What’s wrong with Christian Nationalism?

I recently wrote here about the unfortunate conflict currently playing out between Christian “Conservatives” and “Progressives” in the public square.

One of the battles raging is over the role of Christian nationalism and whether it is a legitimate enterprise for the church to engage in.

What is Nationalism?

Nationalism is an ideology built on the belief that humanity can be divided into distinct, internally coherent cultural groups defined by shared traits like ethnicity, language, religion, and culture.

Nationalists believe that these groups should each have their own governments and that those governments should promote and protect each nation’s cultural identity.

These sovereign national groups are considered valuable because they provide meaning, purpose, security, and belonging for people.

The problem with nationalism is that it fails to recognise that cultures overlap, and their boundaries are often hard to define.

Globalisation has accelerated the phenomenon of multiculturalism, and growing numbers of cross-cultural relationships have led to cultures blending and changing in response to the new working and living realities.

Since distinct cultural cohorts can be difficult to define and maintain, they tend to be unhelpful as a foundation for political order.

As a result, attempting to establish political structures on cultural similarity will inevitably lead to any political order being accused of illegitimacy by some cultural group or another.

What is Christian Nationalism?

Christian nationalism is a political ideology that advocates for blending a particular form of Christianity with a country’s political order. It also claims a privileged place for Christianity in the public sphere.

Christian nationalists argue that Christianity has defined their countries in some significant way (Conservative evangelicalism in the United States, early Protestantism in the U.K., Eastern Orthodoxy in Russia, Catholicism in parts of South America, etc.) and that their governments should act to ensure it remains that way.

Christian nationalists essentially want their government to impose a specific cultural construct on the whole country.

Those who support Christian nationalism will argue that all forms of political order (and the laws they produce) are imposed and even violently enforced, including democracy. For that reason, the political order should be as moral as possible.

Christian nationalists suggest that Christian principles, values, and ideals are the least violent and the most moral (produce the most good), so they should be what determines the political order.

It’s a fair point when one considers the alternative forms of political order on offer.

Unfortunately, Christian nationalism has been linked to a host of immoral and antisocial attitudes, including racism, misogyny, homophobia, and violence.

Research has also shown that Christian nationalist beliefs correlate to opposition to interracial marriage, immigration, cross-cultural adoption, and gender equality, as well as demonstrate support for various conspiracy theories.

So what is wrong with Christian Nationalism?

I would argue that Christian nationalism is a false gospel that corrupts the heart of the Christian message by conflating the hope of the church with the work of the state.

When Christians look to the state for their identity, they accept its claim to supreme authority and essentially commit idolatry.

As Christians, our identity comes from God, and our hope is always in God, never the state.

If I were to summarise my concerns with Christian nationalism, I would say the following:

1. It assumes that Christian values can and should be imposed on secular society.

This, it is believed, can be done through legislation at the state and local government levels and changes to the constitution at the national level.

While Christian values are no doubt good for society and the world would be better off if all people pursued Christian virtues, those values and virtues must be owned by those who practice them. They must come from a deeply held conviction about the truth they represent and the value that they add. Such a conviction can never be imposed on anyone by law or coercion.

2. It assumes that a particular interpretation and application of scripture is the only proper way to approach the Bible.

Often Christian nationalists have a preferred hermeneutical lens through which they see the world. They contend that all other interpretive possibilities are incorrect.

As a result, Christian nationalists prescribe specific policy implementations that they claim are biblical but are, at best, interpretations of biblical principles and, at worst, contradictions to them.

These hermeneutical biases have been used to defend some of history’s worst atrocities, including antisemitism, slavery, misogyny, patriarchy, and systemic racial oppression (e.g., apartheid in South Africa).

3. It conflates Christian faith with political ideology.

Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the state. It implies that to be a good citizen, one must be a good Christian, and to be a good Christian, one must support the ideology of the state. This does damage to both the faith and the ideology concerned.

Christian nationalism uses the gospel as a smokescreen for its true agenda, using the message of Jesus as nothing more than a means to a political end. In this way, the church becomes a slave to the state and loses its identity, authority, and mission in Christ.

4. It fosters exclusivism and exceptionalism.

Christian nationalism breeds a self-righteous, elitist attitude that distinguishes true members of the political community from heretics, anarchists, and insurgents.

As such, it can become enmeshed in other systems of marginalisation, including racial supremacy, patriarchy, and dictatorship.

Some Christian nationalists even advocate for immigration laws to prevent changes in religious and ethnic demographics and preserve national culture.

Christian nationalism also assumes that particular nations have been “chosen” by God to play unique redemptive roles in the world in service of the Kingdom of God.

Often these special divinely-sanctioned purposes come with great privilege and immense power (usually in the form of economic and military might).

Sadly, the power and privilege are often used to exploit weaker nations and further enrich the more powerful ones.

What about patriotism? Is it the same as nationalism?

Patriotism is essentially love for one’s country. It differs from nationalism in that it makes no effort to define the country or dictate the cultural make-up of the country.

Patriotism can be good and healthy if it remains an expression of our affection for and commitment to the specific part of God’s world in which we live, as well as all who occupy it with us, regardless of their religious convictions.

Patriotism can help us to be good citizens by inspiring us to do the necessary work of maintaining and improving the cities and towns in which we live.

As Christians, we should love the communities to which we belong, which means working hard to strengthen them by serving all their citizens and championing justice within their borders.

Can Christians be politically involved without being nationalists?

Politically active Christians have been highly effective in the past in helping to end slavery, dismantle institutional segregation, and eradicate or mitigate other social evils.

However, they have been so effective precisely because they believed that the Christian faith required them to work for justice for all.

They laboured to advance Christian principles, not Christian power, which is the crucial distinction between normal Christian political engagement and Christian nationalism.

Christian political engagement should be characterised by humility, love, and service. It should not assume that Christians are entitled to privilege and priority in the public square or that we have a right to perpetuate our historical dominance in the national culture.

Christians should simply love their neighbours by working hard to promote religious liberty, pursue justice, foster racial and gender equality, protect the rule of law, prioritise care for the weak and the vulnerable, steward the environment in a wise and sustainable way, and participate peacefully in democratic processes.

This can be done through the power of example and compelling persuasion.

That is an aspiration far more deserving of our time and energy than seeking to forcefully impose Christian virtues and values on a secular world.