Christian nationalism: The civic idolater’s religion.

NATIONALISM 'næʃ.(ə.)nəl.ɪz.əm noun. Belief a particular ethnic group (i.e. nation) should be congruent with the state, or be supreme within it; and the state’s native identity must share this ethnic group’s characteristics.

2. Exalting one ethnic group above all others; promoting its culture and interests above (or against) those of other ethnic or multinational groups.

[Nationalist 'næʃ.(ə.)nəl.ɪst noun.]

 

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM noun. Belief Christians should be congruent with the state, or be supreme within it; and the state’s native identity must share Christianity’s characteristics.

2. Exalting Christians above all others; promoting its culture and interests above (or against) those of other religions and philosophies.

Let’s not mince words: Nationalism is a racist belief. Period.

French nationalists believe France should only consist of ethnic French people. To them, any immigrants from Algeria, Spain, Switzerland, or any other country aren’t really French, even if they were born in France, speak fluent French, have French citizenship, and contribute to society. In fact French nationalists would really rather they didn’t contribute to society, ’cause they’re “not really French.”

Turkish nationalists: Same deal. Israeli nationalists: Same deal; if you’re not Jewish you’re not really Israeli. United States nationalists: Same deal, except instead of insisting Americans be native Americans (i.e. American Indians) they insist the only real Americans are white English-speaking Anglo-Saxons like them. And they’d really like it if everybody else would just “go back to where you’re from,” and thereby make America great again. (By which they mean white again. As if it was ever only white.)

Now yeah, there are various conservatives who admit they’re nationalist, but insist they’re not racist; they’re perfectly fine with nonwhite Americans! Some of their best friends are nonwhites! The United States is a melting pot; diversity is one of our strengths; immigrants make some of the best Americans; most of all they love ethnic food. They even have nonwhite relatives.

So why on earth do they identify themselves as nationalists? Well they’re Christian nationalists. It’s the very same idea the racists have… but now let’s swap out all the racism for Christianity. To them, the United States should only consist of Christians. Any immigrants with other religions need to abandon those religions at the border, and either embrace Christianity or recognize its supremacy in American culture. And not resist that supremacy: They can practice their weird religions in private or in secret, but they must always remember America is a Christian nation.

Oh, I should mention many Christian nationalists don’t swap out all the racism for Christianity. Sometimes the racism’s still right there. They’re not so sure nonwhite Christians are real Christians… otherwise why wouldn’t they attend their nice white conservative churches? Why would they dare vote for liberal causes? Nope; if they were real Christians they’d conform to white churches and conservative causes.

And other Christian nationalists are fully aware they’re racist, and always have been. They want the United States to be a country for white Christians… but they find they get more traction if they emphasize the Christianity part and downplay the racism. Privately, they’ll tell you all about it.

No, nationalism isn’t just extreme patriotism. Some of the lousier dictionaries will define it that way… and some Christians will define it that way ’cause they don’t really understand what nationalism is. They just think it sounds patriotic. It’s got “nation” in it! But they don’t understand “nation” doesn’t mean country; it means ethnic group. It’s about race. Christian nationalism may borrow the racist term, but it still comes with all the racist baggage. Hence Christian nationalism has racism deeply embedded in it. Deeply.

“Make America Christian Again.”

I grew up among Christians who heavily promoted civic idolatry: They believe the United States was founded by Christians, and as such it has a special relationship with God. Not necessarily a full-on covenant like the LORD had with the ancient Hebrews… although some of ’em aren’t entirely sure we don’t have just such a covenant. Didn’t the early colonial governments make various promises to God in their charters? Didn’t the colonists bind themselves and their posterity to God in an assortment of ways?

(And of course there are those people who think Anglo-Saxons are descended from the Israelis who were deported in the Assyrian conquest, and therefore both Britain and the British colonies are bound by that covenant… but it’s a profoundly stupid theory, and let’s not go down that rabbit hole today.)

These are the folks who, when I was a lad, taught me there’s no such thing as “separation of church and state,” ’cause these words aren’t in the Constitution; they’re just in some letter by Thomas Jefferson, who was heretic y’know. Whereas our Lord actually gets a mention in the Constitution:

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names, [Article 7]

Yeah, it’s to indicate the year, but “our Lord” is still in there. Ergo he’s America’s Lord. It’s constitutional!

So there is no such separation, these Christians insist. Congress opens with prayer. The Supreme Court opens with “God save the United States and this honorable Court.” Presidents swear their oaths on bibles and hold prayer breakfasts. We have “under God” in the pledge of allegiance. Our national motto is “In God We Trust.” Thanksgiving Day is a federal holiday. Our government name-drops God in all sorts of ways, which proves our national religion is at the very least a monotheistic one… but that reference to “our Lord” in the Constitution implies America’s God is the god of our Lord, meaning the Father of Jesus.

