The text isn’t exact and I actually go off-script the last 10 or 15 minutes, I actually deviate from this a lot but the gist is pretty much the same.
Christian Nationalism, Where are we going?
Episode 2
16 Now the eleven disciples fwent to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they gworshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, h“All authority iin heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 jGo therefore and kmake disciples of lall nations, jbaptizing them min2 nthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them oto observe all that pI have commanded you. And behold, qI am with you always, to rthe end of the age.”
Matthew 28 16-18
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” John 18:36
So… I was watching a post on Facebook the other day, the post was by a Pastor whom I really respect. He was one of my early influences in my journey back to the faith more than a decade ago and he was talking about Christian Nationalism. The post was addressing a specific person who claims to be a CN and to be honest is a pretty terrible person, but the thing that caught me was the broad brush that he was painting with. He was putting all CNs in the same bucket as this… well… they guys a racist actually the guys is an actual racist. Now I don’t know if this was actually his intention but it did seem to be what he was doing. I’m not going to mention who this pastor was because like I said this is a good guy, he does good work so I don’t really want to throw shade and who he is isn’t really important
However, what’s important is that the post got me thinking. Which is what a good post should do.
So, what is “Christian Nationalism”? Is it a bunch of redneck racists couching their hate in Christianity? Is it a front for neo-Nazi-ism? Is it the zealots of the first century reborn wanting to take the government by force? Is it the Christian version of shariah law? Is it grifters taking advantage of conservative Christians who are dissatisfied with the way things are going? Are they heretics who are perverting the Christian message? Are they simply restating Protestant political theory, a la Calvin, for the 21st century? Does it even exist?
The term Christian nationalism entered the current cultural consciousness about four years ago after the events of January 6th 2020. It was used as a slur against the supporters of Donald trump. So is Christian nationalism even a real thing. Well the answer is yes and no.
It’s a meme. It’s a meme that’s kind of taken on a life of its own. You can search the various corners of the internet or maybe just spend half an hour on twitter and you can certainly find people who claim to be Christian nationalist who fit just about every description of it.
There is no cohesiveness to Christian nationalism. There is no Christian Nationalist political party. As far as I know there is no CN political action committees (not at least that I am aware of). It’s an idea, there is nothing solid to it. Yeah, there have been a couple CN branded preaching conferences.
Why is it like this? Part of the reason is that it’s safe. Like the “edgy” shows on Netflix and Amazon that end up just falling in line with the party. It’s safe edgy to be a twitter CN. It’s safe edgy to go to a preaching conference and listen to a handful of pastors and then go for a beer and a cigar afterwards. It’s safely in the realm of theology. Is it theology that’s gotten a lot of attention, yeah and all good theology will have practical effects or at least it should.
But as far as solid political organization. There isn’t any because it’s a meme. Maybe this is calling out those who fly the CN flag highest maybe it’s just me musing.
Who’s going to start a Christian nationalist party?
The two mainstream political parties have a stranglehold on the political process the half-dozen other minor parties have almost no influence while themselves a little more solid are still basically memes themselves as they have none or almost no sitting elected officials.
Now I don’t know if this is really the fault of any of the other parties or if it’s a bug (feature) of our system but the more I think about it I don’t even know what a CN political party would really look like, and the absolute war you would have to continually wage against Christians and non Christians would be absolutely maddening. Because If say I won the lottery tomorrow and ended up with a half a billion dollars and said, Hey I’m doing this I’m going to start the American Christian nationalist party or whatever, I would be attacked on all sides, All of them. I would have everyone against me Christian, Non Christian, protestant, catholic conservative, liberal, the FBI…
So anyone who is willing to do such a thing will have to be absolutely convinced of Christian nationalism as a political theory no just as a meme tossed at us by our enemies or even just as a theology but would have to have a political ideology they are willing stand unwavering on.
The idea a lot of people have is to work inside the current political framework. A reformation for the Republican party, if you will, but like the Roman church during the protestant reformation, they don’t want to be reformed. Let’s face it, there’s too much money at stake to mess it up with actual principles.
But I’m getting ahead of myself, I think. Back to my original story. Was the pastor straw manning, yes but in this discussion, you can’t help it because right now it’s all made of straw and pixels. This isn’t like defending or attacking what is at least a century old conservative or constitutional ideology, this still has no solid form. Because it’s still having no solid form it’s safe to attack and safe(ish) to defend because It’s still kind of whatever you want it to be.
