The Shine Falls off Christian Nationalism
I heard a Pastor describe “Christian Nationalism” a few months ago as “the desire for America to be a more Christian-behaving nation” combined with “a patriotic love of one’s nation.” And of course, most Christians can feel comfortable with those two things, even juxtaposing them together.
But of course, semantics notwithstanding, that isn’t all Christian Nationalism entails, and the more intellectually honest in the camp know it. The reality is that if we were only talking about a desire to work for a more God-honoring society, there would be no heat here at all. And if we were only talking about patriotism, we would use the word “patriotism.”
Advocates of so-called Christian Nationalism now are mostly a part of a protest movement, even if they pretend otherwise. Secularists deny certain historical truths about America’s founding; the CN camp replies with excessive revisionism of its own. Secularists scream for the coerced removal of God from the public square; the CN camp replies with advocacy for some coercive notion of their own. Secularists scream that Christianity has no part of America’s identity; the CN camp seeks to merge Christian and American identities. I could go on and on. Things that ought to be acceptable at worst and commendable at best get taken to a place of authoritarianism or nativism out of a temper tantrum. What the CN camp is responding to may be repulsive; but the proper, reasoned, cogent, defensible, and [I might add] perfectly adequate response is determined to be insufficient. One would think that maintaining a belief that America has strong Christian influence in its tradition; that there are extraordinary principles in her founding we must fight to maintain; that one’s identity in their faith is not tied to their national citizenship; and that a more Christianized nation must come from faithful proclamation of the gospel and faithful witness, not coercion - would all be good enough. But here we are.
Now, the camp that is really trying to one-up the other extremists with something equally extreme of their own cannot be content to feel that way, or present the reality as such. “We know this is all kind of nuts but we are so freaking tired of being victims of God-hating anti-Christian bigotry that we are coming back with some real whoppers of our own” does not sound good in the permanent human need for legitimacy and credibility. So the hamster wheel begins of trying to retroactively theologize something that has no real theological or philosophical basis. And Stephen Wolfe’s new book, The Case for Christian Nationalism, is case in point. It reads like a meandering, confused, sometimes satirical attempt to sprinkle a word salad of Christian theology on top of a rather stunted exercise in futility.
Along comes Brian Mattson, who has written the most theologically cogent and devastating critique of Wolfe’s book you are going to find. I absolutely promise you the review will go unanswered, for the simple reason that the review’s central charge is unassailable. Wolfe’s Christian Nationalism is rooted in assertions wholly unacceptable to the Calvinist-Kuyperian tradition. Now, Mattson’s review may not be enough to get those who are so, so, so mad at the gross excesses of today’s secular religion to cease and desist in their emotional attachment to a term and a concept they ought to be avoiding. But it certainly will stop the intellectually and theologically honest Christians who ought to know better from playing footsies with this dangerous fad.
Friends, terminology matters. And when we start using terminology we shouldn’t use because of who we want it to upset, we end up making arguments we shouldn’t make to rationalize the terminology we shouldn’t have been using. There exists a perfectly sufficient theological basis for civic engagement, for cultural transformation, and yes, for evangelization of the nations, without succumbing to the unforced error of “Christian Nationalism.” Let’s be better. And yes, read Mattson’s unimprovable review of Wolfe’s inexplicably poor work.