Christian Nationalism: how Christian is it?

Christians are called to follow in the way of Jesus Christ wherever they are, and  under whatever conditions they may live.   They are not called to create nations reserved for people who claim to be Christian.  The movement called Christian Nationalism bears no resemblance to the Christian way.  Jesus proclaimed his way by word and deed in the face of opposition from  religious leaders, civil authorities and their Roman overlords.  They crucified him but by his resurrection he demonstrated his power over  death because he is the source of  all life.  There is no higher authority.

The early church prospered even though under the hostile government of the Roman Empire. The Christians understood Jesus’ way was not a nationalist movement. By the fourth century Christianity had become a legal religion and sometime later the official religion of the empire. Its “official” status was a strategic decision the emperor made in an attempt to solidify the many nations of the empire under one religion. One can argue whether that was a good or bad thing for Christianity, but in the end it could not restrain inter-tribal and nationalistic violence. 

Christianity was the official religion in Europe throughout the middle ages and into modern times.  Kings, princes and nobles may have flown the Christian banner, but their lives, words and deeds were more often grievous assaults on everything in the way of following Jesus Christ.  Even the institutional church erred in its ways.  At the same time, faithful theologians, pastors and lay leaders continued to explore the depth and meaning of the Christian way, even at the cost of reputations and lives.  It is they who have bequeathed to us the wisdom guiding our direction toward a deeper more profound faith. 

In the meantime,  medieval Christians in other parts of the world, particularly in Islamic nations, continued to thrive as faithful followers of Jesus.  It wasn’t always easy.  There were hostile opponents, but they thrived nonetheless from North Africa down to Ethiopia, across Arabia and into India.   Modern times have changed that and not for the better. 

As for America, the Constitution was, among other things, a break from the failed attempt by colonists to create Christian states, each according to their own version of what it meant, and with hostile opposition to any other way of being Christian. The north was colonized mostly by religious communities who wanted freedom for themselves and no one else. Hardly a Christ like intention.  The South was colonized mostly by men seeking wealth by the surest and easiest way possible.  They dragged along Church of England clergy out of commitment to the way things were done in England rather than religious conviction.  They were intent that no Puritan or any other overly pious religious sort be allowed in their territory.  Again, not a way of being Christian Jesus would have recognized.  

We were not formed as a Christian nation but as a nation of Christians intolerant of each other. For all of it, Christian wisdom influenced the thinking of our founders, with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution being greatly influenced by Christian wisdom.  A good deal of it was filtered through Enlightenment philosophy, itself influenced by the ancient stoics and other schools of Greek and Roman philosophy.   The highest and most enduring ideals of those documents echo God’s moral commandments.  Sadly, they are the very ones the nation has been least committed to following.  The struggle to make ideals into reality in everyday life has been long, sometimes violent, slow progress against entrenched opposition.  Opposition from whom?  From people who mainly professed to be Christian. 

Those who want to transform the U.S. into a Christian nation would end up with a land of intolerance enforced by laws that would be democratic only in the way Iran is democratic. I don’t think that’s what the nationalists want or expect, but it’s the inevitable result..

Jesus didn’t send his disciples out to build a nation, which is what they had expected of the Messiah.  No.  He sent them out with instructions to proclaim a new way of life, to be healed, to be reconciled with one another, to receive forgiveness.  He demonstrated his authority to proclaim that, in Christ, death is not the end of life but the entry into a new and greater life. The work of Christians, wherever they live, is not to create a nation in their own image but to live as followers of Jesus Christ. They are to affirm that all persons, whoever they are and from wherever they’ve come, are made in the image of God and are to be received with the respect due them.  Christians are, as they are able, to speak boldly for public practices and policies that embody godly justice. Most important to the Christian life is the examination of one’s own life, practices and prejudices, weighing that against the commandments to love God and others and to make appropriate amends.  Only then might they offer tentative judgments about the rightness or wrongness of others.