The Threat of Christian Nationalism
Marcel J. Harmon, Ph.D.
November 13, 2006
This commentary of mine originally appeared on the site, "BlackintheCty.net," on May 18, 2006, shortly after Michelle Goldberg's book "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism" came out. Though the results of Tuesday's elections indicate that the nation's political pendulum is once again swinging back towards the middle, we must still remain vigilant in preventing our democracy from turning into a theocracy.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
So go the lyrics to the first verse of Sabine Baring-Gould’s 1865 hymn “Onward Christian Solders.” Growing up as part of the United Methodist Church in Middle America, I recall singing this fairly blatant militant hymn from time to time. Of course I was always told the hymn should be interpreted as a metaphor for the struggle against Satan, sin, and our own personal demons (whatever the long dead author’s original intent). Christianity, I remember being taught, is a religion that strives for peace, understanding, forgiveness, and acceptance – despite its long history of contrary examples.
Contrast this with Christian Nationalism, a political movement that seems to prefer a more literal translation of Baring-Gould’s “colorful” hymn. In Michelle Goldberg’s recently (2006) published book, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," she paints a picture of a political movement that believes in and works to disseminate a reality in which Christians have the right to rule, believes in and works to disseminate a form of revisionist history in which all of the US founding fathers were devout Christians who never intended a separation of church and state, and believes in the preeminence of Christianity in the United States over other religions in terms of a) support from the government and b) integration within the government at all levels [i].
Much of the language and imagery within the movement is highly militant (dare I even say slightly fascist) in nature. At one rally at the Austin, TX statehouse, Goldberg describes a banner that “… pictured a fierce eagle perched upon a bloody cross”[ii]. Elsewhere in her book Goldberg quotes George Grant, the former executive director of D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, who wrote the following in his book "The Changing of the Guard:"
Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less …” [iii].
Ok, dominion over all, in all aspects of life, and your basic world conquest … yeah, well, I guess I missed that Sunday school class. I get the feeling the leaders of Christian Nationalism aren’t very big on the whole “the meek shall inherit the Earth” thing.
As an anthropologist I don’t find the “corrupting” of a religion’s ideals for political purposes surprising – it’s been a common and essentially constant occurrence for as long as religion and politics have both been around. After all religion is a very powerful means for unifying both large and small groups of people, and when it’s creatively (or devilishly) manipulated for political purposes it can be an effective way to coerce people into action. Unfortunately, such manipulation can be of an inflammatory nature, resulting in drastic, destructive actions – as in the domestic terrorism of various abortion clinic bombers.
But even more sinister is the inroads such religious-political movements make within mainstream societies and mainstream governments. In the US, we immediately think of the spread of militant Islam in the Middle East. However, we better cast our gaze inwards and take a look at the religious-political cancer (i.e., Christian Nationalism) spreading within our own society.
At all levels of government within the United States, Christian Nationalism is present to varying degrees. Take Tom Delay, for example, who in 2003 was a featured speaker at a Worldview Weekend conference in Pearland, TX. The Worldview Weekend conferences are devoted to teaching the “correct” Christian worldview as well as instructing attendees on how to spread it. Delay is quoted as saying, “Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world. Only Christianity” [iv]. Delay may no longer be a member of Congress, but Christian Nationalism’s influence remains.
And perhaps the most troubling of all is the President’s own ambiguous relationship with the movement. The administration has embraced the far right (including many Christian Nationalists) throughout most of its tenure, particularly for reelection. How much of this was purely political vs. “true believer” behavior is difficult to say, and it no doubt varies among the different personnel within the administration. But we have a born-again Christian president who, by his own admission, feels he was called by God to be president [v], and sees the world in terms of black and white, good and evil. We have a president who has made numerous troubling statements, including the following two.
In response to Bob Woodward’s question as to whether he sought his own father’s advice on Iraq, the president stated, “You know, he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to” [vi].
And former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas quoted the president in a June 24, 2003 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as telling him, "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East" [vii].
And so I wonder, when President Bush sings Onward Christian Solders does he primarily reflect on the metaphorical interpretation? Or does he stick with its literal meaning? While I hope for the former, I fear the latter may be closer to the truth. So as a citizen, be vigilant, be aware, and when the 2006 elections roll around, get out and vote. Maybe we can remove some of the cancer.
References
i] Goldberg, M. 2006. What is Christian Nationalism? The Huffington Post, May 14, 2006. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-goldberg/what-is-christian-nationa_b_20989.html.
ii] Goldberg, M. 2006. What is Christian Nationalism? The Huffington Post, May 14, 2006. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-goldberg/what-is-christian-nationa_b_20989.html.
iii] Goldberg, M. 2006. Excerpt - Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/05/12/goldberg/index_np.html.
iv] Goldberg, M. 2006. Excerpt - Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/05/12/goldberg/index_np.html.
v] PBS Frontline: The Jesus Factor. Written, Produced, and Directed by Raney Aronson. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus.
vi] Fineman, H. and T. Lipper. 2004. The Gospel According to George. Newsweek, April 26, 2004, pp. 18-21.
vii] Regular, A. 2003. `Road map is a life saver for us,' PM Abbas tells Hamas. Haaretz, June 24, 2003. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=310788.
