The Paradox of Christian Nationalism

I’ve been wanting to write about Christian Nationalism for some time, but getting that train out of the station has proved difficult. Competing topics abound, plus spring is around the corner bringing its familiar pressures into focus.  Golfing, landscaping, and hiking obligations are again taking their toll with fly-fishing impatiently awaiting in the wings. With first order stuff like friends and family remaining in the front of the line, that old saw about scarce resources pursuing unlimited goods is once again confirmed. 

Then a friend of mine on Facebook recently shared a post from Michael Farris, an American constitutional lawyer who is a founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association and Patrick Henry College.  He is also CEO and general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal advocacy group committed to “change the culture” as they fight for religious liberty issues in the courts. 

Entitled “Confusion About Christian Nationalism,” Farris provides a perspective on Christian Nationalism that probably seems obvious to his followers: “Those who are not Christian have nothing to fear from a culture dominated by Christianity.  We believe in freedom for all.”

But exactly what Christianity is Farris talking about and what does that look like in practice?  [Now that sound you just heard is the train leaving the station.] So, let’s first get started with some definitions, some research results, and then we will return to Farris and more data. 

What is Christian Nationalism and What Are Its ‘Fruits” In Society

We start with Russ Vought, Trump’s former Director of OMB and now the President of the Center for American Restoration whose mission is “To restore an American consensus of a nation under God…” In a recent Newsweek article, Russ offered that Christian Nationalism is:

“An orientation for engaging in the public square that recognizes America as a Christian nation, where our rights and duties are understood to come from God and where our primary responsibilities as citizens are for building and preserving the strength, prosperity and health of our own country. It is a commitment to an institutional separation between church and state, but not the separation of Christianity from its influence on government and society. It is a belief that our participation in the political system can lead to beneficial outcomes for our own communities, as well as individuals of all faiths.”

Now compare this with the sociologists Perry and Whitehead’s popularly used, but more abstruse, definition: “an ideology that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic belonging and participation.”  For those from an evangelical background, like me, do those definitions seem right?  Are they consistent with what you have always believed or at least been taught?  And do they sound dangerous?  When you hear that America was built on Christian principles and occupies a special place in God’s economy for the world, doesn’t that seem about right?

But Let’s First Plant Our Feet On The Ground With Some Data

After all, Luke 6: 44-47 tells us that “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Different authors have shown that Americans who embrace Christian Nationalism are more likely to:

• Believe in a social pecking order with white Christians at the top: equality is not a priority.
• Approve of authoritarian tactics like demanding respect for national symbols and traditions
• Fear and distrust refugees, immigrants and religious minorities, while believing racial inequality is due to the personal shortcomings of minority groups.
• Condone police violence toward Black Americans and distrust accounts of racial inequality in the criminal justice system
• Engage in incautious behavior and take fewer precautions (e.g., mask wearing) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Prioritize liberty over protecting the vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic.
• See historical “outsiders” (minorities and immigrants) as culpable and/or less worthy of aid regarding Covid-19 infections.
• Hold anti-immigrant views and a consistent predictor of anti-immigrant dehumanization

But That Isn’t About Us; It’s Only A Few Extremists?

Notwithstanding the statistical significance of those associations, many, like Michael Farris continue to assert “this is the few, not us” argument: “While there are a few extremists who fit their fears, the vast majority of evangelicals pose no such threat.” 

It’s worth stopping here as we can further test this assertion with Perry and Whitehead’s data based upon surveys I’ve previously written about here and here.  As you see in the graph below, using two of six defining questions, Christian Nationalism is simply pervasive across the evangelical landscape. 

OK, CN May Be Widespread, But Isn’t This Just A Case of Differing Definitions?  

Good question, also posed by Farris: “The chief reason is that most of us understand that there is a difference between our nation and our government. Do I want America to be a Christian nation? Well, that depends entirely on how you define the term.

I steadfastly oppose any effort to have Christianity declared the official religion of the United States. But I would welcome a massive revival…if that revival resulted in a majority of people with a personal relationship with Jesus. I would also welcome a moral revival where our cultural mores were aligned with Biblical values. It would perhaps be more accurate to describe either of these two forms of revival as producing a Christian culture rather than using the term Christian nation.”

Let’s unpack that previous paragraph.  Many evangelicals yearn for revival, a renewal of spiritual interest and life.  They (we) speak fondly of past revivals and the good they achieved. The Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s for example, led to renewed spirituality, moral and charity reforms, the emancipation of women, and the founding of many colleges in America. 

The notion of a moral revival strikes a similar chord in many of the faithful.  But here we encounter two significant and highly influential problems that go to heart of the Christian Nationalism problem in America.  First, “biblical values” mean different things to different people.  To me, it means a love-your-neighbor kingdom ethic, a Micah 6:8 do justly, love mercy and walk humbly orthopraxis.  To others, it means religious liberty, binary genders, heterosexual marriage, and anti-abortion.  To some it means promoting peace by beating swords into plowshares. To others, it means securing religious liberty through a strong military fighting back communism. 

Secondly, Farris’ longing for a Christian culture gets the cart before the horse. He decries the few Christian Nationalism extremists saying that the “vast majority of evangelicals pose no threat. But the data tell a different story, of an evangelical culture significantly broken by a pervasive Christian Nationalism with its attending fruit (see data provided earlier and the graph below) infecting the body of Christ. And before we consider moral revivals and promoting societal change, the evangelical house must be set in order and swept clean of the Christian Nationalism infected gospel.

