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The use of the term “Christian nationalism” is sloppy and reductive. Take an opposite example. If those protesting over the summer for justice and reform for policing were defined wholly by the bad actors in there midst would that be fair? No.
Likewise, just because a certain segment of people takes the very real and legitimate concerns of those on the right and twists them into a warped ideology and carries to extreme does not make those concerns wrong. I share many of the same concerns.
Religion has and should play a vital role in civic and public life. It’s largely been a force for good and unity in America. See Robert Putnam’s American Grace. Whatever we saw on tv the other day was neither Christian nor nationalist. It was a sad, misguided, incoherent
and warped view of Christianity. I doubt any of these people were committed members of a well catechized church. Christians can be nationalists, if we understand nationalism to be what Yoran Hazony has argued - love and commitment to free and independent republics.
The American Republican tradition stems from the the English and Dutch Republican traditions that advocated for republican government over and against the dominant imperial and monarchic governments of Europe. The nationalist waves of the 1930’s
Are not the only form of nationalism. They were the dark side of a nationalism distorted by fascist and totalitarian ideology. Nobody is for these. But Christians can faithfully commit to and love the good of their nations without committing idolatry or lapsing into
the uglier sides of earlier forms of nationalism. What we should advocate is a better form of Christian commitment to the nation-state that is properly ordered. The nation is not ultimate, but it is a community that serves the good of our neighbors with whom,
As fellow citizens, we have a special relationship. This bond is temporal but real. We have special obligations to those in our city just as we do to fellow citizens. Love of country is not idolatrous, in fact, it is good. But like all good things it can become disordered.
