Christian Nationalism

Christian Nationalism

It’s the Easter weekend, and I’ve silenced the podcasts and the news outlets. I’m in the mood for more sunshine and less war, and since my garden is in desperate need of attention, I’m going outside to potter. That said, I’ve been thinking about Christian Nationalism and its rise in the U.S. and the U.K., and I thought I’d share some thoughts.

Essentially, it seeks to merge a national identity with Christianity. It wants the nation to be defined by its religion and governed by what it believes are its values. At first sight, this appeals to many because it evokes a ‘golden age’ when everyone agreed, everyone looked the same and everything was apple pie and fêtes.

As Bishop Dewar said, ‘We are a Christian culture, a Christian nation. And I do feel like we have lost a lot of that.’  At a rally in Whitehall, London, he continued the theme: ‘This nation of ours is under attack! We are at war! We are at war not just with the Muslim, not just with wokeness.’

But this attitude is fundamentally anti-Christian. The political movement is not theological; it is traditionalist and ethno-cultural with a political orientation that is both intolerant and xenophobic. It might use the language and symbols of Christianity, but it isn’t interested in advancing the teachings of Jesus Christ.

In his book, American Crusade, Pete Hegseth writes, ‘We Christians… need to pick up the sword of unapologetic Americanism and defend ourselves…. We don’t want to fight, but like our fellow Christians a thousand years ago, we must.’

In other words, Christian Nationalism supports political aggression in the pursuit of its aims. In the U.S., 40% of supporters agree that ‘true American patriots’ may have to resort to violence to ‘save’ the country. And they perceive this violence as ‘righteous’. In the same vein, only 44% of Christian Nationalists in the U.S. believe that everyone should have the vote, and they are sympathetic to a strong leader ‘bending the rules’ to achieve their political ends. For some, such a person is divinely sanctioned. Take Trump; many excuse his immoral behaviour because ‘God is using him’, going so far as to call him a Cyrus figure, a non-believer who is fulfilling divine purposes.

Their demographic shows an overlap with white supremacists and conspiratorial thinking, as well as xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny. They tend to support a sense of victimhood and see themselves as under threat. Their fear of ‘the other’ leads them to attack minorities and restrict their civil rights.   Many Christian nationalists in the U.S. hold to the ‘Big Lie’ (that Trump won the 2020 election) and QAnon theories, and they were there at the January 6^th Capitol attack.

All this is alarming enough, but what disturbs the average churchgoer is its distortion of their faith. Christian Nationalism contradicts the Gospels at every turn. Jesus told humanity to love God and love their neighbour as themselves; he didn’t tell them to set up societies that favoured their ethno-racial community. Christ sought to bring all people within the mercy of God; Christian Nationalism prioritises the rule of white conservatives, seeking to exclude anyone who doesn’t abide by its ideal of nationhood. Jesus railed against idolatry in every form, from the love of money to the love of power. Christian Nationalists seek political dominance and will use violence to cement it, and since power and wealth often go hand-in-hand, many are happy to ‘bed’ the billionaires to secure their political aims.

As one of my ex-students told me the other day, Christianity and political power cannot co-exist as a unit.  Christianity is about humility, compassion and faith; it is about sacrifice. Political power, on the other hand, is about order and control, and it must be willing to use force if necessary (from imprisonment to self-defence). The moment political power is used to enforce religion, belief becomes a tool for control rather than a free expression of belief. It weakens the spiritual drive of faith, which is the honest and humble seeking after God in the silence of people’s lives. When political power acquires a religious framework, dissent becomes immoral (even unpatriotic), and autonomy is lost. The freedom found in God, the many ways to be human and the celebration of diversity is negated, and oppression is the result.  

The tragedy, then, of Christian Nationalism, is its betrayal of Jesus’s message. Its use of the Cross and other symbols of the Passion, mocks the central tenet of the faith, that Jesus suffered in the service of all humanity.