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A few thoughts to follow-up on yesterday's thread about Christian Nationalism:
Part of what makes Christian Nationalism so hard to nail down is that it overlaps & mirrors other ideological approaches.
Part of what makes Christian Nationalism so hard to nail down is that it overlaps & mirrors other ideological approaches.
It is not simply "nationalism" (a focus on one's own nation) so much as how you define the shape & contours of that nation. Christian nationalism defines the Nation & Church in relationship to each other.
In Christian Nationalism, part of being a good Christian is being loyal to the Nation & part of being a good citizen is being Christian.
Certainly, being Christian should make us good neighbors, more willing to sacrifice for the common good. But Christian nationalism goes beyond this & posits that being culturally Christian somehow makes us *better* citizens than, say, Muslim or Jewish citizens.
This is what distinguishes Christian Nationalists from folks who prioritize religious liberty in pluralistic society. Christian Nationalism's aim isn't to protect religious liberty for all (tho it borrows this language) but to maintain or preference Christianity in public spaces.
It's also different from garden variety nationalism b/c it defines the nation in terms of religion, not simply citizenship. You need to be a particular kind of citizen to be a "true" citizen.
And that's where Christian Nationalism can overlap w/ ethnonationalism (in the US, white nationalism). B/c of our history, the American church is still racially divided. Whether we like it or not, we carry implicit assumptions into our definition of who is "Christian."
If your primary experience of "Church" is w/ people who look & think like you, your assumptions about what being "Christian" means can't help but be culturally bound. When you think "Christian" you're likely to think about your particular church & people you know in real life.
B/c of this cultural factor, Christian Nationalism is also found among people who aren't particularly devout but are culturally Christian. This isn't about fundamentalism or even theological conservativism. It's about how you understand "Church" & how it relates to the State.
Christian Nationalism also isn't theonomy, altho there's likely overlap in terms & influence. Christian nationalism isn't about bringing the State under the control of the Church. It's about marrying State & Church & merging heavenly & earthly citizenships.
Christian Nationalism also isn't American civil religion which replaces the Church w/ the State. Again, there's overlap & one of the dangers of Christian Nationalism is that the balance might tip this direction. I mean, what's to stop the State from consuming the Church?
The differences btwn these ideologies don't mean that they don't overlap & make common cause. In fact, that's what makes this moment so dangerous in my estimation.
Because the differences are not clear, a lot of really toxic ideologies are able to fly under more innocuous labels. Folks can think they're supporting religious liberty issues when they're actually supporting a kind of religious test.
They can think they're simply being patriotic when they're actually being discipled into an unholy alliance btwn Church & State.
This lack of clarity is also why it's so important for us to be clear in *our* discussions while also understanding that a lot of this is playing out at a gut level for folks. Christian Nationalism is more about culture & shaping influences than theology or rational choice.
And b/c it's playing out at a gut or cultural level, we're going to see a lot of strange alignment btwn cuturally white Christians & atheists or culturally white Christians & ethnonationalists while those same Christians turn away from Christians who don't look or vote as they do
