Christian Nationalism vs Christian
I may be too ambitious with this post in trying to weave multiple threads together, but I’m going to try.
The Islamic Center
The Islamic center that was down the street from my childhood home spent a brief period in the national spotlight as the mosque the Pulse Nightclub shooter had attended (others there reported him to the FBI a couple years before the shooting). Years before that though, they were outgrowing their facility and bought an unused church across the street from the cemetery where my Catholic grandparents are now buried. The chapel on the new property is tiny, and they applied with the county to rezone the property to build a larger facility.
People came from across the county to NIMBY the rezoning board meeting, vocally rejecting their Muslim neighbors. Years later, shortly after the Pulse Nightclub shooting, the undersized facility they were stuck in was firebombed and they had to use a secondary building with no restroom facilities.
The Independent Baptist Private School
Unsatisfied with the academics of my public education, my mother enrolled me in private school for 6th grade. Much of the education was more rigorous than before and I’m glad for that, but my mother was innocent of how the school was founded on the legacy of fighting desegregation.
I’ve already written at length about how I had to grow away from the anti-catholicism they taught at that school. There and in other places like them I not only had to pledge allegiance to the American Flag, but to the Christian Flag and the Bible. I was also taught how ever since they removed prayer from public schools in the 60’s the nation has deteriorated steadily.
I’ve heard of wonderful members of churches who left their church when the pastor stopped displaying the American flag from the pulpit. It’s almost as if their idea of being a Christian requires worshiping that flag in church. But that’s Christian Nationalism, not Christianity.
The Atheist
I have a coworker who is an atheist. Let’s call him Kenny.
Kenny is a really great guy, awesome with helping people with their cranes and kind to everyone at work. People all over the nation consider him their go-to guy if they need help. A couple decades ago someone at work tried to pick a fight with him and said, “You’re not a real American, you’re an atheist.”
This is an example of toxic Christian Nationalism.
The Catholic
Many of my Catholic family members have demonstrated Christ’s love to me beautifully and I’m so glad to have seen that and grow from the bigotry that I was taught in middle school. I also have a cousin who serves as a clear example that Christian Nationalism isn’t isolated to the Evangelicalism I grew up in.
Christian nationalists have created a forgery of history that claims we were established as an exclusively “Judeo-Christian” nation. A few years ago, my very Catholic cousin was spouting about this on social media and backed his claims with the Pledge of Allegiance. It took a great deal of effort to demonstrate to him that the pledge didn’t exist until the late 1800s, and that “under God” was added in the 50’s during the Red Scare to distinguish from the Godless Commies. Even after conceding that, he still somehow denies that requiring the pledge to include “under God” is establishing a National religion contrary to Kenny’s beliefs and his rights as defined by the first 10 words of the Bill of Rights.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
The Presbyterian Clergyman Founding Father
Kenny’s ancestor was John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence. Kenny has talked to me at length about how, as a direct descendent, he was allowed to visit the Princeton archives and read Witherspoon’s personal writings. According to Kenny, in those writings, Witherspoon worked to maintain that the nation not be explicitly Christian. My own research on the subject leads me to a more nuanced understanding of Witherspoon’s stances on the matter,* however he certainly fought to have the Constitution’s Article VI Clause 3 (quoted blow) applied to the Georgia state legislature who had barred some from holding office for their religious affiliations.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Weaving it all together
The Independent Baptist School that taught me to hate my Catholic family? They were running some kind of Ponzi scheme and collapsed years ago. The Islamist Center bought the church/campus and now has a facility sufficiently large enough to serve their community.
I stopped talking to my cousin during the COVID-19 pandemic when he was absolutely unapologetic about celebrating all the early deaths in New York because he saw it as God’s Judgement over their killing babies.
It is my understanding that being a Christian is to follow Christ who taught the most important commandment after loving God is to love your neighbor. I also understand that to be an American is to believe in the principles of the Constitution and the founding fathers. If we accept those two things as true, then treating people who don’t believe Christ is God as if they are unworthy of being our neighbors in this great nation is both anti-Christian and anti-American.
And I have seen too much of that anti-Christian and anti-American behavior from Christian Nationalists.
The context for my writing this post is a September 11th Instagram influencer’s post I shared that concludes with how January 6th demonstrated that the real threat of domestic religious extremism in America is Christian Nationalism. Others have already done the work of demonstrating that link better than I ever can.
*An earlier version of this essay included a quote from John Witherspoon that had archaic phrasing I misinterpreted, and upon further scrutiny did not support what I was claiming at the time.
What are your thoughts on Jehovah's Witnesses belief?