'Threat to democracy' or media phantom? Christian nationalism debate takes violent turn
Evangelicals wrestle with language, political agendas, potential 'fusion of Christianity and the state'
History behind the language
The ubiquitous and often interchangeable phrases "Christian nationalism" and "Christian nationalist" are relatively new terms.
According to Google Trends, apart from a small spike in 2004, during the George W. Bush administration, the use of the phrase Christian nationalism was at or near zero between 2004 and January 2021, around the time of the riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Likewise, the use of the phrase in news searches remained at zero between 2008 and 2022, according to Google.
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While the controversy over the semantics of Christian nationalism might feel like an academic exercise to some, this debate stretches back to the roots of the U.S., the Founding Fathers and documents of the nation — and what they predominately believed.
According to the Dunham Bible Museum, John Adams, the second president of the United States, wrote in a letter to Thomas Jefferson on Dec. 25, 1813: "I have examined all religions, as well as my narrow sphere, my straightened means, and my busy life, would allow; and the result is that the Bible is the best Book in the world. It contains more philosophy than all the libraries I have seen."
Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, is quoted as saying, "A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education."
Patrick Henry, Virginia orator and patriot of the American Revolution, said, "The Bible is worth all other books which have ever been printed."
Herbert C. Hoover, 31st president of the United States, wrote: "The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life."
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, wrote concerning the Holy Bible: "That book, sir, is the rock on which our republic rests."
Perhaps most surprisingly, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat whose political enemies accused him of being a communist, is quoted as saying: "In the formative days of the Republic, the directing influence the Bible exercised upon the fathers of the Nation is conspicuously evident. … We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a Nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic."
Outspoken Christian nationalists like Evangelical author and historian David Barton often point to Feb. 29, 1892, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Holy Trinity v. United States that the historical record of America overwhelmingly demonstrated that the United States "is a Christian nation."
Ideological battle of semantics?
Some media figures like commentator Tucker Carlson have suggested the term "Christian nationalism" has risen to national prominence in part as a means to make Christianity, and specifically white Evangelicals, appear to be a threat to average Americans.
Leading pastoral figures like dean of theology and former pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Texas, Voddie Baucham, said he believes the phrase "Christian nationalism" is intended as a pejorative term against Christianity at large.
"This term has been really difficult to define," he said in a February 2023 sermon. "Because the term is meant as a pejorative, the term is meant as an insult. And so, depending on who's doing the insulting and who they're trying to insult and why, this term will kind of morph."
Baucham pointed to the Mayflower Compact signed in 1620 by newly-arrived English settlers in Massachusetts, which reads, in part, "IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith."
"People are arguing that this idea is something that is new, something that is made up, something that we're forcing, for example, on America, and on America's history," he said. "But you can only believe that if you're ignorant of who came here and established America."
Meanwhile, Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur, another Reformed pastor who frequently aligns with Baucham on theological and political issues, has argued against the biblical support for Christian nationalism, saying, "There is no such thing as Christian nationalism."
So what exactly does the media mean by the term "Christian nationalist"? There doesn't seem to be any real consensus on a definition, but Craig Huey, political author and small business owner, says he believes the term is part of the overall message strategy from the political Left.
"Whatever the Church does, whatever ... conservatives do, whatever Republicans do, whatever Libertarians do, the messaging of the Left, the messaging of the bias media is one that, well, 'they're Christian nationalists,'" he said. "That's a made-up term that if you believe that in patriotism if you believe that there's no other country in the world that has the protections for Christians to be able to spread the Gospel, that there's within our country and our constitutional principles that are worth defending and articulating.
"If you have that belief, you're going to be called a Christian nationalist."
For Idaho minister and theologian Doug Wilson, who Carlson dubbed the "Christian nationalist they warned you about," it all boils down to who — or what — is the object of worship.
"I don't want to be living under a deity that could have as its titular representative, Joe Biden. That's not the God I want to live under," the 71-year-old Wilson said. "And consequently, and there's no getting away from that, regardless of which way you feel."
"I could be arguing with a liberal next door neighbor, and he doesn't want to live under a deity, the head of which is Donald Trump. OK. But the only way out of that dilemma is to have a transcendental reality that is recognized and acknowledged in the imminent realm. If we don't recognize a transcendent reality, then we're locked in a room that's got an eight foot ceiling that goes on forever and ever. And it's just, it's simply suffocating."
Wilson says part of the reason for the semantic debate over Christian nationalism is because such discord actually serves a larger political interest.
"The reason we don't have a common definition is because that would interfere with our tribal loyalties. If we settled on a common definition, we might get somewhere," said Wilson. "And there are some people who don't want to get somewhere. So one of the humanistic assumptions is that we all want to make progress. Well, not everybody wants to make progress. Some people like it where they are."
"Some people have a vested interest in the status quo. Some people have a vested interest in changing the status quo. Some people have a vested interest in revolution. Some have an interest in reformation. Some have no motives that are pure and noble. You know, you've got the whole range. So yes, if someone made us sit in a room and hammer out a definition, I believe we'd see a good deal of people talking past each other."
For Wilson, however, it's all about acknowledging a divine King who, despite the whims of any given election cycle, stands sovereign over the political affairs — and the governments — of men.
"So basically, if there is no God above the State, the State becomes God. And if the State comprised of human beings is God, one of the things we know about human beings is that they're fallen and corrupt," he said. "And they change all the time. The transcendent God is holy, holy, holy, and He never changes. So consequently, there's a sure footing we can say, we can say that to this, you know, for the Aztecs to sacrifice humans for some primitive tribe to throw virgins into volcanoes, we can say that that's wrong. I don't care what culture you grew up in. I don't care what day of the week it is. I don't care what century it is.
"God will judge that at the last day because God is transcendent and He never changes. But we change all the time. Sometimes we're cool with throwing virgins into volcanoes. Other times we disapprove of it mightily."
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post. His latest book, THE ASSEMBLY ON THE ROCK, is set for release Sept. 2024. He can be reached at: [email protected].
