“Them’s fightin’ words!” That is one typical reaction folks can get if they start talking about Christian nationalism. It certainly can generate a fair amount of controversy and robust debate. And the topic can mean different things to different people. Some hate it, some love it, and some have no clue what it is all about.
I have penned a number of pieces on this issue. For example, I wrote four articles on the 2022 book The Case for Christian Nationalism by Stephen Wolfe:
In 2019 he looked further at these themes in Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West (Regnery). And just now, in the most recent edition of First Things Reno has an article called “The Case for Christian Nationalism”. The lengthy piece is worth drawing to your attention, as well as quoting from.
Early on he writes:
Christian nationalism is self-limiting. All political projects have extremist tendencies. In recent decades, American liberalism became unmoored. In the modern era, its central project has been to nurture and protect freedom. It was long limited by a Christian understanding of true freedom, which honors and obeys truths not of our making. As Christianity’s influence over public life receded, liberalism evolved to warrant plenary freedom to do as one pleases, even to the point of insisting that everyone has a “right” to choose his or her own sex, when to end his or her own life, and whether to end the life of a child in the womb.
Nationalism aims to promote the common good. It’s a political project ordered to securing national sovereignty, encouraging greater collective unity, and promoting more equitable sharing of worldly burdens and blessings. Just as the liberal endeavor can slide toward libertarian and individualistic extremes, nationalism’s collective spirit can go too far. The defense of sovereignty may become a bellicose and limitless effort to destroy all foreign threats. Unity may become suffocating homogeneity. A dangerous utopian egalitarianism may supplant the reasonable pursuit of equitable economic and social conditions. What’s needed is a braking mechanism. This is what Christianity provides.
When people cringe at the words “Christian nationalism,” for the most part, they harbor an overriding worry: Are the Bible-thumpers looking to establish a theocracy? Are Christian nationalists aiming to install Jesus (by way of his self-appointed surrogate) as omnipotent legislator and commander-in-chief?
Note well Jesus’s response to Pontius Pilate after his arrest. He does not say that he is not a king. Rather, he reminds Pilate of an obvious truth, which is that he lacks an army of followers who will fight for him and prevent his arrest. It’s a telling point. What kind of king goes around without palace guards? What kind of theocrat lacks Secret Service protection? If Jesus had been aiming to overthrow Herod, then he was comically ill-equipped. Having adverted to basic truths of realpolitik, Jesus makes his role clear to Pilate: “My kingship is not of this world.”
“Not of this world” might reassure those who fear theocracy. But what about the threat of rampant nationalism? If it’s not of this world, and therefore not political, then how does the Christianity in Christian nationalism restrain the political excesses that have shipwrecked pagan nationalisms such as National Socialism? The answer is found in what Jesus goes on to say….
He looks at how Christian thinkers and political theorists have discussed such matters, and then says this:
Christian nationalism encourages us to care for our nation and helps us resist the pressures of a globalized economy, as well as the cosmopolitan universalism that arises from today’s ersatz religion of humanity. But because Christian nationalism is Christian, it is self-limiting. It does not fall prey to the utopian dreams of progressivism, and it curbs the sometimes unrestrained zeal of patriotism. Christian nationalism subordinates our proper and natural ardor for our nation’s sovereignty, prosperity, and civic health to the higher and supernatural love of God.
Christian nationalism encourages political realism. Many people dismiss the doctrine of original sin as a depressing, pessimistic doctrine. They think this way because they are imbued with the modern illusion that man is by nature good, needing only to be freed from bad influences, whereupon he will shower others with his benevolence. The Christian view, by contrast, is realistic. Left to our own devices, we will serve ourselves, not others.
For this reason, the doctrine of original sin is salutary for any approach to governance. A Christian nationalist recognizes that the first task of the magistrate is to restrain sin and punish wrongdoers (Rom. 13:4). The doctrine of original sin clarifies a sad but undeniable fact: There will be people who cheat, steal, and murder. They must be punished and deterred. No society can function without a firm hand that restrains sin.
But the Christian nationalist also knows that those—including himself—who make and enforce laws have imperfect motives. The policeman may enjoy his power and use it in arbitrary ways. The judge may take improper pride in his Christian virtue and exercise mercy when he should impose justice. The prison warden may slide toward a sadistic pleasure in the wretchedness of his inmates. Sin worms its way into every heart.
The Christian’s awareness that none are exempt from God’s judgment encourages constant vigilance. The Christian nationalist will never summarily dismiss criticisms of our present system. Every legal regime and cultural consensus is infected by sin. All require ceaseless efforts of reform.
