Christian Nationalism: The FAQ

[[TW: If you carry church trauma, we're going full send on "churchy" language here for the sake of the intended audience, and for the ability of the (reconstructed) Christian authors to use every tool at their disposal. This might still be a lot for your nervous system, and that's ok. We're going to be doing other versions of this aimed at folks with different vocabularies and needs, including folks who need to be walked through it all without triggering language.]]

A common occurrence here at DD is receiving messages in both our private and public DMs about all sorts of issues. Sometimes, folks want to know where we stand on a particular issue. Or they want to push back on something we've said (always welcome!). Or they have questions about an idea or a dynamic they're confronting in evangelicalism.

By far, the issue that has presented itself in our DMs with the most confusion, fear, distress, and anger, is Christian Nationalism.

It's very apparent that even with CN circles, they can't agree on a definition of what their movement is about. Is it explicitly White ethnic nationalism (e.g., Webbon, Fuentes, etc.) or is it Christofascist and we keep the White supremacy below the fold (e.g., Wilson, Howerton, Wolfe)?

Then, out in Regularville Evangelicalism, folks are being constantly propagandized with the message that Christian Nationalism is just good ol' fashioned Christian patriotism. And non-Christian Americans are so unaware of actual evangelical theology, church history, and the content of the Bible that they just genuinely don't know what to make of it.

So we figured that it might be useful to write a quick FAQ on Christian Nationalism, from the perspective of an anti-Christian Nationalist follower of Jesus. If you are a Christian, and you're confused about Christian Nationalism, we hope this helps clarify the historic Christian position on these issues. If you're NOT a Christian, we hope this helps clarify what Christians have historically believed on this subject; you can use it to start helpful conversations with Christians, ask good questions, and insist on answers that are coherent with their stated values.

(What follows are the most common questions we get from Christians/evangelicals about Christian Nationalism. The answers have been written by reconstructed Christians in our community, and they are written from a Christian perspective. None of this is intended to bind the conscience of any non-Christian reading this.)

1. Isn’t America a Christian nation?

Not if we use the Bible’s definition of the term “Christian nation.” God covenanted with Israel alone. In the New Testament, His people are the global Church (Eph. 2:14–16), and thus are the only real “Christian nation” that the Bible recognizes.

In terms of American politics, the Constitution explicitly rejects and outlaws a national church, and early American Christians fought to protect religious liberty of conscience (Roger Williams, the Quakers, etc.). America has been heavily influenced by Christianity and is culturally Christian, but it has never been a “covenant nation” in the Biblical sense, or a “covenant nation” in the theocratic sense.

In the current age of human history, the only "covenant nation" is the new humanity God is making in Christ (1 Pet. 2:9), and it does not possess any land, armies, money, or borders to mark it on any map made by men (John 18:36). We call this "the Church," or, "the body of Christ."

2. Didn’t Israel use God’s law to shape its nation? Shouldn’t we do the same?

Israel’s theocracy was unique and temporary, and pointed to Christ (Gal. 3:24). After Christ, God’s kingdom grows through the advance of the Gospel, not national law codes or political action (again, John 18:36). Applying Mosaic civil law to modern nations confuses the covenants, and misreads redemptive history. The New Testament provides no warrant for Christians to use the power of civil law to ease the Gospel’s spread; the only power and means the New Testament endorses are the Holy Spirit, acts of service, and the preaching of the Word.

The New Testament teaches that the Old Testament Law was a “shadow” of what was to come "in Christ” (Heb. 10). Paul tells us that to return to keeping this Law is to invoke the Old Testament curses (Gal. 3:10), and instructs us that Christians “bear[ing] one another’s burdens” will “fulfill the Law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:2).

3. Aren’t Christians supposed to bring their faith into politics?

Yes. We should act and advocate according to biblical justice (Micah 6:8; Isaiah 1:17), including with our vote. But Christian nationalism goes further by equating national, geopolitical loyalty to Christian America with loyalty to Christ, and by making political victory a measure of Christian obedience.

Christians understand themselves to be “foreigners” – that is, visitors or guests – in the nations of this world (1 Pet. 1:1). The role of a Christian, politically speaking, is to “pray for the peace of the city” (Jer. 29:7), not seek to conquer or dominate her polis (city, or nation) or koinonia (community, or culture). We have our own already, in the form of the Church and the local congregations that make her up.

