My Fellow American Patriots, It's Time to Discuss Christian Nationalism

"...meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan [Muslim], the Hindoo, and the Infidel of every denomination." - Thomas Jefferson

"the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion." -John Adams

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." - Thomas Jefferson

"The United States was founded as a Christian Nation."

You hear this all the time from pundits and preachers, and even some politicians. Maybe you’re upset by it, but you probably are not. This country is majority Christian. Christians believe Christianity is righteous and moral. Even non-Christians agree with Christian principles, right? What’s wrong with a Christian nation? Why should any American voter be afraid when a politician openly calls herself a Christian Nationalist? In fact, I would bet when you see me ringing alarm bells like this, you dismiss me as an angry nonbeliever trying take away your faith, or at least the joy you take in your faith. Why can’t I accept the goodness of Christian message even if I don’t want to practice it?

My issue with Christian Nationalism is that most Americans have no idea what it is or what it means. They don’t understand who is behind this movement. They are uninformed of who is behind the movement and why. A Christian Nationalist, in the view of too many Americans, is merely a good Christian patriot. That’s not what a nationalist is.

A nation is not the same thing as a country.

A nationalist is not the same thing as a patriot.

A Christian nationalist is not synonymous with a patriotic Christian.

A country is defined as an area of land under a central government. The United States is a country. Mexico is a country. France is a country. Ghana is a country. Thailand is a country. A country is a political and geographic designation.

A nation is a homogenous group of people. That group can be cultural, ethnic, or religious. Think Nation of Islam or indigenous tribal nations. Do you ever wonder why there is such an objection to saying, “One nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance (I take issue with the entire pledge for other reasons, but that’s another post topic altogether)? It’s not only because many Americans don’t worship the Abrahamic God, but because it says we are a “nation” under God. It implies religious hegemony that does not, and should not, ever exist in a country founded with a secular government.

The pundits, the government officials, and the megachurch preachers who call themselves Christian Nationalists are not only trying to make more Americans see the goodness of their faith. They are looking to enforce Christian hegemony on everyone. The principle of Christian Dominionism is that Christianity should be at the foundation of what they call the Seven Mountains. These encompass all aspects of culture including family, education, media, arts, business, and government.

I suppose some readers are looking at this and think, “So what’s wrong with that? Christianity is a moral institution. Shouldn’t we incorporate more of that morality into business and government and entertainment?” If one is a Christian, this makes perfect sense. Christian is the majority religion in this country.

If it were that simple Christian nationalism might not be such a big deal. Unfortunately, there is no one way to be a Christian in this country. If you say you don’t take issue with Christian nationalism, you might not understand that Christian nationalists may not be scooping the flavor of Christianity you want to lick. 

There are thousands of Christian denominations that exist within our culture. They don't all agree on theology, let alone governance. 

The late Charlie Kirk, a man who advocated for a fully evangelical society openly stated that "Western" (read white) Protestant culture was superior to all others. What about Catholics and Eastern Orthodox believers? Is his objection to Catholicism a matter of theology, politics (even though Catholics are both anti-gay and anti-women's reproductive freedom), or a matter of the fact that Latinos are largely Catholic?

Would a Christian Nationalist government be Protestant then? So what kind of Protestantism? Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Pentecostals are going to have different views on theology and politics than Episcopalians, Quakers, and UCCs. Even the same denominations will have offshoots that differ on topics of theology and politics. There is a difference between Northern Baptists and Southern Baptists. Missouri Synod Lutherans differ greatly from Evangelical Lutherans of America. In the Catholic faith there are social justice Catholics like Stephen Colbert and hardline regressive Catholics like the Catholic Supreme Court justices or Kevin Roberts. The Bible is full of contradictions and vague commands. It can be interpreted a thousand ways, which is why we have all these denominations. There is no single way to be Christian in the United States.

Don't even get me started on Mormons. Growing up I was taught Mormons were a fringe cult, and a dangerous one at that. Their sphere of influence was mostly in the southwest. Their beliefs mocked and perverted the teachings of Jesus. Good Christians avoided Mormons at all cost. The problem with excluding Mormons is that the ruling class misses out on a lot of money. The Church of Latter Saints is an extremely wealthy organization. There are seven Mormons on the Forbes list of billionaires. Mormons fund many right wing organizations such as Turning Point USA. There are Mormons in the Heritage Foundation. Mormons control several of the country's largest corporations. My religious leaders told me Mormons were not Christian when I was a kid. However, Mormons consider themselves Christian and now Evangelical Republicans seem to accept them as Christian when it's politically expedient to do so. For example, a Mormon Mitt Romney was able to challenge an actual Christian for the highest office in the country. 

Charlie Kirk might have preached the superiority of Protestantism, but Catholics are not left out of the picture. Kirk was aligned with a centuries-old conflict regarding not only culture, but about theology. Throughout history Catholics considered themselves the "true faith" and Protestants were "heretics". On the other side, Protestants thought Catholics were little better than pagans with their saints and iconography and hierarchy of holy men. These days those lines are blurred. I think that's because The Roman Catholic Church is also a wealthy organization. It still has power and influence in both the US and Europe. Plus a Catholic politician can help sway the vote of other Catholics. 

