The Rev. Dr. Robert Prince
The Rev. Dr. Robert Prince
The Rev. Dr. Robert Prince
The Rev. Dr. Robert Prince
Our country is deeply divided. One of the major contributors to our divisions is Christian nationalism. It may seem odd that a Baptist Christian pastor would raise serious concerns about something Christian. But Christian nationalism is neither authentically Christian nor healthy for our nation.
Christian nationalism is a political ideology that combines Christian and American identities. It’s not patriotism. Patriotism is love and respect for your country. Christian nationalism goes beyond patriotism to say our nation’s founders intended Christianity to be our official religion. It also proclaims America is God’s chosen nation and Donald Trump God’s anointed leader.
Many Christian nationalists believe in White supremacy, so much so that people often refer to it as “White Christian Nationalism.” While not all Christian nationalists are White, the great majority of them are. Many Christian nationalists also believe women should always be subordinate to men, with some leaders calling for the repeal of a woman’s right to vote.
Most Christians are not Christian nationalists. Beliefs on this issue are on a spectrum, with strict church-state separation on one end and church-state union on the other. Today, the number of Americans on the side of union is growing, particularly among evangelicals.
Controversy about the relationship between church and state goes back to our beginnings. Nearly every American colony had a state church. This means each colony had a Christian denomination it protected and supported financially. Colonial support for the state church included enforcing the teachings of the church in that colony. This meant other churches were subject to persecution.
Groups suffering persecution, including Baptists, called for religious freedom guaranteed by the separation of church and state. Their advocacy of separation of church and state came from their theology and experience. Their theology taught them only God could make a Christian, and only God was the proper judge of faith. Their experience taught them when church and state were joined, persecution was inevitable. The state would uphold the beliefs of the established church.
In the late 1700s, Virginia was jailing Baptists for their faith. Baptists sought a champion for their cause, and Thomas Jefferson stepped up. Baptists believed every word of the Bible. Jefferson cut out portions of the Bible with which he disagreed. But Jefferson and Baptists teamed up to establish religious liberty. Jefferson wrote “The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom” and after years of struggle, the Virginia General Assembly adopted it in 1786. It was the first law in America that established religious freedom through the separation of church and state.
The idea of separation of church and state was so controversial, the first draft of the Constitution contained no guarantee of religious liberty. Due to intense lobbying by Baptists and others, Congress added the Bill of Rights in 1791. The First Amendment stated “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Christian nationalists like David Barton distort this story by cherry-picking quotations from that era. Certainly, some of our founders opposed separation of church and state. But the truth is our founders intentionally avoided establishing Christianity as our official religion. If nothing else, we know this from what they put in the Constitution and what they left out. They put in the Constitution “no religious tests” for office and “no establishment of religion.” They left out any mention of God, Christianity, or the Bible.
Our growing diversity tested our commitment to church-state separation. In the 1800s, Christian nationalist anti-immigration movements like the “Know Nothings” opposed the admittance of Irish Roman Catholics. In the 1950s, we had efforts to inject religion into the government because of the threat of Communism. Billy Graham was an advocate of Christian nationalism for much of his life. However, after being embarrassed by his endorsement of Richard Nixon, he withdrew from politics permanently.
In the 1980s, groups like The Moral Majority appeared. They called Christians to engage in “culture war” through political power. David Barton founded WallBuilders, an organization dedicated to opposing church-state separation. It was hugely influential among evangelicals.
Today, powerful Christian nationalist pastors, politicians, and influencers have emerged. Pastors include Lance Wallnau, Doug Wilson and Robert Jeffress. Christian nationalist political leaders include Mike Johnson, Pete Hegseth, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Influential organizations include Turning Point USA and the Ziklag Group.
A more recent development on this issue is the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). It teaches that God calls Christians to dominate the “Seven Mountains of Culture,” which are religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, and business. In its beginnings, it saw this domination coming through evangelism. But in recent years it has morphed into an aggressive political strategy focused on taking over cultural institutions. NAR leaders include Lance Wallnau and Paula White.
Christian nationalism is dangerous and harmful for at least two reasons. First, it alters the gospel of Christ by turning it into an idolatrous combination of biblical ideas and American mythology. It takes scripture passages out of context and reinterprets Christ’s teachings to support the idea that God wants Christians to dominate the nation in every area. Idolatry is the worship of anything other than God. Ultimately, Christian nationalism is the worship of ourselves, our nation, and our traditions. It turns Christians away from the proclamation of the gospel and the kingdom of God. It forgets Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world.
Second, Christian nationalism poisons rational and reasonable discourse essential to a healthy democracy. Groups can’t sit down and have reasonable conversations with each other if one group thinks the other is evil, against Christ, and demon possessed.
This doesn’t mean our relationships with Christ have nothing to say to politics. Christ should not merely inform our politics. He should form and drive them. Christian beliefs drove great movements in our country, like those against slavery, for women’s suffrage, and for civil rights. But we should never merge Christ and country, adulterating our faith and poisoning our politics.
Rev. Dr. Robert Prince served as the pastor of First Baptist Waynesville for 22 years before his retirement earlier this year. This column reflects the thoughts of Pastor Prince and not necessarily those of First Baptist Waynesville.
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Thanks for this helpful and honest assessment of Christian nationalism. Rev. Sim Gardner
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