Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 2

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 2

In this multi-part Patheos series on Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, we previously sought to learn what advocates of American Christian Nationalism (ACN) think and feel. This proved difficult, because there are fewer ACNers than telephone booths in an iPhone factory.

Almost all we know about Christian Nationalism is taught by Anti-Christian Nationalism. Even the very definitions of Christian Nationalism are formulated by Anti-Christian Nationalism. Here’s what Christians Against Christian Nationalism tells us.

“Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation.”

What does Anti-Christian Nationalism believe?

As we’ve just mentioned, if you’d like to learn everything about ACN teachings, you’ll have to ask the anti-Christian Nationalists who list ACNer doctrines.

We learn what ACNers believe by reading the torrent of new anti-Christian nationalist books and posts penned by recondite authors such as: Amanda Tyler, Jim Wallis, Kristen Kobes DuMez, Tim Alberta, Anthea Butler, Diana Butler Bass, Julie Ingersoll, Paul D. Miller, Pamela Cooper-White, Angela Decker, Beau Underwood with Brian Kaylor, and Samuel Perry with Andrew Whitehead.

What do these august authors say? They say one thing repeatedly: the enemy of both America and religion is evangelical Christianity.

Now, wait just a darn minute? Who is the enemy again? Is it ACN? Is it MAGA? No. It’s evangelicalism. Really?

Behind the smoke of Christian Nationalism lies the alleged real enemy, namely, Evangelicalism

Ours is an era dominated by ultracrepidarians and broadcasters of fake news. So, I believe we should be wary. Look closely. Just behind the phantasm of ACN hides the real target of Anti-Christian Nationalism’s sniping, namely, evangelical Christianity. For reasons I find difficult to discern, a giant wave of anti-evangelical vitriol is washing over American society like graffiti on a new bridge abutment. Anti-Christian Nationalism spray paints a wonted and repititious form of religio-political street art.

Obery Hendrickson, for example, subtitles his book, Christians Against Christianity, with this: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying our Nation and Our Faith. Right-wing evangelicals, says Hendrickson…

“…shamelessly spew a putrid stew of religious ignorance and political venom that is poisoning our society…” (Hendrickson, 2023).

In short, according to Hendrickson, to be an evangelical religionist is also to be a poisonous religiofascist.

Are evangelicals white racists as well as Christian nationalists?

Frequently, anti-Christian nationalists spice their vituperative fare with the repulsive taste of racial prejudice. Tim Alberta eschews white evangelical racism.

“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 suspect that the two-thirds mentioned here refers to that proportion of white evangelicals who vote for the MAGA Republican ticket, compared to only one third among African American evangelicals. The sleight of hand can be seen in the subtle linguistic movement from Christian Nationalism, on the one hand, to evangelicalism, on the other hand. If ACNers can be described as white racists, suddenly evangelicals become white racists.

Evangelical systematic theologian Roger E. Olson weighs the charge of racism. What weighs heavier is what I’ve been calling ressentiment.

“Am I denying that white American Nationalism is divorced from race and racism? Not at all. But I don’t think racism is its main driving motive. Nor was it ever in “modern times.” Because I know very many people who are sympathetic with American Nationalism in its current form and who were very sympathetic with the Religious Right/Moral Majority in the late 1970s and afterwards, I am convinced the driving force within it is complex but has to do with a perceived drift or shift of American culture away from its 1950s shape into its post-1960s shape.”

Most probably the tiny fraction of Americans engaged in the ACN movement overlap with evangelical traditions. That is, some ACNers are also evangelicals. Yet, the fallacy of composition gets committed when what allegedly describes ACNers is applied to evangelical Christianity as a whole. Or, or even as a defining majority. What is true of a fractional part is not logically true of the whole. Yet, we are being taught by Anti-Christian Nationalism to abhor evangelical Christianity per se. Why?

Evangelical Leaders roundly repudiate Christian Nationalism

It has been my observation that devout evangelical theologians and church leaders roundly denounce ACN.

As I’ve previously reported, I browsed through my Patheos confrere bloggers: Roger E. Olson, Chris Gehrz, Melissa Borja, Nathan Rinne, Joao Chaves, Jim Denison, Jackson Wu, Shan Norwood, and others. I could not find a single evangelical who embraces American Christian Nationalism. Every one of my evangelical as well as progressive Christian colleagues are soldiers marching in the army of Anti-Christian Nationalism. Here is Roger Olson again.

“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.”

Oslon, like so many other evangelical spokespersons, is an infantryman marching with the Anti-Christian Nationalism army.

Pre-Conclusion

I recommend that we listen carefully when we hear the voice of Anti-Christian Nationalism. Yes, indeed, the doctrines of ACN must stand under judgment. Yes, indeed, evangelical political alliances with the MAGA Moscow wing of the Republican Party must stand under scrutiny. But we must listen for more. We must listen for imperious acrimony directed against our evangelical neighbors which could miss the real target — MAGAism — and draw innocent blood.

Here again is my working thesis.

Several Ex-Evangelicals along with Progressive Protestants are displacing their anger at Donald Trump’s MAGA party onto evangelicals by painting evangelicals with the colors of Christian nationalism. That is, Anti-Christian Nationalism blames white evangelicals for Christian nationalism. This is a waste of healthy political energy that should be directed against MAGA Republicans.

Please click on Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism Part 3 to wrap up our introduction of Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism.

PT 3248 Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 2

Christian Nationalism Resources

Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 1

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 2

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 3

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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 Patheos blog site on Public Theology.

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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.

Cooper-White, P., 2021. The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide. Minneapolis MN: Fortress Press.

Decker, A., 2022. Red State Christians: A Journey into White Christian Nationalism and the Wreckage it leaves behind.. New York: Broadleaf.

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.

Hendrickson, O., 2023. Christians Against Christianity: How Right Wing Evangelicals are Destroying our Nation and our Faith. Boston: Beacon.

Heritage, 2023. Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership, Washington DC: Heritage Foundation.

Ingersoll, J., 2015. Building God’s Kingdom. Oxford: Oxford Academic; https://academic.oup.com/book/10399.

Miller, P. D., 2022. The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism?. s.l.:Christian Audio.

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.