So which form of Christianity do you want in charge? Your Christian faith might center around helping others. Maybe you want to focus on health, education, and alleviation of poverty because you think that's what Jesus wanted. Maybe your Christian faith is focused on fighting women's reproductive rights, fighting LGBT rights, and converting non-Christians to your beliefs. Do you believe it's harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, or do you believe in the Prosperity Gospel that says wealth is a sign you are blessed by God? What about fundamentalists who nitpick over legalistic details like forbidding alcohol or dancing or demanding women dress according to a prescribed standard of modesty? If you are one of these types of Christian, would you like the other types of Christian dictating your laws?

Where do Americans of other faiths fit into this? Will all non-Christians be forced to convert, will they have their rights restricted in some sort of apartheid system, or will they be imprisoned? What steps should a Christian government take to assure a Christian population? What steps are you okay with and which ones make you uncomfortable? 

Here is the issue. Most Americans oppose the policies Christian nationalists want to enforce. Poll after poll shows that supposedly divided Americans agree on far more issues than they disagree on. That includes many of the "culture war" issues religious groups like The Heritage Foundation want to force upon them. Plus the fastest growing religion in the US is no religion at all. Americans are far more worried about how they will pay for food an housing given decades of wage stagnation and rising costs than they are about trans women playing sports. 

Christians teach that God gives us free will (although I don't understand why a God who says, "Worship me in your short finite life or I will punish you for infinity after you die" is considered free will, but I digress...). Is is the role of a Christian government to override the free will of its citizens? If the population is doomed to Hell for not believing as you do, isn't that their problem? A Christian government can force its citizens to pray and to live by Christian rules, but will it make those citizens believe? That government can say it is being benevolent because it wants to save all our souls, but are we really saved if we are only following the rules because we are being forced to do so? Is this the kind of belief your God requests from us? 

I was taught growing up that it is faith and not deeds that determines salvation. Does a Christian government that forces Christian rules on its citizens believe it is scoring points with Jesus because it forced a population to believe (or act like it believes)? Does merely acting like a fundamentalist Christian save your soul? Didn't Jesus say to pull the plank out of your own eye before pointing out the speck in someone else's? 

More importantly, didn’t Jesus himself say that He himself would establish the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth? Isn’t is blaspheme to try to do His job for Him?

What if The Heritage Foundation and its government puppets (today it's the Bloated Rotting Orange Nincompoop, tomorrow it will be someone else) manage to create this Christian government, have they won? They will have created an obedient population, but they won't have won hearts and minds. They won't have won loyalty. Is it worth having any sort of power when the citizens secretly hate you? 

But I digress. This isn't about the government and wealthy religious organizations that pull their pull it's puppet strings. This is about us, Americans, Americans who hold thousands of different religious beliefs and yet have a unified view of policies that often contradicts those of the Religious Right. No American citizens should believe themselves to be safe from religious tyranny because they are white and Christian. These people are playing a long game. They are trying to to create a desperate and compliant nation. They want us poor, underfed, undereducated, unhealthy, and without hope. They want to kill off the older generations as soon as they can and breed an ignorant underclass. 

Imagine a world where everyone had the same behavior and the same beliefs. Imagine a world where we are forced to fall in line with someone else’s moral codes. Imagine a world where anyone who falls out of line with the government’s religious teachings is imprisoned or killed. Imagine all movies, art, and TV being sanitized and written to reflect only one worldview. Imagine schools all pushing the same lessons with no critical thinking. Imagine having your job be dependent on your religious beliefs. This is the world Christian nationalists want.

I rarely ever give the Mango Mussolini much credit for anything ever, but he made a good point once. An interviewer asked him what his favorite Bible verse is and he responded, "It's personal." I know he used that answer as a way to evade the question because we all know he doesn't actually read the Bible or practice Christianity, he still made a point. Even if he were a devoutly religious man, his religion is PERSONAL. He is not obligated to share his faith with anyone. He is not obligated to make a display of his faith. The constitution explicitly states that there will be no religious tests for political office holders. Yet many politicians and pundits will freak out if a politician doesn't publicly own a religious faith. Some of the most evil and corrupt people in the history of the world have practiced a religious faith. We shouldn't be asking if our politicians have been saved. We don't need to ask them their favorite Bible verses. We need to be asking them about policy. We need clear and direct answers about policy and we need to hold them to their statements on policy. I wish we were as outraged about the way Clementine Clown is wrecking the economy as we were about Obama having Muslim family members. Your faith is alone is not what determines your ethics, it's how you apply it. 

What we believe in our own lives is nobody's business but our own. We don't have to disclose our faith , or lack thereof, publicly if we don't want to. This is what the First Amendment is about. Religion is not a public matter. It is not the government's role to assure I belong to the right faith. Is is also not the role of think tanks or corporations. Religious faith doesn't make you a better person, and it doesn't make you a better citizen. It merely makes you a person with a certain set of beliefs. It’s what you do with those beliefs that matters.

I beg my fellow Americans, especially those who are Christian, to listen to me. You may believe your faith will save your soul (and there is nothing wrong with that) but it's not going to save your freedom and it may not even save your life. You think you're safe now. Don’t count on it. Go to church and say your prayers, fight for the right of others to do so as well, but we need to unite and fight Christian national together.