“This world is not my home/I’m just a passin’ through/my treasures are laid up/somewhere beyond the blue”
These lyrics from a well-known evangelical hymn represent a biblically based understanding of Christians’ role in our society. In Romans 12:2, the Apostle Paul says “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Today, many evangelical Christians in the United States seem to be acting in opposition to this scripture, attempting to conform the world to their interpretation of what is good, acceptable, perfect, and the will of God. These are Christian nationalists, and they represent a dangerous perversion of Christian belief and scripture to further their own political ends.
American politics is, at a certain point, about winning, and this raises difficult questions for Christians on what the nature of their involvement with politics should be. How can Christian Republicans who were so outraged by former President Bill Clinton’s sexual scandals in the 1990s now throw their full and uncompromising support behind President-elect Donald Trump, a man who, by almost all measures, violates the same principles that Christians decried Clinton for violating? The answer is simple: many evangelical Christians began to care more about winning in politics than supporting candidates who exemplified their values.
If, per Philippians 3:20, Christians’ true citizenship is in Heaven, then how can they be Christian nationalists? In their book “Taking Back America for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” authors Andrew L. Whitefield and Samuel L. Perry define Christian nationalism as “a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.” This fusion of Christianity with American civic life represents the antithesis of what the Bible tells Christians they ought to do. Rather than attempting to make their earthly home a Christian state, Christians are instructed to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” i.e. follow earthly laws, and focus on something of much greater importance: their future citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. How are Christian nationalists missing the point?
Christian nationalism is a recent name for an ideological current that has run through American Protestantism since the United States’ founding. Puritans in New England sought not only to have their own religious rights respected but also to stamp out any dissenting religious views. A prime example is their intolerance, which led to the founding of Rhode Island by Roger Williams as a settlement that expressly sought to separate church and civic life and be religiously tolerant. This trend continued through the Civil War, with the postbellum Republican Party labeling the Democratic Party as the party of Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion. This linked the abortive secession attempt by the Confederacy, the moral decline of the United States as symbolized by alcohol consumption, and Romanism, i.e. the Catholicism of newly arrived immigrants from Italy and Ireland. Religions perceived as foreign could not be American. Per research by Whitefield and Perry, of individuals categorized as Christian nationalists, 18.6% are Catholic, but the movement is still largely made up of Evangelicals.
Christian nationalists’ anxieties about moral decline and the changing demographics of the United States manifest themselves in conservative political actions to try to return the United States to the makeup and character of some imagined past America. While Christian nationalists are primarily white conservatives, Whitefield and Perry found that 69% of what they term “Ambassadors,” i.e. those who hold the most Christian nationalist beliefs, are conservative, an additional 4% self-identify as liberal, and 24%, almost a quarter, identify as moderates. Similarly, while 56% of these same Ambassadors are Republicans and 24% are registered independents, a full 20%, i.e. 1 in 5, are registered Democrats. Christian nationalists are not just a phenomenon solely contained within and emblematic of the Republican Party, but rather they are a larger and more diverse group. The same holds true for race, with 69.9% of Ambassadors being white, 11% Hispanic, and 11.4% Black. Can we, as a rule, refer to Christian nationalists as white, conservative Republicans? Perhaps, but that assumption obfuscates outliers that are, in some cases, a significant part of the data set.
This conservative backlash found in Christian nationalist actions does not find its sole home in Project 2025 and the Republican Party’s platform but rather occurs in a number of different vectors, some more surprising and subtle than others. A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in 2022 found that in Massachusetts, only 32% of Christian nationalists voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 election. This percentage was significantly higher for individuals from traditionally red states; for example, 70% of Christian nationalists in Wyoming voted for Trump in 2020.
What is the conclusion to draw from these statistics? 1. Christian nationalism is not as politically or racially homogenous as many seem to think it is or would like it to be. 2. Christian nationalism will not go away with any future defeat of Trump and Republicans in elections. Trump did not invent Christian nationalism and the anxieties that created it will outlive him, and as such, rather than solely seeking to strike Christian nationalism in the ballot box, those opposed to it need to examine the root causes. In his book “The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in the Age of Trump,” journalist Tim Alberta identifies Christian iconography at the Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021 as a “perversion of America’s prevailing religion” and Christianity’s status as the United States’ prevailing religion is an unavoidable fact of life. I hope that going forward, Christians can take a look at the Bible and work to take politics out of the pulpit and focus back on the most important part of the Christian life: that this world and everything in it is only temporary, this world is not our home, and the eternal life is so much more important. For non-Christians, I would recommend avoiding overgeneralization. Not all Christians are Christian nationalists. Not all individuals of any given denomination, Southern Baptists come to mind, are Christian nationalists. The high ideals of Christianity will never be reached because the Church, a human institution, is marred by the actions of flawed humans. The same can be said of any religious or ideological framework. Christian nationalism is perhaps the clearest example of this, as it is a perversion of scripture to further human ends. The United States has struggled with its identity as a diverse society since its inception, and Christians, as members of “America’s prevailing religion,” are a part of that diverse society. Through collaboration and communication, Christians and non-Christians can hopefully work together to gain a greater understanding and tolerance of one another.
