My first experience with Christian nationalism was around the conflicts over the Ten Commandments being displayed on courthouse lawns.
On the one hand, people of faith I knew and loved were concerned about the removal of these displays, fearing it was a sign that our government systems were rejecting the good, divine principles by which they believed it necessary to promote in order to have and form a society that was pleasing to God.
On the other hand, other people of faith I knew and loved agreed that these displays needed to be removed. They held their faith in one hand and citizenship in the other. They firmly believed in the separation of church and state as well as in the importance of living out the divine principles in the Ten Commandments.
At the time of these public debates, I noticed a tendency to demonize whoever was on the opposite side of the debate. Both sides participated in this behavior and rhetoric.
Over time, however, one side tended to grow louder, angrier and more vitriolic while the other side tended to turn inward, shaking its head, retreating into spaces of liturgical safety.
These behaviors simultaneously allowed the seeds of Christian nationalism — planted long ago by many in my own denomination — to fester and grow, morph and mutate, into the destructive Christian nationalist movement of today.
It grieves me to no end seeing how people I’ve known and loved for decades swallow the lies of Christian nationalism. I am reminded of the work of theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing during the atrocious rise to power of Nazi Germany, who made it very clear — you can be either Christian or nationalist. You cannot be both.
It is time for Christians of all types to repent and pray, to come together and imagine a better way forward.
I pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ who have been following the lies of Christian nationalism would be convicted of their sin and repent.
I pray that people would remember how Jesus summarized the law as loving God with one’s whole being — body, mind, heart, soul, strength, and loving our neighbors (all of them) as ourselves. Perhaps then we can begin seeing the possibilities of our loving God working through us and our prayers to truly heal the land.
Yes — my more evangelical brothers and sisters pray for the healing of the land. But they are blind to their own complicity, their own participation in the fracturing division that has broken this land.
And yes — my more mainline Protestant brothers and sisters have stayed silent for too long. They too must repent of their complicity for allowing the fracturing and brokenness to deepen through avoidance.
It is time we all repent and come together — surrendering our sin which we have clung to out of pride or fear — and work together, pray together, break bread together. In our active repentance, the possibilities for true, Christ-like, deep healing of the land will become clear.
Reader Comments(0)