The Problem with Christian Nationalism at Christmas

THE PROBLEM WITH CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM

Actually, there are many problems with Christian nationalism, but let’s deal with some of the major ones.  It actually requires one to believe a myth of origins story about America as somehow a city set on a hill which God picked as one of his favorites.   The Founding Fathers were a mixed lot when it came to religion—Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin, some of the one’s most involved in shaping the Declaration of Independence and various parts of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (or at least the key ideas behind them)  were Deists,  not Christians.  Go take a look at Thomas Jefferson expurgated (no miracles please) version of what matters in the Gospels. These men quite rightly saw the problem with government support for a particular brand of religion, whether Catholic or Protestant and they wanted no part of it.  They wanted, within a certain scope, freedom of religion. They didn’t even particularly like state by state supported religion like Episcopalianism in Virginia or Catholicism in Maryland (named after the Virgin Mary) or Quakerism in Penn’s Woods.  Our founding documents are not in line with the agendas of Christian Nationalism, nor were various of the key persons who wrote those documents.  To the Declaration of Independence we owe the efforts chiefly of Thomas Jefferson.

Secondly, there is the problem that Jesus made quite clear his kingdom was not of this world, and not like the various sorts of kingdoms in this world.  The attempt to amalgamate Christ’s agenda with modern Americanism is an attempt bound to fail, or totally distort the Gospel. It can be a form of idolatry.  There is a reason Paul reminded that our Commonwealth or citizenship is in heaven, not in some country here on earth.  The reason we keep praying ‘thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. Is because that has not happened and will never happen through human political agendas and means.  

I am not suggesting Christians should not love their country, whichever country it is. But love of country must be entirely secondary to our love for the Lord who is Lord of all peoples, and our love for the Gospel which preaches love not only for friends and neighbors and like minded individuals, but love even for ones who have been labeled enemies.   And there is absolutely no basis for racism in Christianity.  As the Sunday school song I learned in kindergarten says— ‘Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight…’  There is no room in the Gospel for hated filled rhetoric against races that are not White.  None.   One of the reasons Jesus came was to replace the rhetoric of hate with the message of love—of salvation for all humankind, if they will respond to the Gospel.

There is much more to say along these lines, but I will simply add, that if you want to talk about ‘ the turning point’,  historically speaking that happened more than 2,000 years ago when God sent his only Son to be our redeemer.  His coming was the epoch changing turning point in human history, not some current political agenda.  I would suggest you listen to James Taylor’s Christmas song, and think about its meaning during this season.  And while you’re at it—ponder the Christmas poem I wrote some time ago…

THE BONDING

A cold and listless season,

And full of cheerless cheer,

When hopes are raised and dashed again

And joy dissolves in tears.

The search for endless family

The search for one true Friend

Leaves questers tired, disconsolate

With questions without end.

Best find some potent pleasure quick

Some superficial thrill

Than search for everlasting love

When none can fill that bill.

So hide yourselves in shopping

And eating ‘til you burst,

Use endless entertainment

As shelter from the worst.

And hope at least for truce on earth,

Though warlords rattle swords

As if to kill could solve our ills

We seize our ‘just’ rewards.

Mistake some rest for lasting peace

And calm for ‘all is well’

And absence of activity

As year end’s victory bell.

But what if Advent is no quest

Despite the wise men’s star

What if Advent isn’t reached

By driving from afar?

What if Good News comes to us

From well beyond our reach?

What if love and peace on earth

Are more than things we preach?

What if a restless peace

Is what He did intend

Until we open up our lives

And let the stranger in?

What if a peaceless rest

Is not the Christmas hope

What if nothing we could do

Helps us truly cope?

What if there is a bonding

With one who rules above

Who came to us in beggar’s rags

And brought the gift of love?

The God shaped hole in every heart

Is healed by just one source

When Jesus comes to claim his own

Who are without recourse.

So give up endless seeking

Surrender is required

The one who is the Lord of all

Cannot be bought or hired,

He’s not conjured into life

By pomp and circumstance

By Yuletide carols boldly sung

By fun or drunken trance.

He comes unbidden, unawares

Fills crevices of souls

He comes on his own timely terms

And makes the sinner whole.

‘We shall be restless’ said the saint

‘Until we rest in thee’

And find that we have been reborn,

Our own nativity.

How silently, how silently

The precious truth is given

And God imparts to human hearts

The blessings of his heaven.

Merry Christmas