4. Doesn’t opposing Christian nationalism mean siding with secularism?

No. It means guarding the Church’s independence so it can speak prophetically to all powers (Acts 4–5). Aligning with state power of any kind compromises that witness, whether it is done uncritically or not. No state that has enshrined Christianity into the law of its land has kept its freedom to speak the truth to power.

Christian Nationalists regularly accuse Christians who disagree with them of "siding with secularism." But Proverbs 24:28 says, "Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, and do not deceive with your lips." It is a patent falsehood that the only choices are Christian Nationalism and secularism, and the Word tells us that Satan is the "Father of lies" (John 8:44).

Further, Christian Nationalists break the 9th Commandment ("you shall not bear false witness") by dishonestly framing the 1st Amendment as only intended to protect the liberties of Christian denominations, a statement that is well-established to be untrue. By repeating this lie, they have sinned against their fellow Christians, against those that they have slandered, and against God Himself, who will cause every person to give an account for every idle word (Mt. 12:36).

5. Aren't you being divisive by arguing against Christian Nationalism?

Truth divides (Luke 12:51). Clarifying Christ’s kingdom vs. earthly kingdoms may upset some, but confusion is more dangerous. Silence in the face of the deception of God’s people is a failure to be a faithful shepherd who drives off wolves. And there has been far too much of this kind of complicity among the brothers and sisters of the American church.

Christian Nationalists wish us to trade our Christian inheritance – the church, the resurrection, the New Humanity – for the pottage of governmental power, cultural control over the “seven mountains,” and Manifest Destiny (Genesis 25:29-34). Such gospel-mutilators are the source of division, not those loyal to Christ and His Gospel and wish to remain so.

6. What’s wrong with wanting just laws or a moral society?

Nothing. All Christians should encourage robust political engagement to create a more just and moral society. Christians can and must advocate for just laws (Jer. 29:7), but Christian Nationalists believe that they are the only ones capable of writing just laws, or producing a moral society. Thus, they deny the word of our Lord, who said through the Apostle Paul, 

“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts[.]” – Romans 2:14-15a

Furthermore, the apparent fruit of Christian Nationalism is not love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, or self-control. Where Christian Nationalism goes, division, deceit, powermongering, pride, contempt, and lawmindedness follow. Thus, we must biblically reject it as a possible source for a moral society. Jesus said, “By your fruit shall you know them,” and we submit to His authority. 

Christian Nationalism is discontent with our Lord’s promise that His “power is made perfect in weakness,” and demonstrates it by its constant obsession with gaining political power for Christians and denying political power to those it deems enemies. God has already provided His people the goal of engagement with our cultures and government: that there be "good news to the poor," "liberty to the captives," "recovering of sight to the [spiritually] blind," and "[freedom] for those who are oppressed" (Mt. 11:5; Luke 4:18; Isaiah 61:1-3).

Thus, it further denies our Lord’s command when he says, “Do not oppress the foreign resident [that is, the person who is not a citizen of God’s Kingdom, but lives among you] when he is among you; you are to treat him as your native-born” (Lev. 19:33-34). Christian Nationalists would not wish to be denied the equal privileges and protections of the law on the basis of their faith in Christ, and thus, they also disobey our Lord’s command that we should “love our neighbor as we love ourselves,” and that we ought "do unto others as [we] would have them do unto [us]."

7. Isn’t Christian nationalism just patriotism?

No. Patriotism is love of country. Christian nationalism wishes to bind other Christians’ consciences regarding their beliefs about the moral foundations of America and how America should be governed. This is the same error the Judaizers committed: requiring adherence to a merely cultural expression of piety, and thus a rival gospel (Gal. 5:2-4) – one that all Christians everywhere are called to non-violently and utterly oppose (Eph. 5:11) as blasphemous and destructive to Christ’s Bride, the witness of His people, and the world itself.

Selected Reading

• Scripture: Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 13:1-7; Eph. 2:14-16; Rev. 7:9; Phil. 2:11

• Patristics: Letter to Diognetus; Augustine, City of God (Books 11-22)

• Reformation: Calvin’s Institutes; Augsburg Confession XVI; Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (1644)

• Evangelical History and Theology: Carl F. H. Henry, The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism; Sara Diamond, Roads to Dominion; Oliver O’Donovan, Ways of Judgment; Meredith Kline, Comments on an Old-New Error