This is not the first time I have written about the problem of Christian nationalism in this country, and it probably won’t be the last.
If you’re the kind of political nerd who follows the downfall of democracy in real time like I am, then you’re aware of the event often called “6. January’, a moniker that fails to capture its scope and importance. of the violent attempt to overthrow the US government by right-wing rebels. We should really call it what it was, but I guess “Jan 6” is easier to write.
The January 6 House Committee held its final hearing on Monday, December 19, 2022, almost two full years after we all watched it all play out on live television. I mean, all the evidence is there – if you’re like me, you’re wondering how this drags on for so long. But then I remember that, oh yes, a small but incredibly powerful and influential group of people would like us all to believe it was No Big Deal. Such people would also have us believe that the Christian nationalism that underpins and drives the Republican Party and that helped facilitate the events of January 6 is simply a harmless matter of personal belief. As columnist Sarah Posner writes on MSNBC:
Recently disclosed texts between [Rep. Rick (R-Ga.)] Allen and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows … dramatically show how deeply Christian nationalist ideology runs through the Republican Party, and how it continues to underlie Republicans’ ongoing denial that January 6 was a violent attempt to overthrow the government.
The article is a fascinating look at how Christian nationalism – under the shiny veneer of “Christianity” – has taken over the Republican Party, allowing otherwise ideologically diverse groups to unite under a banner of shared religious fervor that incites violence against groups it deems spiritual. , culturally or socially inferior, all in the name of “fighting God’s war”. I’m going to keep screaming into the void about how dangerous this is until I’m blue in the face. Posner continues:
Even after January 6, Allen continued to insist that Trump and his supporters should not give up because God was on their side. On January 8, Allen Meadows sent a message lamenting that Trump’s attempted takeover had failed. “Our nation is at war, it is a spiritual war at the highest level,” Allen wrote. “This is not a war that can be fought conventionally, this is God’s battle and he has used President Trump in a powerful way to expose the deceptions, lies and hypocrisy of the enemy.”
Allen invoked a core element of Christian Right ideology: that patriotic Christians are engaged in a “spiritual” battle with evil forces, which include the Democratic Party, the broader left, or any other political opponent they say is undermining America as a “Christian nation. ” They claim that Trump was anointed by God to save the Christian nation from the attacks of its enemies.
These people seem to have forgotten that they are elected officials responsible for making laws for us all. And they keep getting elected—literal Christian nationalist rebels were just re-elected to the Halls of Congress in the 2022 midterms.
So how did we get here? If you want a primer on the rise of Christian nationalism, check out this brilliant book by Kristin Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. It is a detailed account of the last 75 years of American history. It tells of how the Christian right has played the long game in their attempt to take over the US government. It also traces how American Christians came to embrace robust masculinity and how they infused that construction of “what it means to be a man” into their faith to create a particular version of militant Christianity. Published in 2020, this book takes you on a wild ride that feels destined to end in a violent uprising on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Somehow Du Mez seems to have initially predicted January 6, 2021, even though she wrote the book before the riot happened. Perhaps DuMez and others like her are modern Cassandras?