Reno concludes the piece this way:
When a Christian agrees with me about the pressing need for national restoration, I find it more than a little strange if he shrinks from the “Christian” element in Christian nationalism. Wouldn’t the nation be better off if Christianity exercised more influence in public life? Doesn’t the prayer that all things will fall under the lordship of Christ include the nation, however indirect that lordship can and must be until he returns in glory?
What about serious Jews, Muslims, and those of other faiths? I allow that they might prefer Jewish nationalism, Muslim nationalism, or some other approach. But political wisdom counsels support for the possible rather than quests for the unlikely. Shouldn’t all believers, whatever their faith, hope for a future in which American society is leavened by a strong commitment to honoring God and conforming to the moral order of creation? In view of our nation’s history and present population, is this future possible without Christian leadership? Supporting Christian nationalism would seem the sensible and worthy approach for all religiously committed Americans.
Secular Americans concerned about restoring national solidarity may have reasons to reject Christian nationalism. They have a right to place their hopes in liberal nationalism, or perhaps in one or another pagan nationalism. But they need not fear that Christian nationalism entails a theocracy or would compel their consciences. Christianity invented the secular realm, which is why Christianity is alone among religions in according a great deal of scope for secular leaders to govern in accordance with moral truths rather than saving doctrines. In the early nineteenth century, churchgoers in America voted to disestablish churches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and elsewhere. And Baptists—the biggest voting bloc within the Religious Right—invented the doctrine of strict separation of Church and state.
I’ll end with a final word of assurance to those frightened by talk of Christian nationalism: It’s very unlikely to become the beating heart of the American right, to say nothing of the left. I foresee a future in which nationalism will wax strong. As a Christian, I’ll participate in that movement, as I hope other Christians will. Our task will be to bring the wisdom of Christian nationalism to whatever coalition emerges that seeks to restore America. Not the least of that wisdom is a clear-minded recognition of the limits of all political enterprises—including nationalism.
The Postmodern elites in power in the West hate nationalism for the simple reason that they are zealous Globalists and any form of nationalism or patriotism, is an OBSTACLE to their thirst for Global power. Davos is one of their clubs, but there are others. They are totalitarian just as much as the Nazis or Communists under Stalin ever were, but power over one nation is not enough, they want absolute power over the World. Note that consistently, they will hate the masses that dare express any form of nationalism. So the Davos puppets currently in power in the West have nothing but contempt for any nationalist or popular movements. This explains the deluge of postmodernist contempt for ‘Make America Great Again’, for Brexit, for the French “gilet jaunes” movement or Justin Trudeau’s contempt for Canadian truckers waving Canadian flags (and flouting his vaccine decrees). This is a significant pattern… In Europe, this goes further, to the point of attempts at outlawing nationalist political parties in France and Germany or having courts cancel elections in Romania that don’t go the ’right way’. The flip side (or source) of this behaviour is an elitist ideology that despises democracy, the voice of the people, who should know when to shut up and do what their told…
And if you add Christian convictions to this mix, and get Christian nationalism then this is ‘double heresy’ in the eyes of the Postmodern elites… This is why you get such fear and loathing of Christian nationalism (and predictable accusations of “Theocracy”) from the Postmodern elites (and from their fake Christian lackeys)…
You have all that exactly right Paul. Many thanks.
On a separate but related note, trouble at the UN level:
https://citizengo.org/en-au/fr/17500
The Postmodern elites in power in the West hate nationalism for the simple reason that they are zealous Globalists and any form of nationalism or patriotism, is an OBSTACLE to their thirst for Global power. Davos is one of their clubs, but there are others. They are totalitarian just as much as the Nazis or Communists under Stalin ever were, but power over one nation is not enough, they want absolute power over the World. Note that consistently, they will hate the masses that dare express any form of nationalism. So the Davos puppets currently in power in the West have nothing but contempt for any nationalist or popular movements. This explains the deluge of postmodernist contempt for ‘Make America Great Again’, for Brexit, for the French “gilet jaunes” movement or Justin Trudeau’s contempt for Canadian truckers waving Canadian flags (and flouting his vaccine decrees). This is a significant pattern… In Europe, this goes further, to the point of attempts at outlawing nationalist political parties in France and Germany or having courts cancel elections in Romania that don’t go the ’right way’. The flip side (or source) of this behaviour is an elitist ideology that despises democracy, the voice of the people, who should know when to shut up and do what their told…
And if you add Christian convictions to this mix, and get Christian nationalism then this is ‘double heresy’ in the eyes of the Postmodern elites… This is why you get such fear and loathing of Christian nationalism (and predictable accusations of “Theocracy”) from the Postmodern elites (and from their fake Christian lackeys)…
You have all that exactly right Paul. Many thanks.