So what’s the First Amendment about?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion… [Amendment 1]

Well, I was told, “religion” back then didn’t mean religions, like Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and so forth. It meant the particular way one practiced one’s faith. How one was religious; how one particularly practiced their Christianinty. Did you follow the Church of England’s customs, or the Church of Scotland’s? Were you Quaker, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Mennonite, nonconformist, or some other Christian sect? Basically Congress wasn’t allowed to muddle in the many different ways you could be Christian. But you were generally expected to be Christian.

So the myth, according to Christian nationalists, is the United States was founded by Christians for Christians, to be Christian. And by and large has actually been Christian. Yeah there have been aberrations, like the Unitarians and Deists and Mormons and Transcendentalists and the occasional atheist. But everybody else—all the good people, who wanted to fit in with respectable society—were Christian. You know, like in the Bible Belt. We only elected good Christian presidents, we only appointed good Christian generals (even on the Confederate side!), and our businessmen and civic leaders were for the most part good Christians. That’s what America was… till the 1960s, when the Beatles got into Hinduism and all their fans followed suit. Man they had a lot of fans.

I kinda knew that last part was bogus, because my irreligious family members hadn’t ditched any Christianity in favor of the Beatles. Mom’s parents were pretty much Catholic in name only, and her siblings weren’t anything till they came to Christ in the late ’80s. Dad’s parents were pagans who likewise practiced nothing, and raised their kids to believe nothing. Three remained pagan; one became Christian; Dad became atheist.

I was also a history buff. The more I read about American history, the more I discovered Americans have likewise been mighty pagan when it comes to God. They sorta believed in God… but not necessarily in Christ, and our history demonstrates they never really followed him any. How else could revival after revival win so many to Christ?… only to see the next generation need a brand new revival. Same as ancient Israel.

But Christian nationalists insist we’ve always been Christian. And the reason for America’s various problems today, is we’ve violated our forebears’ covenants with God, so we need to go back to being Christian. We need to elect good Christians to public office, and have ’em ban abortion nationwide. We need to put prayer back in the public schools. And we need to push back against religious pluralism: The United States is a Christian country, and if you emigrated to America your need to keep your weird foreign religions back in your old homeland. And if you won’t convert, you probably should go back too.

Yeah, it’s hypocrisy.

As I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, obligating everybody in a country to be Christian doesn’t make ’em Christian. It makes ’em hypocrites. I’ve seen this every time Christianity was expected or mandated, whether we’re talking medieval European countries, the Christian schools where I’ve attended and taught, the workplaces where the boss was Christian and wanted the employees to be Christian too, and towns where everyone was presumed to be Christian: People would slap together a Christian façade, which they’d display as much as they could to the leadership and the tattletales. The rest of the time, they were pagan as ever. Sometimes more so, out of spite.

That’s what you also see throughout American history. You see people joining secret societies, like the Freemasons and Klan, which permitted them to be as unchristian as they pleased in private. You’d see their “civil” and “Christian” behavior completely collapse and vanish whenever there was a war, as people committed vengeful atrocities towards their enemies just because they could; because they were fleshly instead of following the Spirit. You see some of the must outrageous leaps of logic, and grievous violations of the biblical text, take place in order for people to justify whatever they wished in their hearts to do to people of other races.

Since I’m already bringing up the racism: You also see a lot of this “Christian nation” talk tend to evaporate whenever we’re talking about Christians of color. Whether it’s historically black churches, or Roman Catholic parishes which are predominantly Hispanic or black, Christian nationalists generally treat the people of these churches as if they’re not real Christians. Mainly ’cause race. Often ’cause they don’t vote the same way racists do: If you’re in any way part of the Christian Left, or preach “social justice” in any form (especially the antiracist forms), they insist you can’t be a true Christian. Christian nationalists want all these folks either forced into joining a true church, by which they mean a white church (and if they attend, they need to start acting a lot more white!), or deported.

The nationalists who want America to be Christian “again,” don’t actually want it to be all that Christian. (Mostly because true Christianity is gonna condemn their racism!) They want the façade: They want America to look Christian, and in so doing, alienate foreigners and drive out weirdos. The version of Christianity they want is the old medieval form of Christianism which murdered Muslims and Jews; that’s a Christianity which best serves their racist purposes. They want a Christianity that antagonizes strangers. Certainly not one which offers the kingdom of God to absolutely everyone.

The reality? The United States is post-Christian. And back when “it was Christian,” it wasn’t really. Christians just lived in it; many really devout Christians too. But most of the Christians who coveted and sought political power, promoted a superficial, namby-pamby Christianity which looks the other way when a whole lot of sins took place. That’s why over the years, people rejected this civic Christianity as the hypocrisy it is. Many still equate Christians with hypocrites because of them.

That’s why we need to quit being hypocrites—quit claiming we’re Christian when we’re just as fleshly as any pagan—and follow Jesus instead of trying to put back up the same old façades which needed to be torn down. Christian nationalism violates God’s will of a gospel which is for every nation, Rv 14.6 and a kingdom which includes every nation. Rv 5.9 Its promoters need to be rejected as racists, and dupes of racists. It’s gotta go.