Why Christian Nationalism is anathema to the mission of God.
The Lure of Christian Nationalism
There is no more grand illusion of what worldly power can do, than the belief in Christian Nationalism. The term, though much contested, simply defined, refers to the belief that a nation’s systems of laws, customs, educational systems, and government can be aligned to support a specifically Christian way of life. Most Christians, whether conservative or progressive, Republican or Democrat (in the United States), would agree: our goal should be to impact our culture for Christ’s Kingdom. Whichever side of issues we are on, the transforming of our culture very much aligns with our belief that the reign of Jesus, His transforming of lives and culture, is a good thing.
The rub comes when we seek to take control of the levers of government to achieve this goal. Using worldly power to enforce upon people a culture of Christianity in the name of God can only end up in the worst of toxicity, evil and destruction. Racism, misogyny, sexual abuse is the result of being filled with the powers gone demonic. And so we must discern the difference between a.) the most modest of preservatory goals for justice and b.) the redemptive transformative goals of justice. The former government can achieve with legislative enforcement. The latter, only the work of the triune God can achieve as space opens among peoples, villages, neighborhoods, cities and countries. We must discern between the two.
To confuse the two goals, asking government to do the work only God can do, always works against the work of God among us. Installing “a Christian prince” to “suppress the enemies of God” may sound good, but its coercion does not draw people to God because it is not the way of God.[1] It instead moves people further and further way. It ends up with the Deutchen Christen supporting Hitler, the Russian Orthodox supporting Putin, evangelicals supporting Trump. The aftermath is a post Christian culture resistant to God, much like Europe after WW2 or Quebec after the “quiet revolution.” It sets mission back not forward. Christian Nationalism is anathema to the mission of God.
Instead, as we enter the world, we are to be salt and light in the world, preserving and illumining, never using the violence of the world to bring more darkness. As we enter out towns and villages, take up residence in our school boards, local ordinance councils, our meeting houses, our soup kitchens, our town hall meetings, we must become present, surely working for good laws, but never usurping God. Our goals are never to Christianize the culture, the school systems, the city hall, it is to make spaces for God to do his work, and transform our towns, our schools, our city hall, and indeed the whole world.
[1] Stephen Wolfe, The Case for Christian Nationalism (Moscow Idaho: Canon Press, 2022) 323.
This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book ‘Reckoning with Power.’ You can pre-order it here.
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