Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 1: A Christian Nation?
In Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 0, we adumbrated our list of 8 traits that identify a genuine American Christian Nationalist (ACN). We pointed out that these traits are more often identified by Christians Against Christian Nationalism (CACN) along with social scientists who represent Secularists Against Christian Nationalism (SACN). We also noted that evangelical (EV) theologians and other spokespersons roundly renounce ACN. To these witnesses we now turn for measuring Christian Nationalism.
Should this be a Christian nation? Let’s measure Christian Nationalism by Traits listed by Whitehead and Perry along with Pamela Cooper-White.
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“The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation.”
ACN. Yes. But it’s complicated. “It is evident enough that for most of United States history Americans thought of themselves as a Christian people,” writes Stephen Wolfe in his The Case for Christian Nationalism (Wolfe, 2023, p. 389). Even though the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution proscribes a federal establishment of religion, the states retain this option. And there is good precedent. “Despite the fact that the Constitution lacks Christian language, we cannot forget that the American people in the founding era and early American republic were Protestant Christians, animated by religious concerns, who viewed themselves as a Christian people and relied on Protestant principles and biblical argumentation” (Wolfe, 2023, p. 429). Yes, America is a Christian nation whether the federal government declares it or not.
BCN. “From the time Cadillac brought the first slave to Detroit in 1701 to plant crops and construct buildings to the tumultuous 1960s and 1970s, Black people were subjugated by a brutal racist oppressive system” (McIntosh, 2021, p. 7). If this is what a so-called Christian nation has done to its citizens of African American heritage, then defining America in this way would not attract BCN.
CACN. “The civil rights movment argued that America had never been a country of liberty and justice for all,” observes Kristin DuMez in Jesus and John Wayne (DuMez, 2020, 37).
SACN. “White Christian nationalists believe that America should be a Christian nation,” according to social scientists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry (Gorski & Perry, 2022, p. 5),
CACN. “Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that claims America was founded to be a Christian nation where Christians should receive special legal treatment not available to non-Christians,” according to Julie Nichols’ in the “All Texans, Not Some Texans” channel of Patheos.
CACN. “America is not a Christian nation,” exclaims Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening, to counter ACN. Bass speaks from within the evangelical camp but in calumnous criticism of evangelicalism.
CACN. In his widely read treatise, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, Tim Alberta fears that pro-Trump extremists are pirating the citadels of the biblical gospel and looting Christian fervor.
“Roughly two-thirds of white evangelicals either explicitly supported the notion of Christian nationalism or were sympathetic to it. The share of white evangelicals who expressed support for certain ideas—that the government should declare Christianity the state religion; that being Christian is an important part of being an American; that God has called on Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of society—dwarfed that of white mainline Protestants, white Catholics, and Protestants of color. The research established a clear link between Christian nationalist ideology and racism, xenophobia, misogyny, authoritarian and anti-democratic sentiments, and an appetite for political violence”(Alberta, 2023, p. 434).
I note that Alberta is reporting on evangelical sympathy with ACN, not ACN itself. Yes, indeed, when 75% to 80% of America’s evangelicals support the MAGA-Moscow wing of the Republican Party, there is reason for alarm within the evangelical camp. But again, this does not justify a mob mindset by progressives against evangelicals. We must celebrate those within the evangelical fold who see how the gospel critiques ANC heresy and its followers. We turn now to such evangelicals.
EV. Anti-Christian Nationalists among evangelicals are sure that Christian nationalists “assert that America is and must remain a Christian nation—not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future,” according to Paul D. Miller writing for the widely read evangelical organ, Christianity Today. Miller is also author of a book, The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism?
EV. In his Patheos post, “Christian Nationalism as Folk Religion,” systematic theologian Roger Olson minces no words. “The influencers of American evangelical-orthodox Christianity are too silent about this contemporary shape of American Christian Nationalism. I am looking to them to condemn it without qualification. They need to call out as idolatrous those churches that include in worship more than thankfulness to God for the blessings he has bestowed on America, going so far as to hold worship services that focus all attention on America to the displacement of Jesus Christ or to the demotion of Jesus Christ as co-savior with America.” Like progressive critics of evangelicalism, this evangelical also critiques evangelicalism for fraternizing with ACN.
Preclusionary Summary
Proponents of Black Christian Nationalism are working toward a society within a society where people of African American descent enjoy identity, equality, and justice. Achieving such a society will require more than what federal legislation alone could achieve. It will require a change in spirit, a cultural conversion.
American Christian Nationalists might like a state declaration that defines the United States as a Christian nation. One implication is that the Christian religion would receive a privileged position. Yet, ACNers make room for religious pluralism and for persons who wish to be non-religious. After all, religious faith is a matter of the inner heart and could not be affected by federal legislation.
Christians Against Christian Nationalism and Secularists Against Christian Nationalism fear the ACN agenda would lead to an oppressive theocracy. CACNers and SACNers want us to believe that theocracy is the agenda of the entire evangelical establishment.
Evangelical theologians and spokespersons for the most part oppose a federal declaration of this nature. Like the CACNers and SACNers, EV’s fear an ACN religious tyranny and so defend religious freedom against a declaration that the US is a Christian nation.
For more traits of ACN, click on the next post.
PT 3231 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 1
PT 3230 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 0
PT 3231 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 1: A Christian nation?
PT 3232 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 2: Christian Values?
PT 3233 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Parts 3,4: Church-State Separation?
PT 3235 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Parts 5,6
PT 3237 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Parts 7,8
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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 3rd 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.
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References
Alberta, T. (2023). The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism. New York: Harper.
Butler, A. (2021). White Evangelical Racism. Chapel Hill NC: The University of North Carolina Press.
Cleage, A. (1972). Black Christian Nationalism: New Directions for the Black Church. New York: William Morrow.
Cooper-White, P. (2021). The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide. Minneapolis MN: Fortress.
Denker, A. (2022). Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters Who Elected Donals Trump. Minneapolis MN: Fortress.
DuMez, K. K. (2020). Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. New York: Norton.
Gorski, P., & Perry, S. (2022). The Flag and the Cross: Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McIntosh, S. (2021). Memoirs of a Black Christian Nationalist: Seeds of Liberation. New York: Merill Publishing.
Peters, T. (2023). The Voice of Public Theology. Adelaide: ATF.
Whitehead, A., & Perry, S. (2022). Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wolfe, S. (2023). The Case for Christian Nationalism. Moscow ID: Canon Press.
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