Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 3

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 3 August 3, 2024

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 3

Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism

After looking at what American Christian Nationalism (ACN) says about itself and what Anti-Christian Nationalism says about ACN, we turn now to the substance of Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism.

This is a test. It is a test to see whether or not the very concept of Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism can help clarify our options regarding whom to get mad at. If we feel we must vituperate, vilify, and rail against someone, let’s prudently focus on a genuinely worthy target, namely, MAGA Trumpism.

The Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism Quadrilateral

Here is a list of illations that follow on what I’ve already said. Please try this quadrilateral on for size.

  1. Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism does not support Christian Nationalism.
  2. Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism should thank prophetic anti-Christian nationalists such as Amanda Tyler and Jim Wallis for pronouncing public judgment against wannabe autocrats and theocrats. Anti-Christian Nationalism provides essential prophetic content to public theology within this election cycle.
  3. Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism designates MAGA sponsored Trumpism as the genuine threat to both democracy and religious liberty. Not only would another Trump presidency cruelly crush the middle and lower classes under the weight of pay-to-play corruption, the emerging MAGA cult of personality would place Donald Trump on a functionally idolatrous altar.
  4. Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism is critical of Anti-Christian Nationalism for unnecessarily smearing evangelical Christianity at large with the manure belonging to the near simulacrum, Christian Nationalism. Evangelical theologians and leaders are allies with the Anti-Christian Nationalism army.

Conclusion

In this Patheos series on Christian Nationalism, Anti-Christian Nationalism, and Anti-Anti-Christian nationalism, I’ve worked with the following 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 Christian Nationalism Resources to access a series of discussions posted over the last couple of years.

PT 3249 Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism, Part 3

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

Is “Our Confession of Evangelical Conviction” the New Barmen?

Click here.

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

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.

 

About Ted Peters
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 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. He recently published. The Voice of Public Theology, with ATF Press. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com and Patheos blog site on Public Theology. You can read more about the author here.

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