Roger Olson on Christian Nationalism

Roger Olson on Christian Nationalism

Roger Olson can spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing. He can discern the spirits. And he discerns that the spirit of White American Christian Nationalism (WACN) is the spirit of idolatry.

Roger Olson is not alone. He keeps company with other evangelical spokespersons such as Sojourners’ Jim Wallis; Christianity Today’s Russell Moore; and the Executive Director of Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Amanda Tyler.

 Roger Olson, is convinced that WACN is idolatrous and says so. “Contemporary white Christian Nationalism has gone off the rails and mixed a kind of fascist ideology of Americanism, a religion, with Christianity in an idolatrous way.”

Meet Roger Olson

In this series on Measuring Christian Nationalism, I introduced American Baptist Roger Olson as my favorite evangelical systematic theologian. We first met in Munich some years ago, where both of us sat at the feet of the indominable Wolfhart Pannenberg. In the decades since, he served as Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at George W. Truett Seminary, Baylor University. He is now emeritus. Today he publishes an informative and insightful Patheos blog I highly recommend you follow.

Roger and I are playing Patheos Pickle Ball. See what he just posted on his website, “Is American Christian Nationalism a Threat?”

Now, let’s get to interviewing Roger Olson on WACN.

1. Roger, I have long admired your work in systematic theology. How do you define the gospel of Jesus Christ? Do you think we should identify evangelical Christianity by its theology or by its political alliance?

Roger Olson: I believe we should identify evangelical Christianity by its spirituality and theology combined. The spirituality is experience of God through faith in Jesus Christ. The theology is the extrapolation of the gospel which is that God has reconciled the world to himself by grace through Jesus Christ and that our faith in him is enough; good works are results of salvation, not its cause.

2. What is the primary criticism you make against White American Christian Nationalism?

Roger Olson: White American Christian nationalism inappropriately mixes something other than Jesus Christ with the gospel. It elevates America to the status of an idol. Nothing, no one, deserves to be placed on a plane with Jesus Christ. Nationalism uses the rhetoric of idolatry.

3. How do you handle the “White” in “White American Christian Nationalism” (WACN)?

Roger Olson: I say “white American Christian nationalism” because few African-Americans are guilty of the idolatry of Americanism. They may be and many are patriots, but they well know and talk freely of America’s faults and failures. Today’s American Christian nationalism is almost exclusively white.

4. How can you distinguish between WACN and American Evangelicalism? What do you believe are the responsibilities of our evangelical colleagues during this presidential election year?

Roger Olson: American evangelicalism is a spiritual-theological ethos or posture. Even if the majority of people who call themselves “evangelicals” embrace WACN, that does not infect the historical-spiritual-theological ethos of evangelicalism which thrives around the world and America has no monopoly on it.

5. What else would you like to say?

Roger Olson: I do not give up calling myself an evangelical because I identify with world evangelicalism, not just American evangelicalism as a movement caught up in a current and hopefully passing fad of nationalism.

Conclusion

I think all of us in the liberal or progressive Christian camp should be grateful for Roger Olson and evangelical leaders like him who prophetically denounce WACN as idolatry. When this critique comes from within the evangelical camp, then the warrant evaporates for those outside the camp to assail evangelicalism in its entirety.

PT 3238 Roger Olson on Christian Nationalism

PT 3200 Christian Nationalism Resources

PT 3230 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 0

PT 3231 Measuring Christian Nationalism, Part 1: 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 Gender and Race in Christian Nationalism, Parts 7,8: Gender & Race?

PT 3238 Roger Olson on Christian Nationalism

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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. 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. He recently published. The Voice of Public Theology, with ATF Press. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com and blog site on Public Theology.

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