Can We Love God and America?

Can we love God and America? This week’s episode of TRACKS FOR THE JOURNEY delves into this important subject. Christian Nationalism was a factor driving the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol but it is not new. What is this ideology? Join me as I analyze the historical, political, and theological errors of this insidious movement. There is a better alternative for faith and patriotism that can make a difference for the good of all. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.

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Transcript

On January 6, 2021 I joined millions to watch on live TV the U.S. Senate ratify the 2020 Electoral College vote. Then the unthinkable happened. The screen showed thousands of rioters surging toward the Capitol Building. Soon, the terrorists were inside. You know the terrible results with deaths, property destruction, impeachment, and criminal indictments. The fall-out will continue for years. 

Shocking to many people were the religious factors in this attempted overthrow of a legitimate election. On the TV screens were large banners saying, “Jesus Saves,” giant crosses, and Bibles, all mixed with insignias of white supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. We learned that fundamentalist Christian preachers had promoted misinformation with God-given prophecies and declared a “holy war.” Great numbers of believers gathered for prayer rallies to plead for divine intervention that would stop the ratification of the results. The true patriots to be loved and supported were the ones willing to die for this war, to save the nation from godlessness, socialism, and people of color. Where did this fervor originate? Lying behind this religious movement is a belief in Christian Nationalism.

In this episode of TFJ I want to explore this potent mixture of God and Country. Can we love God and America?

Exactly what are we talking about when we say Christian Nationalism? It is a belief that merges Christianity with American civic life. Specifically, it teaches that to be a good American is to be a conservative Christian. Further, America will only prosper when the God of the Bible is honored in laws, cultural mores, and political power. As Whitehead and Perry describe in their book, Taking America Back for God,

“Christian nationalism contends that America has been and should always be distinctively ‘Christian’ from top to bottom — in its self-identity, interpretations of its own history, sacred symbols, cherished values and public policies — and it aims to keep it this way…It is a political movement, and its ultimate goal is power. It does not seek to add another voice to America’s pluralistic democracy, but to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity, answering to what some adherents call a ‘biblical worldview’ that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders.” (Whitehead and Perry, Taking).

Here are statements you may have heard:

“America was founded as a Christian nation.”

“The laws should advocate Christian values.”

“They are taking our jobs, living on taxpayer money, and building criminal gangs.”

One Christian leader said that President Trump made mistakes, but Christian Nationalism won with three new Supreme Court justices being confirmed. This reveals the goal of the ideology is not spiritual transformation but political influence. Gerardo Marti wrote in his book American Blindspot,

“their goal has become to authoritatively enforce behavioral guidelines through elected and nonelected officials who will shape policies and interpret laws such that they cannot be so easily altered or dismissed through the vagaries of popular elections. It is not piety but policy that matters most. The real triumph is when evangelical convictions become encoded into law” (Gerardo, Blindspot, 220).

Here is something even darker. The political rhetoric, demonstrations and ultimately the riot of January 6 revealed another part of this movement. For some, it is White Christian Nationalism. The Christian faith and the American dream are infiltrated with white supremacy that fights to maintain dominance over Jews, Muslims, Hindus, people of color, women, and non-Europeans. This is the ugly underbelly of the movement, heard in the chants of the white marchers, “You will not replace us,” seen in the waving of the Confederate flag, or spoken in school board meetings that resist lessons about Black history. Today, surveys show 40% of white evangelical Christians support using violence if necessary to protect their version of America. Think of that. Right now, millions of Americans would support the kind of insurrection seen on January 6 if their theology and ethical values are threatened. Folks, this is serious stuff.

What is wrong with White Christian Nationalism?

First, it is terrible psychology. Racism tears apart the emotional life with anger and anxiety. It shreds the community, dividing people into “Us versus Them.” Racism dehumanizes the object and replaces humans with negative stereotypes like “angry Black women,” “radical Muslims,” or “Mexican gang-members.” Suspicion is fostered against the Outsiders and walls are raised to keep the home group pure. There is only emotional security when the racist is surrounded by people who are the same race or religion. White supremacy lives in the deficit, the fear, and the anger that is toxic to happiness. Even more unfortunate, supremacy has been baked into white culture across centuries. As a white male I didn’t even recognize how much my attitudes have been created in this environment. I’ve never knowingly discriminated against any person of color. But I’ve benefited from the racism of the past. I own land that was won in a war against Native people just 146 years ago. One of the final battles took place in the Palo Duro Canyon of Texas, just a few miles from my current home. The Natives, considered savage, pagan, half-humans, were removed by the U.S. Army from land they had lived on for centuries. This is White Supremacy. 