Well Everyone is Flawed, But Our Society Has Nothing to Fear From Christian Nationalism

Back to Farris: “We have limited powers, checks and balances, and federalism because of the Christian view of man. Man is inherently sinful and can never be trusted with too much power. But that same Christian culture produced a government that guaranteed freedom of religion and speech for all because of the belief that the souls of men belong to God and not government…A Christian culture produces a freedom loving government. But a culture that rejects God produces tyranny…Those who are not Christian have nothing to fear from a culture dominated by Christianity. We believe in freedom for all.”

I just wish that was true.  “Freedom for all” is, I’m sure, an aspirational goal for many evangelicals. But once again, Perry and Whitehead’s data tell a different story and once again, Christian Nationalism is there in the mix.

Civics-type tests have a long and ugly history in American politics. They were among many Jim Crow Laws used primarily in the South during segregation to intimidate and prevent black citizens from voting.  They inevitably favored the powerful and privileged, while assaulting the freedoms of the powerless.  They missed the mark, a public outcome of man’s sinful nature.

Citizens of the kingdom seek the flourishing of the city that advances God’s kingdom plan of human restoration. Following in Christ’s footsteps, they are prone to stop and listen as they are moved by people’s longing and heart cries.  They lay aside their privilege when they metaphorically pick up a towel and through acts of service wash the feet of the needy. It causes them to advocate, imputing honor without boundaries: whether Jew or Greek, whether educated or marginalized, and whether you pass a civics test or not.

“Beware of Good Intents” – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs

Let’s go back to the essential questions and then briefly explore five lines of thinking.  Don’t we need a moral revival aligned with biblical values?  And aren’t those values vitally needed in society to produce healthy outcomes?  And since a Christian culture produced a freedom loving government, what’s to fear from a culture dominated by Christianity?

An upside-down gospel process.  The call of Christianity is a call for transformation, a call that Farris and others get partially right. But the message of Christianity is also a message about gospel process, about the power of the cross to bring about change.  This message is all important and it’s what they get wrong when they seek reform from the top down.  For when Christ’s “heart transforming” kingdom joins with culture’s “power over” world, it’s like “mixing ice cream with horse manure. It might not harm the manure, but it sure messes up the ice cream.”

Identity exchange.  That’s exactly what happens when we seek a Christian culture through a political, top-down, imposition of moral reform. By engaging the earthly city and through alliances with its political systems, the law of unintended consequences takes over. The fusion of these two kingdoms creates a synergistic reaction that reshapes our desires and beliefs. That earthly city unleashes the power of tribalism which then spreads throughout the whole,.  And when it hijacks our identity and forces us to take sides, we become “bound and blinded’ to our team’s cause. 

The divisive power of nostalgia.  Through fusing heaven’s kingdom with American civic belonging, Christian Nationalism seems innocuous at first. But a gospel mixed with nationalism to recreate a Christian America, binds the name of Christ to a culturally-centered agenda. It includes a mythic understanding of history that generates a cultural anxiety about a lost American heritage and Christian identity. It creates an extrabiblical narrative about America’s special relationship to God that privileges dominance in the public square. It fosters an us-versus-them world where the ‘them’ become a threat.  While the “we” become the sole defenders of a true America that “we” define. 

A culture-centric gospel.  They say America is on the decline, the fruit of a moral decay, as a circle-the-wagon mindset invariably ensues. Moral reforms are sought in this never-ending war to restore a social order that is culturally ‘Christian.’  A specific cultural template is needed, such as prayer in public schools or enshrining a nostalgic interpretation of American history.  Then a political agenda is “fought for” under the banner of Christian power to create a Christian culture that “saves” America.

Apocalyptic authoritarianism.  A siege mentality sets in with a sense of victimization acutely felt based on an apocalyptic narrative about the imminent decline of Christian America. It fuels a sense of desperation to preserve America’s Christian heritage.  It then creates a moral panic and a willingness to compromise any concerns about the means to accomplish needed ends.  Authoritarian rule is welcomed and a strong protector then sought to reclaim that mythic past and restore a moral order.   

A Message of Hope

Farris and others are also partially correct when they say America needs to be revived.  But it’s not to impose the current understanding of Christian culture widely viewed throughout the evangelical community. We need a revival to stop the culture war which changes the mission of the church. To stop the preaching of “biblical values” made to fit our tribalistic narratives.  And to call out Christian Nationalism as a syncretistic faith – a form of idolatry whose fruits of cultural dominion are antithetical to the gospel.

David French: “it’s worth emphasizing that many white Evangelical political positions – on matters of immense importance to many millions of Americans – do not flow naturally from Evangelical biblical orthodoxy…Instead the political gaps between white Evangelicals and the rest of America flow from a series of historical, cultural, and ideological commitments that are contestable at best and unjust at worst”

Back to Luke 6:44 “Each tree is recognized by its own fruit.” When we compare how Christian Nationalism ideology and traditional measures of religious commitment (e.g., worship attendance, prayer, sacred text reading) influence Americans’ political attitudes and behaviors, we find they work in the exact opposite direction. 

We need a revival of essential Christianity, a Christlikeness that invades ‘every square inch” of our life.  Where cultural change organically occurs through the faithful presence of Christ-like followers in the public square. Full of people who look like Jesus in every walk of life. With biblical values centered in the teachings of Jesus and humbly conveyed through Christ-like servant hearts.

Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”  The Apostle Paul said “Christ within us [is] the hope of glory,” at least as long as that gospel stays pure. Such unalloyed Christlikeness is contrary to Christian Nationalism and is demonstrated by the fruits of the Spirit. As His character is formed within us and we become citizens of an undivided kingdom, God’s culture changing kingdom power then becomes unleashed.