Christian Nationalism is a relatively new term in the political realm. In this country only a minority of Christians are being placed in this group. And the group is not even an organization.
While most people think Christian Nationalists are basically in the field of theology, they are actually increasingly stepping out of the culture wars and into the political arena. Also, day by day this new tribe is morphing into a white supremacy ideology.
Will it help you to know that the U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and loud-speaking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are both avowed Christian Nationalists?
From what I can gather, here are some of the tenets of Christian Nationalism:
• The federal government should declare the United States to be a Christian nation.
• US laws should be based on Christian values.
• More religion should be in the public schools.
• Banning books in libraries and schools is sometimes appropriate.
• The wall between Church and State should be broken down.
There is a great deal of fear and even hatred that is fueling this movement. After all, over the past few decades this country has gone from a majority white Christian America to one in which there is no longer a majority ethno-religious group. When the bigots marched a few years ago yelling “We will not be displaced,” they didn’t realize they already have been.
While the term Christian Nationalism is relatively new — since the Jan. 6, 2021 coup attempt — the concept can be traced way back to 1493 a year after Christopher Columbus first stopped off in the Caribbean. He went back to Spain in 1492, then returned the next year with 17 ships, and a dozen priests to convert the indigenous people to white Christianity.
The European view has always been of the supremacy camp that came to be called later The Doctrine of Discovery. This policy toward others was buttressed by several papal bulls claiming that European civilization and Western Christianity are superior to all other cultures, races and religions.
This has all been documented very well in the book “The End of White Christian America” by Robert P. Jones.
There has always been tension between the above stream of history and the purely American idea that this country is a pluralistic democracy.
A Pew Poll found 77% of Americans say that churches and other houses of worship should not endorse candidates for political office. About two-thirds of Americans say religious institutions should keep out of political matters.
That brings us back to today’s Christian Nationalists. What do Hoosiers and others in this country think of Christian Nationalists? For one thing, 54% have not heard of the term or read anything about it. Another 16% have heard the term but knew not much about it. About 24% expressed an unfavorable view of Christian Nationalism and a mere 5% viewed it favorably.
The largest religious component of Christian Nationalism is white Evangelicalism (66%). Republicans are more than twice as likely as independents — 55% to 25% — to be in the Christian Nationalist camp. Contrarily, only 16% of this group would be Democrats.
At one time Christian Nationalism and white Evangelicalism were in this arena for religious reasons, but now there is a shift in the issue to more of a political nature. The whole topic is so new we need a scorecard to tell who is doing what.
We do know enough to see that the topic is not a cruise ship. It is a battleship.
David Ross Stevens was the Courier-Journal’s first investigative environmental writer, from 1968 to 1978. From 1993 to 2003 he taught a course — Environment and People — at Indiana University Southeast in New Albany. His email is dbqwriter@gmail.com
