What kind of nation do we want to live in? What kind of nation should America be? Or to put it yet another way, what is good for America? What is good for Americans? Christian Nationalism is an attempt to answer that question. Of course, there isn ’t just one version of Christian Nationalism. Some Christians have very different conceptions of what our nation should be. But fundamentally, this is the question under discussion. And while Christian Nationalism is one possible way (or several possible-but-related ways) of answering these questions, there are obviously other answers. Political party platforms are attempts to answer this question. Most everyone who gets involved in politics (even if all they do is vote) has at least some kind of vision of what they think the nation should be like. So: What kind of America do we want? What kind of nation should America be?
Some questions:
Do we want to be a nation that honors God’s institution and design for marriage? Or do we want to treat marriage as human invention that is malleable, according to the dictates of legislators and judges?
Do we want to be a nation that encourages the formation of solid and enduring families? Or do we want the sexual revolution – casual sex, no-fault divorce, LGBTQ+, and drag queen story hour?
Do we want to be a nation where life in the womb is protected because abortion is criminalized? Or do we want to be a nation in which it is open season on the unborn, for any reason, at any time?
Do we want to be a nation in which families can generally afford to have mom stay home with the kids if she so desires? Or do we want an egalitarian society in which men and women are treated as interchangeable pieces in society? Do we want to be a nation in which motherhood is a high status calling? Or do we want a nation in which most women aspire to be “boss babe” career women? In short, do we want the family or do we want feminism?
Do we want a society in which regulation strangles technological innovation and economic growth? Or do we want a nation of economic freedom and prosperity for as many as possible?
Do we want a nation in which women join men in armed combat, fighting the nation’s wars? Or do we want a nation in which men protect women?
Do we want a nation in which people are given unmeited privleges, or denied academic and econimic opportunities, based DEI criteria? Or do we want a nation that values competence and excellence?
Do we want a nation in which all kinds of smut is available even to our children if they can access a screen? Or do we want a nation in which children are protected from perversion?
Do we want a nation with borders? A nation with a coherent culture, the rule of law, and high social trust? Or do we want to let anyone and everyone cross into our land, taking our jobs, escalating crime, and damaging social trust?
Do we want a nation with sound money and limited inflation? Or do we want a nation with politicized and manipulated currency and interest rates?
Do we want a nation that rewards taking responsibility and working hard? Or do we want a welfare state that subsidizes the sluggard?
Do we want a nation that tries to police the world, constantly getting entangled in foreign wars? Or do we want a nation that seeks to be a peace-keeper, while largely avoiding conflicts that do not directly serve our own national interests?
Do we want cities that stink of weed, and where hordes of people are strung out on narcotics? Or do we want a nation that is largely free of mind-altering, soul-numbing drugs?
Do we want a nation in which the old fashioned version of the American dream – of a family that owns property, a family that has a home of its own – is the norm? Or do we want a nation where regulations and subsidies allow corporations to constantly run over “the little guy”? Do we want people to apsire to property and productivity, to have “skin in the game”? Or do we want a nation where “you will own nothing and like it”?
I could keep going; this is hardly a complete list of questions. And the options I present, of course, are not the only possibilities in every case. But this is what the Christian Nationalism debate is about. It’s about what kind of nation we desire to be. For Christians, it is – or at least should be – about what kind of nation God desires us to be.
Note what it is not about:
It is not about forcing people to adopt a certain religion or attend religious services.
It is not about establishing one denomination over the whole nation, or taxing people to support a certain church.
It is not about confusing the respective roles and spheres of church and state.
It is not about turning every sin into a crime.
It is about whether or not we want to be the kind of virtuous and faithful people for whom our Constitution was designed. It is about whether or not we will be true to our Reformational, Protestant heritage. It is about whether or not we will be a nation of healthy and in-tact families, versus a nation of detached individuals, in which men are dropping out because their masculinity has been demonized and in which women are growing into unhappy, childless “cat ladies.” It is about about being a nation that preserves itself and its identity. It is about being a nation that adheres to the God’s design for society and family.
Someone might say, “You’re trying to impose your morality on the rest of us!” Well, perhaps, but ALL law is imposed morality, in the nature of the case. That’s inescapable. If we do not impose principles that derive from God’s own civil law, we will be imposing another set of laws drawn from the will of another god.
The Christian Nationalism label might be new but the discussion itself is not. This movement is largely a retrieval project – trying to take back and recover virtues and standards that were common in our past, but have now largely eroded. It’s not radical; it’s highly conservative. It’s not revolutionary; it’s organic.
To reframe the question we started with: Christian Nationalists claim that the most important question is not, “What do we want for America?” but, “What does Christ want for America?” That’s the question we must wrestle with: What does Christ want America to be? How can America as a nation be pleasing to Christ? Christian Nationalism should be an attempt to answer that question. If Jesus is who the Bible says he is — the God-man, the King of kings and Lord of lord — then what he wants America (and every other nation) to be is what matters most.
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