If you don’t know what Christian Nationalism is, go look into it stat, because they’re in the White House, in the courthouses, in the legislature, and on your local school board. They have been working very energetically for decades now to get here, to this moment, where they might actually stand a real chance of getting what they want, at least for a few years.
See, the tricksy thing is that Christian nationalists are not Christian. We are all using the same word but it doesn’t mean the same thing. Christ’s teaching are fundamentally incompatible with fascism, Jesus was not American, and he taught “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself,” and he wasn’t whispering, “Except the ones that don’t look like you.”
But this extremist brand has been kicking around for years, and now it’s gone mainstream.
This is theonomy. Christian reconstructionism. Their goal is to establish God’s kingdom on earth. That means we must have a “Christian nation.” That “Christian nation” is dominionist and patriarchal and nationalist. It doesn’t do vaccines and science, so neither will you. It doesn’t question authority so neither should you. It does not value empathy and compassion – it values obedience and authority and strong masculinity.
Its goal is not spiritual growth but indoctrination and control. Its ethics and philosophy of governance come not from the gospels but from Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
They don’t want to save your soul. They want you to submit. They are incapable of “live and let live.”
Religious freedom is under threat.