Christian Nationalism is a political movement that seeks to undermine church-state separation and declares the United States of America as a “Christian nation.” This movement is part of the backlash against the changing demographics in the US and the struggle to retain traditional white power structures. The 2021 U.S. population census showed a drop in the white population, which declined by 8.6% between 2010 and 2020.
White Christian Nationalists are afraid that the changing demographics in the US will change who controls the political power structures, they distort and manipulate Christianity to hold onto their political power. White Christian nationalist ideology’s ultimate goal is ethnic power for the “true White Americans”, the Christians in the ethnic sense who are deemed worthy of belonging and governing the country. Christian Nationalists deny the separation of church and state established in the US Constitution, and they oppose equality for people of color, women, immigrants, and other minorities.
White Christian nationalism is not new, it existed before the founding of the United States, from the first landing of European settlers. The narrative of arrival in the English colonies constructed a foundational myth whereby the arriving Christians were compared to the Israelites arriving in the Promised Land. Just as the people of Israel, persecuted by Egypt, arrived in Canaan, the Christians, fleeing from England because of religious persecution, arrived in the Promised Land.
The book most read by the settlers after the Bible was The Book of Martyrs, published in 1563 by John Foxe, an English Puritan, where the myth of England as a chosen nation is established. It highlights the merits of England having been Christianized by Joseph of Arimathea, the English ancestry of Emperor Constantine, and the help given to him by the British army in the Christianization of the world.
Before they immigrated to the United States, European settlers were distinguished by ethnicity: they were English, German, French, Scottish, and so on. But upon their arrival, they became bound together as white countrymen, distinguished themselves from the Indigenous natives whom they sought to displace, and the enslaved Africans they exploited. They fundamentally believe that the US was founded as a “Christian nation” by white Christians, who instituted laws and institutions based on biblical and protestant principles. This would establish the character of their newfound society, a nation of white Christian Americans appointed by God.
In February of 2023, a national survey conducted by the PRRI and Brooking Institution found that roughly two-thirds of white evangelicals either explicitly supported the notion of Christian Nationalism or were sympathetic to it. The share of white evangelicals who expressed support for certain ideas – that the government should declare Christianity the state religion; that being Christian is an essential part of being American; and that God has called on Christians to exercise dominion over all areas of society- dwarfed that of white mainline Protestants, white Catholics, and Protestants of color. The research established a clear link between Christian nationalist ideology and racism, xenophobia, misogyny, authoritarian and anti-democratic sentiments, and an appetite for political violence. The most remarkable finding: Nearly 90 percent of white adherents to Christian nationalism agreed that “God intended the United States of America to be a new promised land” run by “White Christians”.
According to the 2024 Public Research Religion Institute Post-Election American Values Survey, 81% of evangelicals and Pentecostals voted for President Donald Trump in the past presidential election, he won the support of about 8 in 10 White evangelical voters. The reason for this support is mainly ideological and theological, according to the survey a strong majority of Americans who qualify as Christian nationalism adherents and sympathizers report voting for Trump (83%). For the record, most Christians are not Christian Nationalists.
Donald Trump is the Messiah of the Christian Nationalism political movement who consistently fan the flames of fear and hate in their constituents. Christian nationalism and a turn toward fascism, have also become defining factors in the appeal of a seemingly strong character who “can resolve problems quickly”, even if the means employed are antithetical to the Gospel.
Trump says he will “take back the country” from the outsiders and invaders who have taken control—people of color, immigrants, religious minorities, secularists—and then restore it to its rightful owners. In Trump’s logic, the real Americans are White Christians, and even though what Trump is saying is in opposition to the core values of the Christian faith, among them: caring for the outcast and more vulnerable, most evangelical leaders and church members are more influenced by Trump discourse than they are by their faith.
There is a disconnect between Jesus’ core teachings of caring for the poor, loving the neighbor, and welcoming the stranger, and the political views of the majority of evangelicals who choose to vote for Trump and ignore the fact that the president and Christian nationalists are the single greatest threat to democracy in the United States and to the witness of the true biblical Gospel.
