Some twenty years ago, I supervised a Doctor of Ministry thesis on the subject of the presence of the American flag in the church sanctuary where the student served as pastor. When he presented this topic in his thesis proposal, he noted that the Christian flag was also displayed in the church’s worship space. He could not say for certain, but he sensed that for his congregation, these two flags represented something other than simply love for God and love of country.
This pastor was new to this church, having been on the field less than a year, but shortly after his arrival he became aware of his own discomfort with the two flags installed in the chancel. Having reached this penultimate point in his doctoral studies, he wanted to research the social and theological origins of the appearance of the flags in sanctuaries, and with his congregation, explore the meaning of their presence in the worship space; it was not at all clear to him what these objects symbolized for his congregants.
Following his research, he conducted a series of congregational forums to present his findings and engage the congregation in dialogue on the subject. The response he received from the congregation’s members and leadership confirmed his lingering sense of things: It was their earnest belief that the hand of God was in the founding of the nation, guiding its mission and blessing its citizens for their Christian faith, and that it would be a sacrilege to remove either or both flags from their sacred place. Certainly their presence was a reminder of their love for and commitment to God and their beloved country, but they also symbolized the congregation’s gratitude for the privilege of living in Christian America.
What this pastor stumbled upon in his new church family was not merely a naïve and uninformed view of late eighteenth-century social and political opinions and history, but also an incipient Christian nationalism that was more ideological in its devotion and obligations to the nation and less theological in its promotion of self- and social-group-interests.
For most worshipers in most churches, the presence of the American flag (with or without the Christian flag) goes largely unnoticed. And yet, the meaning of its presence is anything but innocuous. As Timothy Wesley has pointed out at great length in his book, The Politics of Faith During the Civil War (Louisiana State University Press, 2013), the American flag served as a rallying banner for the Union cause —an identity marker—in northern churches, much to the disgust and disdain of religionists in the South. In an essay entitled “The Artifacts of White Supremacy,” published on the University of Chicago’s Religion & Culture Forum website, Kelly Baker describes the melding of a conservative Protestant Christianity, a virulent white racism, and a militant nationalism as the catalyst for the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the mid-1910s. He writes,
The Klan wanted a homogenous, white, Protestant America, free from the corrupting influences of “diversity,” whether political, religious, or racial. These artifacts showcased that desire and presented the order’s brand of white religious nationalism to themselves and outsiders. The robes, cross, and flag documented the order’s intolerance of any group, people, or movement that challenged the Klan’s version of America as exclusively for white people. Klan artifacts give us examples of how faith, nationalism, and racism work together to bolster, promote, and perpetuate white supremacy.
It was not uncommon in the South for Klan members to supply American flags to churches with the expectation that they would appear in sanctuaries. Indeed, it was during World War I that the placement of flags in church sanctuaries across the country became a common practice. That was how a congregation telegraphed its position on the question of its patriotism during the war, and churches that refused to display the flag were considered—and harassed as—pro-German. This was especially the case with Lutheran churches. Likewise, the presence of the flag in churches during World War II made the same statement, and following the war, its presence denoted a blistering anti-communism.
While the presence of the American flag in a church’s worship space is increasingly controversial and the number of churches removing it is growing, this post is not about that issue. It is, rather, about what that issue signifies to any reasonable and knowledgeable person in today’s United States. This post is not about what Baker calls the “artifacts” of white robes and hoods, crosses ablaze, and the American flag, but rather the beliefs, opinions, and behaviors that constitute the ideology of white Christian nationalism, the presence of which is signified less by American flags in churches and more by the social groups that embrace the blending of evangelical Christianity, white supremacy, and sociopolitical conservatism.
This phenomenon is increasingly the focus of research and publication in the fields of American history, social psychology, and political science. Even within Christianity there are nascent movements (and here) and organizations (and here) seeking publicly to deconstruct this ideology and subject all of its components—social, racial, religious, theological, and political—to criticism and censure.
