Christian Nationalist: What Does It Mean?

Here are some questions to ask the next time someone uses the term "Christian nationalist."

It’s become one of those terms people throw around constantly without ever defining. And that's by design. It's meant to end a conversation instead of start one.

So let's start one.

*Question 1*: What exactly do you mean by that?

This is the most important question because the answer reveals everything.

If they mean "the government should force everyone to be Christian & enforce Christian theology by law," then I agree, that should be rejected. But that's almost never what's actually being described.

In the vast majority of cases, "Christian nationalist" is being used to describe conservative Christians who vote their convictions, make biblical arguments in the public square, & believe that America was founded on Christian principles. In other words… it's being used to describe normal civic participation by people who happen to be Christian + Conservative.

CNN recently aired a special defining Christian nationalism as "the belief that our country was founded as a Christian nation & that our laws & institutions should reflect Christian values."

By that definition, virtually every American Christian for the first 200+ years of American history was a "Christian nationalist" (including our Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, & Martin Luther King Jr.)

The term is being used to make something historically ordinary sound extremist.

*Question 2*: Was Martin Luther King Jr. a Christian nationalist?

This is where the term falls apart.

MLK was a Baptist minister who explicitly used Christian theology (Imago Dei, the prophetic tradition, the Sermon on the Mount) to push for laws that forced millions of Americans to comply with his Christian convictions about human dignity.

The Civil Rights Act overrode the "free will" of millions of citizens who genuinely disagreed with him. He imposed his biblically-informed moral vision on the nation through legislation.

Was that "Christian nationalism"? Was he "forcing his religion down people's throats"?

If they say no (& they will), then their objection was never about Christians influencing politics. It was about _Christians_ influencing politics in a direction they disagree with.

*Question 3*: Were the abolitionists Christian nationalists?

American abolitionists were overwhelmingly pastors & churches arguing from Gen.1:27, Gal.3:28, & the Philemon epistle that slavery violated God's design for human dignity.

They didn't just privately believe slavery was wrong. They organized, campaigned, & pushed for laws that forced an entire nation to comply with their biblically-informed convictions.

They "forced their religion" on slaveholders. And the country is better for it.

*Question 4*: Have you ever applied that label to a Democrat (why or why not)?

Democrats frequently use Jesus & Scripture to justify their political platform. (but for some reason the label never applies to them). James Talarico is a great example, but he’s not the only one. 

"Welcome the stranger" gets cited to support immigration policy. The Sermon on the Mount gets invoked to argue for social programs. "Whatever you did for the least of these" shows up in healthcare debates. Progressive pastors use Jesus to advocate for government spending, gun control, & other regulation all the time.

Is that "Christian nationalism"?

And while we're on consistency… Black churches have been among the most politically active institutions in American history, & they remain so today. Politicians regularly speak from their pulpits. Voter drives are organized from their sanctuaries. Pastors openly advocate for candidates & policies from behind the lectern. 

But I've never once heard anyone call that "Christian nationalism." I've never heard anyone demand "separation of church & state" when a Democrat speaks from a Black church pulpit the Sunday before an election.

The label only seems to appear when White Christians engage politically in a conservative direction.

Do you see the double-standard?

*Question 5*: Do you really believe we shouldn't "force our morals" on others?

This is the one that collapses the whole framework.

Every law imposes someone's morality. Every single one.

Laws against murder impose a moral view. Laws against theft impose a moral view. Civil rights laws imposed a moral view. 

The question is never "should morality influence law?" It always does. The question is WHOSE morality & on WHAT basis.

When someone says "you can't legislate morality," what they actually mean is _"you_ can't legislate YOUR morality." They're perfectly fine legislating their own. They just don't want competition.

And here's the deeper issue…

When someone rejects the idea of any authority higher than the State, then government functionally becomes the highest authority. There is no God above it, no moral law beyond it, no standard to appeal to over it.

In that framework, politics becomes religion, policy becomes doctrine, & anyone who claims an authority ABOVE the government (like, say, God) becomes a threat to the system.

That's why the push to keep outspoken conservative Christians out of politics is so intense.

It's not because they oppose faith mixing with politics (they like it well enough when it serves their cause). It's because Christianity represents a competing authority claim. A God above government is intolerable to someone whose god IS government.

As Rev. Josh Howerton pointed out, the church didn't move into politics. Politics moved into theology. When the government went from building roads to redefining marriage, erasing biological sex, & reframing the killing of the unborn as "healthcare," the Church didn't change its position. The culture moved, & then acted shocked that the Church didn't move with it.

There's an enormous amount of ground between "establish a theocracy" vs. "keep your faith completely private." Christians have occupied that ground for the entire history of this country.

So the next time someone throws "Christian nationalist" around, don't flinch. Ask them these 5 questions. And if they can't answer them consistently, then what they're really saying isn't "keep religion out of politics." It's "keep YOUR religion out of MY politics."