Second, this viewpoint is bad political history. We know that the European settlers of America carried an ideology of Christian Colonialism. It was a blend of the sacred, the state, and racial superiority. Across the world the colonial powers crushed the native populations and religions to plant their own theocratic governments for economic gain. With that background, it is even more important to recognize the Founding Fathers and patriots of the 18th century specifically rejected the entanglement of the institutional church and the federal government, as clearly stated in the First Amendment. They were Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Deists, and Rationalists who united to create a secular state. This First Amendment actually was written following pleas from a liberty-loving Baptist named James Leland and others who met with James Madison, arguing for liberty of conscience and against the state being connected with a religion. Ultimately, Madison wrote much of what became the Bill of Rights for the U.S. Constitution. Dozens of laws and Supreme Court decisions have cemented this principle. Looking to Article 6 of the Constitution, where a religious test is prohibited as a qualification for public office, this strong wall of separation is further clarified. For more on this, look at the website of the Baptist Joint Committee, a non-sectarian group dedicated to religious liberty. Looking at the evidence, it is clear that the government of the United States of America is a secular nation. Period. Christian Nationalism is not the American way.

Third, Christian Nationalism is bad theology. It’s worth pointing out that the form of government we have, a representative democracy, is not biblical. I think the majority of Christian theologians would agree that the ideal of the Bible is a theocratic empire centered in Jerusalem, from which God would fully inhabit the Temple and rule the nations from the Holy City. Jesus shattered this failed idea with a greater truth. He taught the Kingdom of God transcends any nation or race. He rejected the Jewish Nationalism of the era to embrace spiritual transformation, not political power. In the Garden of Gethsemane he commanded Peter to put away the sword and healed the wounded soldier, as story that taught a fundamental truth of the faith. He also lifted a prophetic voice of non-violent protest against the power of the Roman Empire. Speaking the truth is the right and responsibility of every church member and leader. As the church grasped the truth of the apolitical kingdom, it spread to live under many different political regimes and cultures, as leaven in a loaf of bread. Tragically though, within three centuries the leaders of the church wedded their influence to the Roman and Byzantine Empires, fostering centuries of repression, war, and intolerance. January 6, 2021 brought echoes of this bad theology to HD television and the floor of the Senate.

I’d like to borrow an idea from Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee, in discussing a Superbowl ad from a car company. (Tyler, Cannot). A rugged actor drives across a solitary landscape to Lebanon, Kansas, a little village near the geographical center of the 48 states. There sits The Center Chapel, a tiny chapel built in 1941. The point of the commercial, beyond the car advertisement, was to promote unity among all Americans, with the voice of Bruce Springsteen asking Americans to “meet in the middle… find common ground.” It featured prominent views of the Christian cross. The sentiment is wonderful—but it strays close to Christian Nationalism. Americans don’t have a national religion. One hundred and fifteen million Americans are not Christian and could have been offended by the overt religious message. The commercial should have shown the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where the original Constitution is on display. That is what unites all Americans.

In every church I served as pastor, the American flag and the Christian flag stood in the corners of the worship center. The display was never questioned or changed. So, what is the answer to the question in the title of this episode: “Can We Love God and America?”

The answer is “yes,” of course we can. Millions of Americans of all faiths and none do this today. We can actively engage in our faith and our society. We must be wise in doing so, however.  Last year more than 20,000 Christians signed a bold statement on the subject. Entitled “Christians Against Christian Nationalism” it made some key points. Since I signed it myself, here are a few of the assertions about what Christians who are patriots can follow in loving Jesus and loving our United States:

 “As Christians, we are bound to Christ, not by citizenship, but by faith. We believe that:

• People of all faiths and none have the right and responsibility to engage constructively in the public square. 
• Patriotism does not require us to minimize our religious convictions. 
• One’s religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing in the civic community.
• Government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over nonreligion.
• America’s historic commitment to religious pluralism enables faith communities to live in civic harmony with one another without sacrificing our theological convictions.
• Conflating religious authority with political authority is idolatrous and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalized groups as well as the spiritual impoverishment of religion.
• We must stand up to and speak out against Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation—including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship—against religious communities at home and abroad.”

For many of you, these sound very normal and not revolutionary. Good. Let’s keep them at the center of who we are as citizens and as voters. We can love God and America.

Cited:

Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020)

American Blindspot, Gerardo Marti (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020)

“Christian Nationalism Cannot Unite Us,” Amanda Tyler. www.religionnews.com, February 11, 2021.

Baptist Joint Committee. www.bjconline.org

“Christians Against Christian Nationalism.” www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org.