Christian nationalism is a powerful and growing movement, based on the belief that the United States is defined by Christianity and the government of the United States should actively embrace and enforce Christian ideals. And lately, there has been a shift in the kinds of religious language and beliefs promoted by some of the most powerful leaders in the United States.
Journalist Catherine Stewart has been studying this shift. Her most recent book is Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.
To begin, Stewart said it's important to understand that what made the American Revolution so distinctive was that it was the first time in world history that leaders of a new republic were explicit about not founding the state on any religion.
Stewart notes that there's hard evidence to support this, including a letter from Thomas Jefferson stating that the United States was not founded on the Christian religion. There's also Article 6 of The Constitution, which states that no religious tests shall ever be required to hold office.
"They understood that government neutrality on religion is really critical in fostering peace in a pluralistic society," Stewart said. "They wanted to make sure that one religious group would not repress any others, so church-state separation is critical both to our democratic freedoms and to our religious freedoms — to combating discrimination and to advocating for equality."
However, that hasn't stopped people from trying to influence politics through a religious lens. For example, Stewart said, pro-slavery theologians of the Southern Presbyterian Church believed equality was ungodly, and that slavery was God's established order.
The contemporary iteration of Christian nationalism began in the late 1970s to early '80s, and was known as the New Right. The New Right was essentially a precursor to the Christian nationalist movement of today.
"Their beliefs consisted of visceral anti-communism, economic libertarianism — which is really important — and hostility to the Civil Rights Movement," Stewart said. "This is so much a part of what this movement has been about from the very beginning: hostility to equality, hostility to the movement for women's equality, and civil rights."
The destruction of church and state separation actually helps clear the way for the promotion of unchecked executive power, which then allows an unrestrained president to dispense money and public funds to favored religious groups, along with his cronies, in exchange for favors.Katherine Stewart
Stewart created terms for different people involved in the movement: the sergeants who influence people on a community level, the thinkers who draw up Christian nationalist policy and the funders, who monetarily support the movement.
Interestingly, the funders are from all sorts of religious backgrounds, and while some have religious goals, others don't.
"The thing they seem to agree on is that they want economic policies that benefit plutocratic wealth," Stewart said. "They want low taxes for the rich, protection of tax evasion strategies, and they want protective policies for their monopolistic businesses."
This begs the question: Why would someone interested in plutocratic wealth fund or be associated with Christian nationalism?
"The destruction of church and state separation actually helps clear the way for the promotion of unchecked executive power, which then allows an unrestrained president to dispense money and public funds to favored religious groups, along with his cronies, in exchange for favors," Stewart said.
Those same religious groups are an important part of voter mobilization as well.
"Those culture war issues are just a kind of payoff or bribe used to entrench an authoritarian system that no longer answers either to the people or to their Legislature," Stewart said.
Do not think that Christian nationalism is representative of all Christians though. Stewart noted that there are plenty of Christian leaders and faithful people who completely reject Christian nationalism and are working to counter it with their own faith convictions.
Hear more from faith leaders on Unsettled: One nation, under God, divisible
There are also clear economic and goals differences within the Christian nationalist movement. The leaders are well-funded and extremely organized in their political messaging, while the followers of the movement are not wealthy, and in many cases are struggling to make ends meet. The leaders of the movement are after a much broader aim, while voters who support the movement might just be particularly passionate about ending abortion or elevating traditional families.
"They're not aiming for the destruction of American democracy," she said. "They're just aiming to vote their values. But with their vote, they're lending support to a broader anti-democratic and Christian nationalist agenda."
To hear this conversation listen to Unsettled, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Katherine Perkins produced this episode.
