(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/06/2023) Christian Nationalism isn't new.
Those who follow the belief that the United States should adopt an exclusively Christian government with Christian laws have been around for centuries, although modern iterations can be traced back to the rise of the Christian right in the '60s and '70s.
What is new in recent years is how the decreasing number of those who subscribe to this belief are becoming politically active. Experts say a byproduct of Donald Trump's populist rhetoric has emboldened a new population of conservative leaders who look at government with a Christian bent.
The Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and Brookings Institute released a poll Feb. 8 that looked at Christian Nationalism and found 29% of Americans either agree or sympathize with the tenets of the group. The group makes up 54% of the Republican Party and is mainly white Evangelical. The group has the most trust in far-right news and 71% support former President Donald Trump.
"Key to Christian Nationalism is the idea that something has been lost and it has to be regained," Kristin Kobes Du Mez said.
Kobes Du Mez, a history professor at Calvin University, said Christian Nationalism holds the belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, should be a Christian nation, should be defended against anyone, domestic or foreign, who wants to undermine Christianity in America, and that all of the nation's laws should reflect a Christian identity.
"These general ideas are nothing new. They stretch back centuries, and its most recent formulation really dates to the rise of the Christian right in the '60s and '70s," Kobes Du Mez said.
She said the rise was a backlash against the counterculture, anti-war movements, the civil rights movement and the feminist movement.
She said not every Christian is a Christian Nationalist, and not every Christian Nationalist is part of a Christian sect.
Michael Voris, CEO of Church Militant, said the key to understanding Christian Nationalism was in the fundamentals to Christian belief. He embraced Christian Nationalism during a podcast in October.
"It is only Christianity that believes that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God and therefore have shared equality in our dignity," Voris said.
The Church Militant, the nonprofit organization in Ferndale, states they are a Catholic organization doing "battle against sin, the devil and the demonic." The organization has been disavowed by the Archdiocese of Detroit, and is on the Southern Poverty Law Center list as an anti-LGBTQ group.
"The Archdiocese has informed Mr. Voris and real Catholic TV, RealCatholicTV.com, that it does not regard them as being authorized to use the word 'Catholic' to identify or promote their public activities," a 2011 statement from the Archdiocese of Detroit reads.
Current Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo appeared on Church Militant during her run against Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
On March 6, Karamo put out a press release in a tweet from the Michigan Republican Party that stated "All humans are made in the likeness and image of God and have the fundamental right to exist."
An open letter from Chairwoman Kristina Karamo regarding the Michigan Republican Party’s fight to defend ALL #life. pic.twitter.com/X4QDGB6GiC
— Michigan GOP (@MIGOP) March 3, 2023
Karamo talked in the press release about the "moral relativism" of abortion and stated "God forgives if asked." She stated in an interview with Voris on Church Militant that she held a degree in Christian apologetics, which is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity.
Voris also spoke at length about the "natural moral order" that he believes is only present in Christianity. He said the embrace of Christian Nationalism would lead to everyone having two parents, there would be no handouts from the government and the economy would soar, because everything would center around avoiding Communist, Socialist and Marxist ideals.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," which sets the precedent of freedom of religion and sets no religion in the country above another as it relates to laws in the states.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Federation in Madison, Wisconsin, said there are several dangers inherent in Christian Nationalism.
"It creates an 'us-against-them' mentality," Gaylor said.
She said it is something that is used by dictators to take over a country and ends with repression of people, such as the treatment of women in Iran for not wearing a head scarf.
"There are real-world consequences to enforcing your dogma on someone else by government and it is the opposite of being a democracy," Gaylor said.
The PRRI poll pulled five core attitudes out of the poll, including racism, anti-immigrant views, antisemitic views, anti-Muslim views, and a patriarchal understanding of traditional gender roles.
The poll found that 70% of Christian Nationalists reject the idea that slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it hard for Black Americans to dig out of the lower class and 77% of Christian Nationalists believe that discrimination against white Americans is as big a problem as discrimination against Black Americans and other minorities.
The poll also found there were several minority groups that agreed with Christian Nationalist ideology and Kobes Du Mez said many Christians and Republicans do not fall into the extreme wing of the ideology.
The poll found 72% of Christian Nationalists believe immigrants are a detriment to the American way of life and 81% hold a theory that immigrants are "invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background."
The poll data from minority Christian Nationalists did not differ much during the mentions of the other Abrahamic faiths, or Judaism and Islamic religions, which all share roots.
There are 23% of Christian Nationalists that believe Jewish people hold too many positions of power and 40% who believe Christians in America love Israel more than the Jewish people in America do.
Among Christian Nationalists, 72% of those polled believe people from majority Muslim countries should be prevented from entering the country and 69% believe Islam is diametrically opposed to American values and way of life.
Only 23% of Christian Nationalists believe working women improve American society. There are 62% who believe society punishes men for acting like men.
Gaylor said the number of Christian Nationalist symbols and people espousing the ideology was prevalent at the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol.
Many Christian Nationalists, 58% according to the PRRI poll, also went along with the QAnon conspiracies that include antisemitic tropes and mentions of Satanism or demonic interference.
The theories were voiced by former Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey.
Darren Dochuk, a history professor at the University of Notre Dame, said the Christian Nationalist mindset was predisposed to the conspiratorial mindset with its heavy embrace of being white, foreign isolationist with a militant masculinity.
"The premillennialism belief that the world is moving swiftly towards cataclysm and only Christ's son's arrival is going to save individuals from that calamity has always been present," he said.
He said the hallmark of anti-collectivism has also been a major trope among the Christian Nationalists.
"There is very little room for compromise, that's for sure, with the hardcore followers of Christian Nationalism and within evangelical circles in the 60% to 70%," he said.
He said there is isolation within a media bubble that has become an echo chamber of social media.
Kobes Du Mez said there are many politicians that hold Christian views, but don't have a commitment to Christian Nationalist ideals. She said they don't feel they fit the label and feel attacked by being lumped in with the adherents of Christian Nationalist dogma.
"There are many people who would like this country who are willing to work through our democratic institutions and they are going to cast their vote and call it good. Everybody is voting their values one way or another," she said.