White Christian nationalism is an ideology that melds distinct beliefs and values that appear to be drawn from such intellectual domains as history and philosophy, as well as natural and political science, with such cultural phenomena as racism, patriarchal hierarchy and dominance, heteronormativity and sexism, nativist patriotism, populist authoritarianism, and a style and form of Christianity that is ahistorical, fundamentalist, obscurantist, mindless and surly. As Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry describe it in their book, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2022), it is “a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic life.” It is the end product when you blend white supremacy and theocracy with the libertarian commitment to free-market capitalism and small government.
In their book, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2020), Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry refer to this ideology as a “deep story” about what America was and is, and more importantly, what it should be. It is, if you would, a metanarrative or grand narrative that articulates a comprehensive account of our nation’s origins and the experiences, beliefs and customs of its founders; the narrative “explains” our nation’s history and development and provides the connective tissue between otherwise disparate and scattered events.
Perhaps more importantly, the deep story that undergirds white Christian nationalism posits the participation of a vital force other than the activity of human agents in the founding, expansion, and persistence of this nation. Here is how Gorski and Perry summarize it:
America was founded as a Christian nation by (white) men who were “traditional” Christians, who based the nation’s founding documents on “Christian principles.” The United States is blessed by God, which is why it has been so successful; and the nation has a special role to play in God’s plan for humanity.
But the agency of God and the Christian tradition in our national history is not the only characteristic feature of this ideology. Those who subscribe to its belief system also hold that the United States has been, now is and always should be a distinctively Christian nation, ruled by leaders who are unabashedly Christian, with a culture and politics that cultivate, support and strengthen the practice of the Christian religion. As many researchers have reported, white Christian nationalists believe that both the Bible and our founding documents are divinely inspired. They believe that this nation has developed and become the dominant cultural and economic force in the world because it has been guided all along by God’s peculiar providential plan and empowered by the divine spirit to achieve unmistakable prosperity and greatness.
Therefore, according to these believers, our federal government ought to execute more directly and intentionally its instrumental role as custodian for—and advocate of—the unique beliefs and values of Christianity. It ought to remove any ambiguity by proclaiming unequivocally that the United States is a Christian nation, renouncing any notion of the separation of church and state.
It is this constellation of beliefs that animates the opposition and antagonism of white Christian nationalists toward the pluralism and diversity characteristic of this country at present. The “white” of white Christian nationalism is reflective of the racial identity of those believers; Christian nationalism is predominantly a white thing, descriptive now of the descendants of the people who immigrated from England and elsewhere in Europe to establish this country. Now that the once-dominant white racial and cultural group is diminishing in size and influence, the white Christian nationalists rise up in opposition to the encroachment of non-white “others” who constitute the despised “them” in the us vs. them social group conflict currently shaping our civil society. What the white Christian nationalists want is a restoration of their economic and racial hegemonic power and privilege. Their goal, thus, is to utilize political power to effect the change necessary in order to make America great again.
To do so, however, means the marginalization and suppression of all those who are not white, Christian, and native-born. More particularly, it means the subjugation of anyone who is not a white, heterosexual, “Christian” (if only in sympathy if not in practice), native-born male who is the head of his family and an enthusiast of firearms and free-market capitalism. For such, their nationalist ideology is concealed and proffered under the guise of patriotism; instead of loyalty and respect to one’s country and fellow citizens (patriotism), it is loyalty to one’s racial and religious in-group (tribe) and hatred, aggression and domination of those defined as out-group.
It is astounding to some that anyone would subscribe to the ideology of white Christian nationalism. But then again, as social science and psychology researchers have shown, this ideology is an admixture of white racial identity and dominance, male-oriented hierarchy, cultural and economic grievance, evangelical Christianity, and sociopolitical conservatism.
But I agree with others that the ideology of white Christian nationalism is a myth, a false narrative (meta-, grand, or otherwise), an untruism. Oh, I do understand the functions of myth (or ideology, which is essentially mythical): It serves to establish, justify, and legitimate power, and place the individual within its structural parameters. As the mythologist Joseph Campbell pointed out in Creative Mythology, the fourth volume of his series The Masks of God (Penguin, 1976), myth-narrative animates and harmonizes one’s consciousness to the ultimate and ineffable mystery of the universe. Secondly, it provides a kind of cognitive representation—a cosmology—of the physical universe, imagining and explaining where we came from. Thirdly, it provides moral and social validation and meaning of the sociocultural environment, offering a place and a purpose, roles and rules, for the individual within that environment. And finally, the myth-narrative provides the essential connection between one’s own subjectivity—one’s consciousness and identity—and the meanings and values embodied in the objective social order; the world within is adapted to, and connected with, the objective world outside. In this way, the individual—and the individual’s “group” or “tribe”—experiences interconnectivity with self, the moral-social order in which life is lived, the universe in which one is placed, and the ultimate mystery that infuses all.