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
Forward into battle see His banners go!
So go the lyrics to the first verse of Sabine Baring-Gould’s 1865 hymn “Onward Christian Solders.” Growing up as part of the United Methodist Church in Middle America, I recall singing this fairly blatant militant hymn from time to time. Of course I was always told the hymn should be interpreted as a metaphor for the struggle against Satan, sin, and our own personal demons (whatever the long dead author’s original intent). Christianity, I remember being taught, is a religion that strives for peace, understanding, forgiveness, and acceptance – despite its long history of contrary examples.
Contrast this with Christian Nationalism, a political movement that seems to prefer a more literal translation of Baring-Gould’s “colorful” hymn. In Michelle Goldberg’s recently (2006) published book, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," she paints a picture of a political movement that believes in and works to disseminate a reality in which Christians have the right to rule, believes in and works to disseminate a form of revisionist history in which all of the US founding fathers were devout Christians who never intended a separation of church and state, and believes in the preeminence of Christianity in the United States over other religions in terms of a) support from the government and b) integration within the government at all levels [i].
Much of the language and imagery within the movement is highly militant (dare I even say slightly fascist) in nature. At one rally at the Austin, TX statehouse, Goldberg describes a banner that “… pictured a fierce eagle perched upon a bloody cross”[ii]. Elsewhere in her book Goldberg quotes George Grant, the former executive director of D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, who wrote the following in his book "The Changing of the Guard:"
Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ -- to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less …” [iii].
Ok, dominion over all, in all aspects of life, and your basic world conquest … yeah, well, I guess I missed that Sunday school class. I get the feeling the leaders of Christian Nationalism aren’t very big on the whole “the meek shall inherit the Earth” thing.
As an anthropologist I don’t find the “corrupting” of a religion’s ideals for political purposes surprising – it’s been a common and essentially constant occurrence for as long as religion and politics have both been around. After all religion is a very powerful means for unifying both large and small groups of people, and when it’s creatively (or devilishly) manipulated for political purposes it can be an effective way to coerce people into action. Unfortunately, such manipulation can be of an inflammatory nature, resulting in drastic, destructive actions – as in the domestic terrorism of various abortion clinic bombers.
But even more sinister is the inroads such religious-political movements make within mainstream societies and mainstream governments. In the US, we immediately think of the spread of militant Islam in the Middle East. However, we better cast our gaze inwards and take a look at the religious-political cancer (i.e., Christian Nationalism) spreading within our own society.
At all levels of government within the United States, Christian Nationalism is present to varying degrees. Take Tom Delay, for example, who in 2003 was a featured speaker at a Worldview Weekend conference in Pearland, TX. The Worldview Weekend conferences are devoted to teaching the “correct” Christian worldview as well as instructing attendees on how to spread it. Delay is quoted as saying, “Only Christianity offers a comprehensive worldview that covers all areas of life and thought, every aspect of creation. Only Christianity offers a way to live in response to the realities that we find in this world. Only Christianity” [iv]. Delay may no longer be a member of Congress, but Christian Nationalism’s influence remains.
And perhaps the most troubling of all is the President’s own ambiguous relationship with the movement. The administration has embraced the far right (including many Christian Nationalists) throughout most of its tenure, particularly for reelection. How much of this was purely political vs. “true believer” behavior is difficult to say, and it no doubt varies among the different personnel within the administration. But we have a born-again Christian president who, by his own admission, feels he was called by God to be president [v], and sees the world in terms of black and white, good and evil. We have a president who has made numerous troubling statements, including the following two.
In response to Bob Woodward’s question as to whether he sought his own father’s advice on Iraq, the president stated, “You know, he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to” [vi].
And former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas quoted the president in a June 24, 2003 article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as telling him, "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East" [vii].
And so I wonder, when President Bush sings Onward Christian Solders does he primarily reflect on the metaphorical interpretation? Or does he stick with its literal meaning? While I hope for the former, I fear the latter may be closer to the truth. So as a citizen, be vigilant, be aware, and when the 2006 elections roll around, get out and vote. Maybe we can remove some of the cancer.
References
i] Goldberg, M. 2006. What is Christian Nationalism? The Huffington Post, May 14, 2006. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-goldberg/what-is-christian-nationa_b_20989.html.
ii] Goldberg, M. 2006. What is Christian Nationalism? The Huffington Post, May 14, 2006. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-goldberg/what-is-christian-nationa_b_20989.html.
iii] Goldberg, M. 2006. Excerpt - Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/05/12/goldberg/index_np.html.
iv] Goldberg, M. 2006. Excerpt - Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism. Salon.com, http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/05/12/goldberg/index_np.html.
v] PBS Frontline: The Jesus Factor. Written, Produced, and Directed by Raney Aronson. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus.
vi] Fineman, H. and T. Lipper. 2004. The Gospel According to George. Newsweek, April 26, 2004, pp. 18-21.
vii] Regular, A. 2003. `Road map is a life saver for us,' PM Abbas tells Hamas. Haaretz, June 24, 2003. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=310788.
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