Christian Nationalism

Christian Nationalism is an ill-defined concept.  The term is often used simply to smear Christians merely for being politically active and to conjure up terrifying thoughts of authoritarianism and theocracy.  I’ve never met a Christian, however right-wing politically, who actually wanted a theocracy!  Nevertheless, this is a fear among some fellow citizens who evidentially know nothing about the actual Christian faith.  However, some people do hold the idea that the United States is an instrument of God created by Him to establish Christ’s Kingdom on earth. The United States, in this view, is bound to support and promote Christianity, and all that entails, not just for its socially desirable features (which are many), but in obedience to the purpose for which God created the United States. For people believing this way, patriotism—that is, love of country—is often confused with faith and devotion to Jesus Christ.  I have heard people speak of the U.S. Constitution as though it were the very Word of God, and to extoll the founding fathers as though they were prophets or saints.  Such words are often well meaning, but at bottom, this kind of thinking confuses of the U.S. Nation State and the Kingdom of God. And if that is what is meant by Christian Nationalism, I’m against it! 

Because the Kingdom of God is not of this world.  Inasmuch as it is in the world, it is truly a global, indeed universal, Kingdom.  It predated the United States, and will endure (if Christ tarries) until long after America is no more.  It is true that God has created the United States with a purpose, but at heart that purpose is the same purpose for which He created every other nation on earth: to provide for the earthly welfare of human beings.  To believe that America has performed this purpose particularly well among the nations of the earth—an acceptable understanding of “American Exceptionalism”—is not an invitation to confuse America with the Kingdom of God—a very unacceptable understanding of “American Exceptionalism”.  Patriotism and devotion to Christ and His Kingdom, while both good things, should never be confused.  They are nothing alike. Patriotism is contingent on the nation being deserving of it, and lasts only as long as the nation itself. Patriotism is temporal and national. Faith and devotion to Christ are not.  The Kingdom of God is transnational, transcendent, absolute and eternal.  Its aim is not some utopian society on earth, but resurrection and eternal life in the World to Come.

But as I mentioned above, not all that is labeled Christian Nationalism is anything of the sort.  For example, to observe that American culture has historically embraced a Judeo-Christian world view, and still does in a general way, is not Christian Nationalism.  Nor is it Christian Nationalism to believe that our cultural cohesiveness will be jeopardized if this general embrace of a Judeo-Christian world view is abandoned for some other world view.  Nor is it Christian Nationalism to believe that our society would be better off embracing the Judeo-Christian world view than any alternative, nor even to actively seek to promote that.  Christians are as much a part of this nation as any others, and their ideas are presumptively as worthy of attention and consideration as those of any others.  To believe that the precepts of Christianity are good for, or even the very best for, our nation, and to fight for their acceptance politically is not Christian Nationalism. To believe that an idea has no right even to be heard or considered politically because it’s not Christian—now that might well be Christian Nationalism.  This Independence Day, I will celebrate God’s gift of America, but I won’t overdo it.   Something much greater than America is in the world.

James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas