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THREAD: Many right-wing groups (incl. many that aren't “religious”) are bound together by a mythical history of a Christian America that must be preserved. Yet we often conflate 2 versions of this narrative: the *white Christian nation* & *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation.* (1/)
In “The ‘Right’ History: Religion, Race, & Nostalgic Stories of Christian America”, I show these 2 Christian America narratives share a common declension structure, but differ in their framing of how religion x race define American belonging/power (2/) https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/2/95
Some right-wing groups slide between the *white Christian nation* & *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation* narratives depending on their context/audience; others highlight their use of one narrative over the other in order to appear more radical or mainstream, respectively. (3/)
The /content/ of the *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation* narrative overlaps w/ aspects of a mainstream story of America and the widely held idea that the US is “one nation under God.” This offers legitimacy & enables proponents to identify as racially/religiously inclusive (4/)
Yet the /structural/ similarity of the *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation* narrative to the *white Christian nation* narrative means it operates (intentionally or not) as a symbolic bridge between mainstream conservatism & the racist/anti-Semitic far-right. (5/)
Distinguishing btw the *white Christian nation* & *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation* narratives enables us to see how the two renderings of American history carry different meanings and perform different kinds of political work for participants in right-wing movements. (6/)
I show that the gaps/slippages between the *white Christian nation* & *colorblind Judeo-Christian nation* narratives operate in practice as 1) coded language; 2) mainstreaming strategy; 3) expressions of aspirational nationhood; and 4) practices of forgetting. (7/)
The article advances a narrative approach to nationalism to detect variation/continuities across these narratives & to help bridge conversations btw scholars of Christian nationalism, the American right, and ongoing battles over American history. (8/)
The full-text article, “The “Right” History: Religion, Race, and Nostalgic Stories of Christian America” can be accessed at: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/2/95. I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think. (9/9)
