12-06-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
December 6, 2023
Yesterday, I attended a fabulous, though deeply troubling, lecture on Christian Nationalism, sometimes referred to as White Christian Nationalism. The speaker was Amanda Tyler, the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee For Religious Liberty. It was sponsored by Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston and was hosted by Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church.

My friend Rev. Chad Mattingly and I sat between a Jewish Rabbi and a Muslim Imam. It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but this was no joke. Christian Nationalism uses the word Christian and commandeers Christian symbols for things that in no way represent the life of Jesus. Christian Nationalism has more to do with power and greed, seeking to prey upon the vulnerable and those who want to blame someone for their problems.

The working definition of Christian Nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities. It attempts to use nostalgia, seeking to replicate an ideal time that actually never existed. Christian nationalism tends to be racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, antisemitic, and promotes hate toward many groups including the LGBTQ+ community. The last thing Christian Nationalism wants you to do is actually talk about Jesus and his radical love that stepped across every boundary and barrier religion and politics attempted to fabricate. The story of the Good Samaritan challenges Christian Nationalism on so many levels. The parable normalizes the absurd—Jesus’ depiction of a “feared outsider” (the other) being the one who embodied God’s hope for the world.

I had many takeaways from the lecture, but maybe the most important was Impact vs. Responsibility. Christian Nationalism most negatively impacts vulnerable and marginalized communities, yet the responsibility to confront Christian Nationalism falls upon Christians. We must speak passionately and prophetically about Jesus and how Christian Nationalism is the antithesis of anyone seeking to follow in the ways of Jesus.

Help me, Gracious God, to know the ways of Jesus more fully, and to be able to both speak and act in a way that makes clear his unconditional love for all people. In this work, help me to be both humble and bold, for hate dressed in the garments of religiosity is still hate. And this world does not need another so-called religion promoting what is not of Jesus. Amen.