These are the ways the myth or ideology of white Christian nationalism authorizes the cultural and political initiatives toward establishing libertarian freedom, social and gender hierarchy, fundamentalist Christianity, and free-market capitalism. It is frightening to me to think that this admixture has been operative for many decades at subterranean cultural levels and, in the absence of once-functional restraints, is now unleashed into the polarized sociocultural and political environment where it threatens altogether to dismantle our democratic republic and replace it with a form of libertine authoritarianism.
This ideological phenomenon will continue to occupy my attention; no doubt it will figure in future blog posts. In my book No Partiality: The Idolatry of Race and the New Humanity (InterVarsity Press, 2002), I wrote a chapter on the Christian tradition as a corrective to racism in this country, a counter-narrative to challenge and overcome the ideology of race/racism. I refer to it now because I believe it represents a more vital and authentic portrayal of the Christian tradition than that which is on offer by white Christian nationalists, especially the evangelical Christians who identify racially as white and subscribe to white supremacy. In my judgment, their rendering of Christianity is a theological perversion and the apex of irresponsible biblical interpretation. Should you want to know more about the theological view I hold, I encourage you to read my book.
And if you want to read more on the study and analysis of white Christian nationalism, I recommend you select your reading from among the titles listed below.
In the meantime, you might also inquire into the rationale for the presence of the American flag in your place of worship, if you see that there is one; it may have gone unnoticed by you before.
Recommended Reading
Social Science research on White Christian Nationalism
Gorski, Philip S. and Samuel L. Perry. The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
Jones, Robert P. The End of White Christian America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2016.
Jones, Robert P. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2020.
Whitehead, Andrew L and Samuel L. Perry. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020.
Deconstructing the Myth of a ‘Christian nation’
Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
Fea, John. Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? A Historical Introduction. Revised Ed. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016.
Green, Steven K. Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Seidel, Andrew L. The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American. New York: Sterling, 2019.
Stewart, Matthew. Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2014.
The Evangelical embrace of White Christian Nationalism
Denker, Angela. Red State Christians: A Journey into White Christian Nationalism and the Wreckage It Leaves Behind. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2022.
Du Mez, Kristin Kobes. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. New York: Liveright Publishing Co., 2020.
Goldberg, Michelle. Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 2007.
Howe, Ben. The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Christian Values. New York: Broadside Books, 2019.
The Ideology of Race and Racism in White Christian Nationalism
Balmer, Randall H. Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2021.
Blum, Edward J. Reforging the White Republic: Race, Religion and American Nationalism, 1865-1898. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005.
Butler, Anthea. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
Psychological Infrastructure of White Christian Nationalism
Cooper-White, Pamela. The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2022.
Forgas, Joseph P., William D. Crano, and Claus Fiedler, Eds. The Psychology of Populism: The Tribal Challenge to Liberal Democracy. New York: Routledge, 2021.
Stewart, Katherine. The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism. New York: Bloomsbury, 2019.
The Political Strategy of White Christian Nationalism
Gorski, Philip S. American Babylon: Christianity and Democracy Before and After Trump. New York: Routledge, 2020.
McDaniel, Eric L., Irfan Nooruddin, and Allyson F. Shortle. The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022.
Posner, Sarah. Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency, and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind. New York: Random House, 2021.
Theological Assessments of White Christian Nationalism
Hendricks, Jr. Obery M. Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith. Boston: Beacon Press, 2021.
Heyward, Carter. The 7 Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism: A Call to Action. Lanham, MD: Rowen & Littlefield, 2022.
Miller, Paul D. The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2022.
Robbins, Jeffrey W. and Clayton Crockett. Doing Theology in the Age of Trump: A Critical Report on Christian Nationalism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019.