So how do we move forward? Is something called CN even an option? We can all see it’s falling apart or some trying to take it apart. So, what is our path forward? I’m not a political scientist or a theologian so I know I don’t have all the answers I would never claim too. But I think I have a place to start, of course i can hear everyone chanting “The Gospel”, and I would agree. The Gospel is the very foundation of everything but there is something else and It’s something else we’re really, really, REALLY bad at.
1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Yeah, unity. We’re really, really ,bad at it. In fact, I think we’re actually afraid of unity. It doesn’t help that the west has been on a hyper-individualistic trajectory since the 18th century. Before we can start any sort of movement, we must have something at least resembling unity. While I am an enthusiastic supporter of the reformation and the return to biblical theology that it brought us there were some side effects that are a bit of a problem.
The Romans have identified it when they claim there are 30,000 protestant denominations. This is of course an absurd number, but I think they have put a finger on our disunity issue. I would argue that the reformation has created around 6 churches and there are variations within those 6 but I think this pinpoints the issue.
Of course we would argue that we are united in the essential and our division are in secondary issues. But are they? Paul told us to be of one mind. Which tells me that even in these secondary issues that we kind of play off at times of having no correct answer or are a matter of perspective, actually have correct answers.
There is a correct answer to the eschatology question
There is a correct answer to the baptism question
I think we actually have the answers to most of these questions Paul tells us to be of one mind and of one Judgement. That is antithetical to the zeitgeist of today there is resistance to this is that is just ingrained into us.
If you want Christian Nationalism this is where we must start. Christian nationalism or Christendom or what you want to call it isn’t how we’re going to get unity these things can only come out of unity, and we have a long way to go.
I’m by no means saying that the current Christian nationalist movement is a bad thing. Are there some “bad actors” for lack of a better term, that call themselves CN but there are bad actors that call themselves Christians as well. There’s hardly a cult out there that hasn’t tried to claim Jesus or Christianity as their own.
I personally like the idea of Christian Nationalism. A nation using or returning to using God’s law as the standard for it’s law. Some people simply would call this general equity theonomy ok, maybe that’s not so simple to say but I think it’s Biblical and it’s confessional. It’s part of the Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 19. And John Calvin certainly would have been called a Christian Nationalist as he Writes to the King of France
The characteristic of a true sovereign is, to acknowledge that, in the administration of his kingdom, he is a minister of God. He who does not make his reign subservient to the divine glory, acts the part not of a king, but a robber. He, moreover, deceives himself who anticipates long prosperity to any kingdom which is not ruled by the sceptre of God, that is, by his divine word. For the heavenly oracle is infallible which has declared, that “where there is no vision the people perish”
So what is Christian Nationalism? If it’s anything it’s something we’re still figuring out. Some will answer it’s simply wanting our leaders or our rulers to base their governance on the law of God. and if that really is the basic definition of Christian Nationalism the resistance to this from a lot of the Christian community is just so bizarre, It’s just so… modern
Like our baked in resistance to unity there also seems to be this baked in resistance to overtly Christian governance. I’m not sure where this comes from. It’s probably a combination of things, misunderstandings of history, A default secular worldview eschatology
I’ve just had another thought as well. Why is this movement happening now? The answer to this question might be another clue to what Christian nationalism actually is. To be sure there are a ton of things happening right now. For the last decade the sexual revolution has been at an uptik, Our government seems to be inepter and more malicious than ever. Like I mentioned before the term really came into the public consciousness after the events of January 6th 2020.
Is this just another reactionary movement? To be fair the current reactionary party is really kind of lame and gay and getting less and less reactionary. The goal posts have been moved to far for the republicans or the libertarians to be of much use. So are Christian nationalists just the new Republicans.
What is the vision of the Christian nationalists? Is big enough to be anything more or even anything more than a twitter movement and a handful of niche books? Can any reactionary movement do much against the sexual revolution or the cultural Marxism that has been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) at work since the end of World War 2?
Is it patient enough? Is it more than a reactionary movement meant to try and save an end stage empire? If this is the motivation of the Christian nationalism (and I’m not even saying that it’s a bad motivation) I don’t think it’s enough.
