Christian nationalism criticized

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/04/2022 (1610 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Earlier this year, many Canadian Christians were disturbed to see fellow-believers at blockades linking their faith with the flag.

While most participants said their protests were about COVID-19 restrictions, a report by the Edmonton security firm Global Enterprise Security Risk Management, which covertly embedded itself with blockaders at Coutts, Alberta, found some were more interested in “replacing our current democratic system of government with a government that is based upon the principles of the Christian right.”

“The rule of law would be replaced with the word of God, as interpreted through right-libertarian ideologies,” the report stated.

The term for that is Christian nationalism, the belief that Christianity and the nation are one, and that the Christian religion should rule Canada.

Christian nationalism is most prevalent in the U.S., where proponents believe that country was singled out by God to be a Christian nation to fulfil God’s purposes on Earth.

But the idea has also recently taken root in Russia, where the head of that country’s Orthodox Church sees church and state working together to restore the Russian Christian empire.

Christian nationalism in both countries has been the subject to critique recently.

In the U.S., a new report titled “Christian Nationalism and the January 6 Insurrection” says a growing number of American Christians believe in the “unconstitutional idea that the United States should be an exclusively Christian nation.”

The report, which was produced by Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, goes on to say Christian nationalism was most virulently on display during the January 6 insurrection.

It existed before that date, the report says, with the groundwork laid by evangelical preachers and conservative media outlets.

The idea is propelled by “a sense of persecution,” the report adds — from liberals, the media and so-called elites, and furthered by language about being in “a battle against tyranny and demonic forces.”

Critics are labelled “as ungodly and evil at extremist rallies and through videos, websites and blogs.”

The New York Times weighed in on this idea on April 6 in an article titled “The Growing Religious Fervor in the American Right.”

In it, the paper noted how political rallies in support of Donald Trump, and his belief in a stolen election, include all the elements of an evangelical church service, including prayers and praise music.

They are, the paper said, “worship for a new kind of congregation: a right-wing political movement powered by divine purpose, whose adherents find spiritual sustenance in political action.”

Said one of the leaders: “This is a Jesus movement. I believe God removed Donald for a time, so the church would wake up and have confidence in itself again to take our country back.”

In Russia, something similar is happening as Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church lends his support to that country’s war against Ukraine.

Kirill, a close ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, sees Russia as God’s favoured nation, a bulwark against what he sees as a decadent, secular West — particularly over the acceptance of LGBTTQ+ rights.

He and Putin share a vision of the “Russkiy Mir”, or “Russian world,” linking Christianity and Russia together.

Some brave Orthodox priests have spoken out against Kirill and his ideas. Now Orthodox leaders around the world have joined in, releasing a statement this month against Christian nationalism in Russia.

In the statement, the signers state that “Christian identity is not singularly, exclusively, or supremely held by a nation, a race, or a civilization … We therefore stand against ‘Christian Nationalism,’ ‘Christian Europe’ and the ‘Russian World.’”

The signers go on to call on other Christians to speak out against “unholy alliances of Christianity and political power, and especially in the context of nationalism, populism, and new forms of totalitarianism. The integrity of the Christian witness is distorted when the appropriation of Christian identity remains uncontested from within Christian traditions.”

All Christians, they say, “must support one another in resisting the sacralisation of political communities, and in offering resources to articulate a theology committed to the common good, to truthfulness, and to justice.”

Reading the statement, I couldn’t help but think: It doesn’t just apply to Russia. Those words could apply in the U.S. — and in Canada, too.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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