The Three “I’s” of Christian Nationalism
This post is excerpted from pastor Caleb Campbell’s book, Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor. You can join pastor Campbell on our upcoming August 14 prayer call. Registration is at the bottom of this post!
American Christian nationalism is not merely a political movement or historical understanding of God’s role in American history. It also involves cultural and spiritual dynamics that bolster corrupt views of power and foster unjust actions toward others. To better understand its perverse, sacrilegious, and manipulative paradigm, let’s look at three core elements of American Christian nationalism: ideology, idolatry, and identity.
Ideology
A political ideology is a system of values and beliefs that dictate someone’s view of how a government should work. They are often used as the basis for forming political structures. For example, take the political ideology called liberalism (not to be confused with “the liberal left” in America). Liberalism values the rights and liberty of individuals, and so they argue for free markets, the rule of law, and representative democracy.
As a political ideology Christian nationalism argues that Christians should bind themselves together as a nation and govern themselves as a religious nation-state. In America those holding to Christian nationalism believe that Christians should be in control of the government and, to varying degrees, promote or even enforce Christian values. Paul D. Miller, a political theorist, military veteran, and former White House staffer, puts it another way: “Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.”
This philosophy is designed to ensure that American Christian nationalists acquire and maintain government power. As historian Jemar Tisby notes, Christian nationalism is an “ideology that uses Christian symbolism to create a permission structure for the acquisition of political power and social control.” Christian nationalist leaders invoke rhetoric (such as “fighting the good fight” and “putting on the armor of God”) and iconography common to most evangelical spaces (such as featuring crosses or images of Jesus on their marketing material) to sanctify their attempts at consolidating power. While some American Christian nationalists maintain a moderate level of tolerance for other religions or the nonreligious, all agree that Christians should be in charge.
Idolatry
Tim Keller has frequently made the point that idolatry is making a good thing an ultimate thing. American Christian nationalism takes pride in and love of America and elevates it to a spiritual level. It merges allegiance to Jesus with allegiance to the United States, often giving the impression that America is pretty darn close to the kingdom of God. In his book Keep Christianity Weird: Embracing the Discipline of Being Different, Michael Frost rightly points out that
the Kingdom of God is like salt and light. Like God, it cannot be contained or walled in to a particular zone. It’s not like America is Kingdom-of-God territory and Syria isn’t. The very character of God’s Kingdom is alternate to the character and values of this world. It doesn’t create borders and defend them. It doesn’t foster parochialism or insist on pledges of allegiances to particular flags.
America, for all its virtues, is still just a kingdom of this world, and kingdoms of this world cannot be the kingdom of God. American Christian nationalism envisions a worldly government that embodies the kingdom of God and thus creates an idol out of the state. Instead of trusting the Lamb of God to return and reign on his own time and in his own way, they attempt to force the early return of the kingdom of God through human power.
Identity
For many people in our mission field the term American Christian nationalism refers to the tribe they belong to. They commonly invoke Scripture, reference Jesus, and speak of America’s Christian heritage. Referring to the religious language used at Christian nationalist conferences, rallies, and social media posts, Professor Matthew Boedy notes, “The constant rhetoric at the rallies serve as identity formation.” The commonly repeated words and phrases solidify the boundaries of the tribe.
We often hear American Christian nationalists say that they are working to preserve “our way of life.” Usually, this phrase signals a desire to keep one’s ethnic expression or culture. In this sense American Christian nationalism functions as a surrogate for ethnicity, complete with art, rites, rituals, taboos, and a founding myth, or what sociologists Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry call the “deep story”:
Christian nationalism’s “deep story” goes something like this: America was founded as a Christian nation by (White) men who were “traditional” Christians, who based the nation’s founding documents on “Christian principles.” The United States is blessed by God, which is why it has been so successful; and the nation has a special role to play in God’s plan for humanity. But these blessings are threatened by cultural degradation from “un-American” influences both inside and outside our borders.
Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy; New York: Oxford University Press, 2022
This deep story serves to form an identifiable people group, a nation. In the pages that follow we’ll explore ways to better understand the tribal identity elements of American Christian nationalism. For now I simply want to recognize that American Christian nationalism functions as more than just mixing religion and politics. It is often tethered to the very core of one’s being.
In the day-to-day lives of our mission field these three elements— ideology, idolatry, and identity—harmoniously weave together in their hearts and minds. American Christian nationalism is not simply something they believe but is an expression of who they are, who they love, and what their soul cherishes. While I refer to this movement as American Christian nationalism, some from within will refer to it as conservative Christian patriotism, which, it most definitely is not.
Caleb Campbell has been a pastor at Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona, since 2006 and lead pastor since 2015. He is a doctoral student at Fuller Theological Seminary and serves as the regional director for the Surge Network. He lives in Phoenix with his wife and children.
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