Christianity Is The Target Of ‘Christian Nationalism’ Hysteria

The public square has never been theologically or morally neutral. Therefore, the church must and will continue to heed its divine obligation to publicly speak the holy Word of God.

Only a godless culture would dare to claim that the public sphere is somehow neutral. Yet those who boldly lift their voices on behalf of the church and her Lord in the public sphere, are facing intensifying persecution for doing so.

Over the last few years, a frenetic buzz around “Christian nationalism” has spread across America. Is Christian nationalism, according to its most offensive definition, even a real threat in America? Are there any real and credible statistics supporting a menacing movement by extremist Christians seeking to theocratize America with white-supremacist neo-Naziism?

Prior to lockdowns, most of us had never heard of “Christian nationalism.” Rather, it appears that the powerful gaslighting term created by neo-Marxists is another attempt to terrify Christians out of sharing God’s perspective on moral issues in the public sphere. It attempts to dissuade Christians from fulfilling their vocational duties in the civil sphere.

By distorting the language of public discourse, the godless manipulate the parameters of discussion within it. Christians who are unaware of these political tactics cannot effectively contend for the faith.

We witness this in the abortion debate by allowing the dialogue to be framed by rights versus responsibility language. Notwithstanding the existence of any civil or even human rights, mankind has a moral responsibility to care for the innocent. Also, by adopting the language of LGBTQ+, Christians add legitimacy to the absurd concept of more than two sexes, or multiple identities present in one human being.

Quietistic Christians have allowed themselves to be manipulated by leftist media placing a wedge between “church” and “state.” They claim the church’s role in society is limited to prayer and works of mercy, and that the civic role of a Christian is, at most, voting. Many who strongly advocate against Christian activity in the public sphere today are the same ones who failed to respond properly and reasonably to the recent “pandemania.”

They use screeds against “Christian nationalism” to avoid participating in the public sphere and to justify what amounts to antinomianism: the belief that, because Christians are saved by grace alone through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, living a godly life in accord with divine and moral law, and shaped by biblical principles, is at best optional. To think otherwise is smeared as “legalism.”

Orthodox believers of goodwill, however, will find that “Christian nationalism’s” theological and political implications by no means fall afoul of the doctrine and practice of historic Christianity. According to the best definition, “Christian nationalism” is basically synonymous with the term “Christendom,” something just about all Christians, until recently, considered a good thing.

The fearmongers even go so far as to malign “Christian culture” through its association with “Christian nationalism.” Their views are frighteningly aligned with those who advance communistic ideas that judge Western culture’s hallmarks, such as Christian values, as harmful and destructive to society.

As every attentive Christian is well aware, these ideologies have been revealed as anti-Christian, unveiled in critical theory, which seeks to demonize Western civilization and Christendom, and to replace it with absurd alternatives that assault the very pillars upon which the West is founded. Even the new atheists appreciate the invaluable benefits of Christian civilization as the best option to all other alternatives.

Historically, the relationship between church and state in the West was symbiotic: The church prayed, rebuked, and advised civil rulers, who then preserved the ministry of the church from external interference. Jesus Christ was acknowledged to be Lord of both realms, although in distinctive ways.

Even the founding fathers of the United States did not boast a rigid separation of “church and state.” The iconic language was intended to protect the life of the church from overreach from the state, not the other way around.

Even if one would dare to argue that communism and globalism meet the material needs of their constituents, they have consistently proven to stifle and maim God’s beloved creation, the church, and the gospel. Klaus Schwab, former leader of the World Economic Forum and considered one of the five most influential people on the globe, had a clear agenda to penetrate world governments with policies that subverted the interests of Christians. Christians are wise to refrain from understating the influence of such deliberate agendas to silence Christ in the public sphere.

In the recent American election, Christians were free not to vote for Donald Trump, but it was hardly justifiable for any of them to vote for his adversary based on her anti-Christian policy recommendations alone, symbolized by the strategic decision to position a portable abortion clinic in front of the Democrat convention in Chicago.

To reject “Christian culture” as a positive contribution to “secular” public space is to welcome any number of other religious cultures to take its place. When former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first arrived in office, he boasted that Canada has no shared values: “Canada is becoming a new kind of country, not defined by our history or European national origins, but by a pan-cultural heritage,” he said.

“There is no core identity,” as Canada is “the first post-national state,” Trudeau said. He also said, “There is a level of admiration I actually have for China because of their basic dictatorship.” There is no indication that his replacement, Mark Carney, thinks any differently.

What fills the dark vacuum remaining when Christian culture is chased away? Look around you and see the bombardment of Western civilization once founded upon God’s Word and Christ’s church. God is the sovereign Lord of all human institutions and history, and faith in God’s providence has never justified a retreat from vocational obligations in the public sphere and the gifts of God of which we are called to be godly stewards.

Furthermore, Christians who criticize and discourage active Christian political participation indirectly embrace a national anti-Christian religion that unabashedly pursues the demise of the Kingdom of God and the gospel on earth. Which is a greater threat to church and society: the rhetorical phantom of Christian nationalism, or the real phenomenon of Christian apathy?

A longer version of this article first appeared in the theology journal Gottesdienst.

The Rev. Dr. Maj. (ret.) Harold Ristau is president of Luther Classical College in Casper, Wyoming. Ristau was born in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and has served as a parish pastor, military chaplain, African missionary, and seminary professor. The author of several theological books and numerous shorter works, he is married with five children and one grandchild.