By Filings on
Society & Culture
Christian Nationalism
Church and State
Politicized Christianity

“In a recent article published by the Washington Institute, professor and lawyer Eric Treene offered a robust alternative way of understanding Christian Nationalism and its significance within American culture.” - Breakpoint

Discussion

Fri, 10/27/23

Gave the Breakpoint piece and the linked long-form article a quick peruse. This is just a first impression but they both seemed to conflate the idea of “a link between Christian faith and government” with the idea of using government power to require Christian behaviors or use government roles as a bully pulpit for promoting the faith.

The latter is what has everybody feeling all negative about ‘Christian Nationalism,’ (that, and the ‘white’ versions/influences often attached or tagging along at its heels).

It remains clear to me that it’s a bad idea to claim you’re in favor of ‘Christian Nationalism’ unless you believe in using the coercive power of the state to make the country more culturally Christian in its conduct and the ideas it publicly promotes.

(Of course, there are Christian understandings of morality and ethics and justice that are also held by many non-Christian belief systems, or that can be supported with pragmatic arguments from natural law. I’m not really talking about those things.)

But my concern about CN—the coercive kind—is mitigated by the fact that we have laws. Any version of CN that is committed to upholding constitutional liberties and the law of the land is relatively harmless. It can’t change hearts and minds, though, and often has the opposite effect.

So are we here to make people do right or are we here to change hearts and minds? We often have to choose one or the other.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.