Will Christian nationalism remain a meme? Probably but if we want a movement to actually change the culture. Because that’s really where the issue is. Yes, the government is a problem but of course that asks the questions is the culture bad because the government is bad or is the government bad because the culture is bad. It’s kind of a which came first the chicken or the egg situation. But what do we have more control over? Our government of the people, by the people and for the people is none of those things anymore, it’s typically unreachable except by the very few but our culture is what we swim in every day.
So how do we change the culture?
I know I don’t have a definitive answer for that really, I have some thoughts on what it might take to start. It’s going to take work. It’s going to take being considered weird and not respectable and being called things like bigot and I’m sure there are other nasty things.
Are we willing to put in the work to change Christian nationalism from a meme to movement? As Christians we can’t do this the same as the world. We don’t use fear or intimidation or gas lighting or disinformation etc… etc… our weapons are truth and peace.
It has to revolve around the Church and the family as well. Christianity doesn’t have lone wolfs and rogue organizations. This is part of the reason I said one of the places we have to start is with unity within the church.
The more I try to write this and lay out my thoughts and my reasonings and my musing on this topic, yes I’m writing this before I record this, and I’ll probably post this as a blog too, as I’ve written paragraphs and pages then deleted them and re-written them. I’ve been working on this off and off for a week. The more I realize is that yes Christian Nationalism is really just a meme and really that’s all it will ever be.
Why? Because at its best the Idea of Christian Nationalism is really just pointing to something that’s been there all along and that’s just applying Christianity to every sphere or realm of life. At its best that’s really all it is. It’s removing the artificial divisions that we put up. Yes, there are bad actors and the imbalanced that emphasizes the Nationalism over the Christian part or who want to add weird race stuff but
. If you look at what the loudest voices in CN are really saying it’s just that Christians need to live life in every part of your world as a Christian. Your Christianity doesn’t stop when you leave the Church building. It doesn’t stop when you go to work or to the movies or write a book or when you get elected to the school board or city council.
It’s just the idea that Christians should value the same things that the world value. It’s the idea that Christianity is reality and the things that it teaches are not just good they’re the ideal . It’s not just that God’s law is gooder that transing kids (as one twitter meme posed) It’s the ideal.
This shouldn’t be controversial. The fact that this is controversial even in Christian circles is concerning, to say the least.
The unity part is mine. I’m actually not hearing a lot of people talking about unity within the church, maybe I’m missing it but I haven’t seen it. I really don’t have any answers for it. I guess I’m doing my part I’m a pedobaptist postmil theonomist in a dispensational SBC church and I don’t really plan on leaving because even though I have some big disagreements I’m still at church with brothers and sisters that I’ve gone to church with and that my kids have gone to church with for more than a decade.
Ias I come to the topic of Christian unity, there are a couple of fights that are gearing up over the next couple of decades and a couple that have already had a few shots fired. The first I think and I agree with RC Sproul will be the eschatological debate. As pre-millenial dispensationalism crumbles under is own bad hermeneutic and false prophecies this will become more of an issue. The reason this is going to be a big debate and already is, is because it’s linked so heavily to zionism and zionism is ingrained in our political system. It was a big deal when Trump moved our embassy in Israel from Tel a viv to Jerusalem because, Zionism.
It’s just kind of baked into the culture. So as the pre-millennial formula becomes untenable over the next couple of decades that will be a big discussion and already is.
The other one that I think will become more intense is the Charismatic/continuationism discussion. It’s already started, and I think that one will become more important in the coming decades.
There are others. There are lots of battles that impede our unity and I really think these are things that we need to work to overcome or eliminate. We’ve gotten used to disunity. Yes a lot of people will point to the fact that many of these issues are “secondary issues” or of little weight when it comes to the core of the Gospel, but they are still creating division.
No, I don’t think denominations are a good thing. I think they’re kind of a necessary thing currently. Paul says we are to be of one mind. We’re to be one body. I don’t think this means conceding to the lowest common denominator. How do we overcome the East/Roman/protestant divide?
Or…maybe we do have unity and we just fail to realize it because we are distracted by the issues we quibble over. Maybe our division is a lie from the enemy? There are differences but how many of them should we be truly divided over?
Will we ever get to a point where the is a truly unified Christian church before Jesus returns? I like to think so, but
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