Let’s face it, there is nothing Christian about Christian nationalism. So, it’s time we stopped calling it Christian as if it bears any resemblance to the faith and practice taught by a middle eastern man two thousand years ago. Calling it Christian legitimizes it and strengthens its purchase in the minds of those who think the United States was founded as a Christian nation.
It encourages people to envision a “return” to Christian values.
Religious nationalism is a more accurate name, though seeing the followers as religious is a stretch. At least it separates the radical nationalism that is sweeping our country from any connection with the Christian tradition. Religious nationalism is a socio-political power play to put white men in positions of power, roll back rights for women and LGBTQI people and return to a time long ago when women were the property of men. It also demeans other religious traditions and promulgates a distorted view of Christianity. Then they varnish it all with a little Jesus language and call it Christian.
Christian nationalism as a movement has roots that date back five centuries. According to an article in Time magazine, some of our forbears saw America as a “promised land for European Christians. Others saw it as a pluralistic democracy where all stand on equal footing as citizens.” Most Americans favor the latter vision of the United States, while the increasingly radical Republican party clearly favors the former.
Sadly the white Republicans have some ground to stand on. In the fifteenth century a series of papal bulls (which carry the full weight and authority of the church) established the Doctrine of Discovery. According to Time magazine, “the doctrine claims that European civilization and western Christianity are superior to all other cultures, races and religions. From this premise it follows that domination and colonial conquest were merely the means of improving, if not the temporal, then the eternal lot of Indigenous peoples.”
It was just a half step from there to the “Christian” superiority that has plagued our nation from the very beginning. We call ourselves a melting pot nation, but in truth Christianity is still the favored religion and it informs social, national and foreign policy at an increasingly alarming rate.
The “Christian” roots of white supremacy are sunk deep in American soil. From the convoluted theology of a few misguided popes’, unfettered permission was given to seize land, displace Indigenous people, murder those of other religions, remove children from their homes to be raised in “Christian” orphanages and overthrow barbarous nations so they could be brought to Christianity. It is a litany of horrors too long to list and too nauseating to read in one sitting.
The religious nationalism that is sweeping our country is firmly planted in the five hundred year old Doctrine of Discovery. By claiming a legitimate Christian history as foreordained from the beginning, there is no arguing with them over a different vision of America.
In the Time magazine article, a recent pole done by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with the Brookings Institution, the following question was asked, “Do you agree or disagree that ‘God intended America to be a new promised land where European Christians could create a society that could be an example to the rest of the world.’ The survey found that while only three in ten Americans agreed with this statement, majorities of Republicans (52%) and, white evangelical Protestants (56%) affirmed it.”
This movement is not going away. It is growing stronger. The best we can do as Americans is educate ourselves on our history and take away the name “Christian” from its association with nationalism. It seems a small vocabulary change, but words have power. Relegating it the amorphous category of “religious” takes a little of the wind out of its sails. As Americans, it is up to us to shift the narrative and we can’t do that if we don’t know our own history.
A meme on Facebook asked the question, “What did Germans do during the rise of fascism? You’re doing it now.” If we are arrogant enough to think it cannot happen here, is not already happening here, then I guess we deserve what we get. And trust me, it won’t be pretty.
Excerpts from the Time magazine article are from The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and a Path to Shared American Future by Robert P. Jones, published by Simon and Schuster 2023.
The Irreverent Reverend 