What is Christian Nationalism?

 Yesterday I had a post that questioned what in the heck was "Christian Nationalism."  It seemed from the description offered by Ms. Przybyla that it was just plain Christianity.  Today. there is a post at the American Thinker by John Leonard entitled What is a Christian Nationalist? that attemptes to answer that question.

On MSNBC “award-winning investigative journalist” (from Politico) Heidi Przybyla said this recently:

"Remember when Trump ran in 2016? A lot of the mainline evangelicals wanted nothing to do with the divorced real-estate mogul who cheated on his wife with a porn star and all of that, right? So what happened was, he was surrounded by this more extremist element. You’re going to hear words like Christian Nationalism, like the new apostolic reformation. These are groups that you should get very schooled on because they have a lot of power in Trump’s circle. And the one thing that unites all of them because there’s many different groups orbiting Trump but the thing that unites them as Christian nationalists — not Christians by the way, because Christian nationalist is very different — is that they believe their rights as Americans don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court, they come from God."

Horrors! Does this mean that a Christian nationalist believes what the Declaration of Independence said — that our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come not from King George III, but from our Creator? How does that separate a Christian nationalist from any other ordinary Christian? What is she trying to say?

Ms. Przybyla continued:

"The problem is that they are determining, man — men — are determining what God is telling them. And in the past, that so-called natural law ... it’s a pillar of Catholicism, for instance, and has been used for good. In social justice campaigns, Martin Luther King evoked it talking about civil rights. But now you have an extremist element of conservative Christians who say this applies specifically to issues like abortion, gay marriage, and it’s going much further than that, as you’re seeing for instance in the ruling in Alabama. The judge is connected to a dominionist faction."

Um...what? Is Ms. Przybyla trying to say that mainstream Christians support abortion rights and gay marriage, but Christian nationalists do not?

Well count me in Christian Nationalism if that is the case. The book of Leviticus is pretty clear that both of these are an abomination to God. And what God hates we should also hate, don't you think? Now, clearly God can forgive these behaviors, but only if the one doing them repents. It doesn't sound like Ms. Przybyla wants to repent.

If you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you’re a Christian. Okay, then...so what is a nationalist? According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, a nationalist is a person who wants his country to be politically independent, or a person who strongly believes that his country is better than others.

Putting the two terms together, we get a follower of Jesus Christ who strongly believes that America is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth. And that’s the problem?

Oh, wait a minute — one of the Alabama justices is accused of being a dominionist. This is, apparently, a person who seeks to create a nation governed by Christians according to their understanding of biblical law. Is the justice a dominionist because he quoted from the Bible instead of a biology textbook? Both basically say the same thing on this issue.

Most Christians I know (and I know more than a few through social media) realize that America was founded not as a Christian nation, but as a secular nation founded by Christians with Christian principles. Muslims, Jews, and atheists alike have been welcome to participate in our secular government that still operates on Christian principles.

Obviously, the term “Christian nationalist” is meant to be seen as a pejorative. It is being used to separate the “good” Christians (those who support abortion and gay marriage) from the bad Christians (actual Christians). It is a term intended to divide and conquer.

Frankly, I want my country to operate on Christian principles. What does Ms. Przybyla want us to operate on, the Devil's principles? That would of course by Sharia. No thanks, and I don't think she would be too happy with that either. So, in the end, the term "Christian Nationalism is just a nonsense phrase that can mean whatever the Left wants it to mean at any period in time. It is not meant to convey information but to disparage whoever is being accused of it.