You Might Be A Christian Nationalist If…

Over the past couple of days I read a great book called, Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives (Wilkens and Sanford).  One of the “cultural stories” that this book covers is a common theme on this blog: nationalism.  We live in a nation whose citizens often put the cross and the flag together.  Acknowledging this, the authors offer up something of a litmus test for determining if nationalistic pride has co-opted the Kingdom of God.  In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy’s “you might be a redneck if…” and in the same vein as the most popular article on this site (You Might Be an Evangelical Reject If),

You Might Be A Christian Nationalist If…

1. You believe that God’s plan for history would be severely hampered if the United States did not exist in a hundred years, twenty-five years, or even next year (66).
2. You find it unthinkable that a citizen would not be able to pledge allegiance to the flag or sing the national anthem for religious reasons (67).
3. You think that our Declaration of Independence embodies eternal principles or that the Constitution should never be changed (68).
4. You believe that our nation would finally be OK if it would just get back to “how it was” at some earlier stage of our history (70).

Those are the four reasons the authors give that someone might embrace nationalism.  Sadly, these ideas are expressed amongst Evangelicals more often than we want to admit.

So I ask you, what would you add to the list?  Here are a couple from me:

• You would be offended if the church you attend removed the flag from the sanctuary.
• You appeal more to the Constitution and less to the biblical narrative when having a political conversation as a *Christian.*

How might you answer the statement:

You Might Be A Christian Nationalist If… ?