This article was adapted from a reflection in a recent edition of the Christian Civics Newsletter. Sign up for ongoing reflections, devotional material, updates and resources from Christian Civics.

When we started our ministry, the biggest challenge American politics posed to healthy discipleship and civic witness was tribalism—believers unconsciously wanting to think, speak and act like the people who agreed with them about politics, regardless of whether those people were brothers and sisters in Christ.

Over the past decade, however, Christian Nationalism has emerged as a new challenge to healthy witness and discipleship in the public square.

Christians must not come off as people who just want to secure the benefits and privileges of the state for ourselves. After all, we are supposed to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, who, though he was rich, for others' sakes became poor, that by his poverty others might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

And we must not come off as people who want to use the state to force our neighbors to conform to our way of life. Jesus said that his people are supposed to reject the temptation to lord power over others (Matthew 20:25–26), and Paul said that we are supposed to reserve our judgment about other people's sins for those who are already part of the body of believers. (1 Corinthians 5:9–13)

In our online course Christian Civics Foundations, we talk at length about the impulse toward theocracy, and we break down the spiritual dynamics behind the idolatry of nationalism. But with the toll this movement is taking on the unity of the church and our shared witness to the wider world, we need to talk about it more.

Recently, we welcomed pastor Caleb Campbell, author of Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, to lead us in prayer about the toll the rise of Christian Nationalism is taking on the peace and unity of the church. You can find that prayer—along with several other prayers, articles and videos that address nationalism—below.

Rick Barry is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Christian Civics.

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