have never met a Christian nationalist. Yet, my progressive friends in Berkeley warn me to beware of a fire breathing dragon: Christian nationalism on our doorstep. Watch out! Be careful! Protect our country from theocracy!

If you’ve been reading this Patheos series on Resentment vs Compassion, then you know I’ve been wondering if Christian nationalism might be a social imaginary created by anti-Trump progressives to scapegoat evangelicals.  But, I’m now wondering if I might be mistaken about this. Might I have to change my mind? There really might be a Christian nationalism on our doorstep. Even evangelicals are warning us to beware.

Christian Nationalism on the Republican Party Doorstep

“More than half of Republicans support Christian nationalism, according to a new survey,” reports Ashley Lopez for NPR. Lopez draws our attention back to an early 2023 PRRI survey which I cited some months ago. More than half of Republicans believe the country should be a strictly Christian nation, it is reported. These Republicans either adhere to the ideals of Christian nationalism (21%) or they sympathize with those views (33%). This amounts to a large portion of America’s population. Even though I’ve not met one Christian nationalist, this is evidence that they exist in large numbers. Right?

Just as an aside, frequently overlooked is that fact that the PRRI survey reports that 38% of Black Protestants are either adherents to Christian nationalism or sympathizers. For those who wish to pin racism on “White Christian Nationalism“, this statistic should be sobering. Just what is going on here?

Christian Nationalism on America’s doorstep

The Center for Renewing America waves the flag for Christian nationalism. Here’s its mission.

“Our mission is to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals’ enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities.”

Politico warns that this is ominious. OMB director “Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget during his first term and has remained close to him,” write Alexander Ward and Heidi Pryzbla, “is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power.” If this proves true, Christian nationalism lurks on America’s doorstep.

Note that Christian Nationalism looks like a political movement, not a religious movement.

Christian Nationalism on the Evangelical Doorstep

Tim Alberta is the new savant in town. His recent book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory (Harper Collins 2023), roots today’s Christian nationalism in the period of the televangelists of the 1970s if not earlier. I remember this period. My progressive friends had been crusaders for civil rights and complained that the evangelical Protestants remained too aloof from politics. But that all changed in the 1970s when Pat Robertson, Tammy Faye and her husband Jim Baker, along Jerry Falwell Sr. took to the airwaves in support of the Republican Party.

Crystal Cathedral’s Robert Shuler, though ever as popular as the evangelicals, was a liberal Protstant without Republican baggage. I recall Shuler telling us in the audience of a seminar, “the first principle of successful evangelism is excess parking.”

Be that as it may, it was the contract between fundametnalist Jerry Falwell Sr. and presidential candidate Ronald Regan that sealed the Republicanization of America’s conservative Christians. A similar pact was concocted between Jerry Falwall Jr. and Donald J. Trump.

Now, I ask: is this what we mean by Christian nationalism on our doorstep? Yes, according to Alberta’s sensitive historical depiction. Alberta describes the previous generation of evangelical leaders as willing to sell their sychophant souls to political power and filthy lucre.

While your at it, watch Alberta’s inspiring interview by the Trinity Forum. While you’re at it watch Rob Reiner’s documentary, “God and Country.”

My observation is still this: all major evangelical spokespersons eschew Christian nationalism. Patheos columnist and senior evangelical theologian, Roger E. Olson, for example, is most dismissive. “Today’s American Christian Nationalism is a form of folk religion. It is clearly disconnected from history…revelation…and critical thinking. It is a form of group think and smacks of cultism, especially when takes a political form such as Trumpism. And it is based on a veneration, if not worship, of America (feeling).”

When Christian nationalism is not on our doorstep

Writing in the New York Times, David French reminds us that it’s a wholesome to have one’s religious values inform one’s political outlook.

“It is not Christian nationalism if a person’s political values are shaped by the individual’s Christian faith. In fact, many of America’s most important social movements have been infused with Christian theology and Christian activism.”

That’s the positive formulation of a religious commitment that calls our nation to high moral ideals. Christian Ethicists Without Borders makes the same point negatively by rejecting religious nationalism.

• We reject the idolatrous notion of a national god. God cannot be reduced to “America’s god.”

Conclusion

If smart people such as Tim Alberta and Roger Olson tell me to beware of the Christian nationalism on our doorstep, I will stand guard. I hope that that Christian nationalism on our doorstep never knocks.

This post is PT 3217: Christian Nationalism on our Doorstep

In previous posts in this Resentment vs Compassion series, I’ve employed the term, White American Christian Nationalism (WACN). For additional discourse clarification and analysis, try some of these.

Part 1: From Resentment to Ressentiment

Part 2: From Ressentiment to Reparations

Part 3: Russian Christian Nationalism

Part 4: American Christian Nationalism

Part 5:” Ressentiment in the White ‘n’ Woke Unhappy Consciousness

Part 6: Ressentiment with Compassion

Part 7: Christian Nationalism’s Decline Narrative

Part 8: The Unhappy Consciousness Narrative

Part 9: To Slay the Christian Nationalist Dragon

Part 10: Don’t trust your pastor

Part 11: Christian Nationalism vs Anti-Christian Nationalism

Part 12:. A More Compassionate America? Trump Tyranny.

Part 13: Christian Nationalism versus the Vermin Curse

Part 14: Does Anti-White Christian Nationalism Scapegoat Evangelicals?

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For Patheos, Ted Peters posts articles and notices in the field of Public Theology. He is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science, with Robert John Russell on behalf of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California, USA. His single volume systematic theology, God—The World’s Future, is now in the 3^rd edition. He has also authored God as Trinity plus Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society as well as Sin Boldly: Justifying Faith for Fragile and Broken Souls. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com.

His new 2023 book, The Voice of Public Theology, has just been published by ATF Press.

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