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(OPINION) THE QUESTION:

What is “Christian nationalism”?

THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER:

“Christian nationalism” became common coinage in the U.S. fairly recently, usually raised by cultural liberals who view it with alarm, and often with “White” as an added adjective. The term is not generally embraced by those considered to be participants.

As journalist Samuel Goldman remarks, to describe something as Christian nationalism “is inevitably to reject it.”

The Merriam-Webster definition of plain “nationalism” is “loyalty and devotion to a nation” but adds this important wording, “especially a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.”

“Nationalism” is not the same as “patriotism,” the natural and benign love and loyalty toward one’s homeland that characterizes all peoples and countries, including huge numbers of non-nationalists on America’s religious left as well as the right. Nor is it the same thing as either political or religious conservatism but is instead a narrow faction within those broad populations.

The latest bid to shape public perceptions of the concept is a 63-page “Report on Christian Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection,” issued last month by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

These two organizations may seem odd partners, since FFRF claims that “persons free from religion” have brought about most of the West’s “moral progress.” But FFRF shares the Baptist committee’s devotion to strict separation of church and state and opposition to “targeting of religious minorities” and “the politicization of houses of worship” as well as to Christian nationalism.

The BJCRL includes American Baptist churches, major Black Baptist conventions, some remaining “moderate” Southern Baptists and others, but the leaders of the huge and conservative Southern Baptist Convention withdrew support in 1991.

According to the BJCRL-FFRF report, Christian nationalism is “a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy.” It “relies on the mythological founding of the United States as a ‘Christian nation,’ singled out for God’s providence in order to fulfill God’s purposes on earth.” Further, it “demands a privileged place for Christianity in public life, buttressed by the active support of government at all levels.”

“Christian nationalism is not Christianity,” the definition concludes, but the movement consists of individual Christians and “relies on Christian imagery and language.”

Though not part of the definition as such, the report’s focus on the Jan. 6 mob attack at the U.S. Capitol associates elements of the movement with threats and actual acts of violence against people and property. The Jan. 6 riot targeted the Capitol police and the democratically elected U.S. vice president and members of Congress carrying out their constitutional duty of tabulating the ballots for president cast by state delegations to the Electoral College.

The report includes essays by critics of evangelical and “religious right” groups and is weakened by avoiding any writers who’d explain opposing views. But it has new and valuable research in two lavishly footnoted articles by FFRC attorney Andrew Seidel on religious participation on Jan. 6 and events that led up to it. These data demonstrate this was a fringe phenomenon in religious terms, with little or no involvement by the major organizations and leaders in conservative Protestantism and Catholicism.

BJCRL executive director Amanda Taylor leads a specialized offshoot, Christians Against Christian Nationalism, which is endorsed by, for example, top officials of mainline Protestant denominations and the National Council of Churches; liberal evangelicals Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne and Jim Wallis; and activist Catholic nun Simone Campbell.

CACN says that survey research shows those who embrace Christian nationalism are more likely than other Americans to demand “respect for national symbols and traditions”; fear “Muslims, Atheists and Jewish people”; “condone police violence toward Black Americans”; “hold anti-immigrant views”; and “believe that men are better suited for all leadership roles.”

A rather different assessment by Paul D. Miller, a Georgetown University professor and Southern Baptist consultant, was issued a month after the Capitol riot by Christianity Today, a voice of the evangelical “establishment” that grassroots activists typically spurn nowadays.

Here are some of his points.

CONTINUE READING: “What is Christian nationalism?” by Richard Ostling.

Richard Ostling is a former religion reporter for The Associated Press and former correspondent for TIME Magazine. This piece first appeared at Get Religion.

JANUARY 6TH

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