A Closer Look at Christian Nationalism

As a time of reflection, fasting, and repentance, Lent provides space for us to reorient ourselves towards God. This season is meant to feel heavy and in the context of 2020, these 40 days may feel extraordinarily painful for some. From the last few months alone, we have plenty to grieve as a nation and as individuals: Christian nationalism, racism, sexism, xenophobia, the rampant spread of misinformation, as well as illness and economic hardships brought on by the COVID pandemic.  

Christian nationalism, in particular, has my attention at the moment. Through a few books and articles, and as I’ve watched current events unfold, I’ve noticed a few similarities with purity culture. The theological concept or interpretation of “purity” is not isolated to purity culture, but in fact extends to other harmful beliefs popular in evangelicalism and conservative religious spaces, specifically through Christian nationalism. This post focuses on identifying Christian nationalism, while in a forthcoming post, we’ll compare it to purity culture.

Defining Christian Nationalism 

Christian Nationalism is built upon a foundation of myths. The primary myths include: 

• The United States of America was established as a Christian nation.  
• Only as a Christian nation can religious freedom truly exist. 
• To be a good American is to be a good Christian.  

“Christian nationalism is a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life…the “Christianity” of Christian nationalism represents something more than religion. As we will show, it includes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism. It is as ethnic and political as it is religious” 

— Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States

Christian nationalism thrives when opposition is present. Michelle Goldberg says, “Christian nationalism, like most militant ideologies, can exist only in opposition to something. Its sense of righteousness depends on feeling besieged, no matter how much power it amasses… Their loathing is transformed into virtue.” If we break these two myths down further, we’ll notice some interesting trends, both historical and present-day: 

To a Christian nationalist, morality cannot be found outside of the Bible and/or Christian religion. This becomes a fight for moral authority, or a theocracy, under the guise of “religious freedom.”  

• “Fleeing religious persecution is not the same as seeking religious freedom.” Constitutional and civil rights attorney, Andrew Siedel confronts the troubling idea that Judeo-Christian values are built into the original documents and intentions of those who “founded” the United States. He says, “The Christian nationalists are arguing that a Christian nation is the basis of religious freedom, but also a prerequisite. In truth, religious freedom is not possible in a Christian nation or any other theocracy. The concepts are mutually exclusive; each destroys the other.”
• Law professor, Caroline Corbin, argues legislative bodies that hold Christian prayer in higher esteem are not only offensive, but harmful, “…for the government to align itself with only and always one religion is to send a message that one, there is one true religion and that two, adherence to that religion is the approved way be a true citizen of the polity. All those who do not bow their heads with the government do not belong in the same way (or at all). In short, the government’s prayers create an in-group (Christians) and an out-group (non-Christians).”
• The Southern Poverty Law Center found the vision statement for the Council for National Policy to reflect nationalism: “A united conservative movement to assure, by 2020, policy leadership and governance that restores religious and economic freedom, a strong national defense, and Judeo-Christian values under the Constitution.”

“Purity,” as it is related to a “Christian” nation, often manifests itself in the fear of different religions, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, science, feminism, interracial marriage, secularism, etc.  

• Goldberg observes, “There’s a free floating anxiety that easily metastasizes into paranoia and hatred for the same enemies always targeted by authoritarian populist movements – homosexuals, urbanites, foreigners, intellectuals, and religious minorities. Rationality is losing hold; empirical evidence is discounted as the product of a secular worldview or a scheming liberal elite.”
• In 2018, the American Values Survey found that a majority (54%) of white evangelical protestants believe the U.S. “becoming majority-nonwhite nation in the future will be mostly negative.” At 57%, they are also “the only major religious group in which a majority believe that immigrants threaten American society [and] traditional Americans customs and values.”
• In their 2015 study on Christian nationalism and opposition to interracial marriage, Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead found “…for many white Americans, the idealized image of a Christian nation implies a nation where racial boundaries are fortified and white racial heritage is protected.”
• Many conservative Christians resist science, whether in the form of teaching evolution in schools, comprehensive sex education, climate change or environmental care, or as recently observed, COVID precautions or vaccines.

The language of militarization, hyper-masculinity, and violent dominance colors the Christian nationalist’s vision for society and family life. As mentioned before, Manifest Destiny and the Doctrine of Discovery, and other acts of colonization in the US are often rooted in religious motivations, specifically rooted in the Christian church.  

• Soong-Chan Rah points out that the myth of redemptive violence “allows Americans to see themselves as having superior intellect and value and therefore the ability to handle weapons capable of incredible violence in an appropriate manner.”
• According to Goldberg dominion theology and its source, Christian Reconstructionism, are highly significant to the ideology behind Christian nationalism. She also notes, “…the ultimate goal of Christian nationalist leaders isn’t fairness. It’s dominion. The movement is built on a theology that asserts the Christian right to rule. That doesn’t mean that nonbelievers will be forced to convert. They’ll just have to learn their place.”
• Historian Kristin Kobes DuMez argues “…in the 1910s, Christian men set out to “re-masculinize” American Christianity. Seeking to offset the “womanly virtues” that had come to dominate the faith, they insisted that Christianity was also “essentially masculine, militant, warlike.”

It should be noted nationalist views are not exclusive to white, conservative, evangelical Christians in the United States, although we see them flourishing in these spaces. In the first chapter of Taking Back America for God, Whitehead details some fascinating research on the demographics of “rejectors,” “resisters,” “accommodators,” and “ambassadors.” The data may or may not surprise you.  

Christian nationalism is a deadly ideology that has infected many pieces of Christian theology and practice. We cannot continue to ignore it, even the most subtle symptoms. For the health of our nation and collective psyche, it must be uprooted.  

I recognize there is an incredible swath of knowledge and research on this topic. I am still exploring books and articles and would love to take a glance at any suggested sources or perspectives you’ve found helpful.  

Read more:  

• What is Religious Trauma?
• The Growing Anti-Democratic Threat of Christian Nationalism in the U.S. by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry
• Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
• The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald
• The Myth of the American Dream: Reflections on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power by D. L. Mayfield
• Purity, Nationalism, and Whiteness: The Fracturing of Fundamentalist Evangelicalism by Andrew Herrmann
• What is Christian Nationalism? by John Fea