In recent days, Christian nationalism has come under attack. Again. The New Republic has a fresh piece on how Christian nationalism is an “existential threat to our democracy,” while CNN found a minister to call it “heresy.”
Setting aside the obvious - if The New Republic and CNN say it’s bad it must be good - there’s more to the story. An October 27 Pew Research Center survey showed that 45 percent of Americans think America should be a Christian nation. Even more people, 60 percent of those surveyed, know that the founders intended America to be a Christian nation.
This is very bad news for the American Left, which desperately wants to make Christianity as irrelevant as Trevor Noah. To that end, efforts to slander Christians and their beliefs are accelerating.
Christian nationalism is either the biggest threat to religious liberty since Bolshevism, or poised to usher in a new era of chattel slavery. The media tend to portray it as the cultural equivalent of the Hindenburg crashing into the Titanic as it sails under the bridge on the River Kwai.
According to the establishment media, you may be part of the problem if you believe in the Bible and think America is a good place to live. Thankfully, there is a simple self-test to determine where on the Christian nationalist spectrum you reside.
Sociologists Samuel L. Perry and Philip Gorski have devised a six-statement survey to figure out just how much of a Christian nationalist you are. It asks how much you agree or disagree with the following:
1-The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation
2-The federal government should advocate Christian values
3-The federal government should enforce strict separation of church and state
4-The federal government should allow the display of religious symbols in public spaces
5-The success of the United States is part of God’s plan
6-The federal government should allow prayer in public schools
Let’s take these one at a time, shall we?
1-The United States has already been declared a Christian nation. Many times. Over many years. By presidents of both parties. And the House of Representatives. Calling America a Christian nation is not establishing a religion; it’s a recognition of history.
2-The federal government advocates Christian values every day. Many federal statutes and countless laws at every level of government are taken from the 10 Commandments. Congress did not uniquely decide that murder, perjury, theft and other acts should be against the law. God and Moses were about 3,000 years ahead of that curve.
3-Seriously, will these people never learn? There is nothing anywhere in law or the Constitution that requires separation of church and state. The Constitution says Congress shall not establish a religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof. Sadly, only half of that First Amendment clause is strictly enforced today.
4-To “allow” something is different from requiring something. Allowing the exhibition of a cross, a Star of David, a crescent or some other symbol is not a compulsory display. I realize this could open the door for exhibits of pentagrams or that weird guy with the goat head and wings, so perhaps local citizens could have a say in such matters.
5-God has a plan for everything and everyone. It’s a belief to which every Bible believing Christian subscribes. Whether it’s the success of the United States or the success of the Popeil Pocket Fisherman, it’s all part of God’s plan. This is as old as scripture.
6-Here’s the dirty little secret about school prayer: As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in school. Maybe that’s why Leftists are agitating to eliminate grades altogether.
This self-test is a waste of time, a series of statements designed to provoke emotion rather than provide clarity. It also makes a good case for why America needs fewer sociologists and more plumbers, but I digress.
More to the point, these survey statements are either factually correct, self-evident or entirely reasonable. Small wonder so many people think America is, and ought to be, a Christian nation.
This likely explains why the Left is frantically slandering Christians with heightened urgency. If tens of millions of people believe in the Bible, and that America is a great nation, it becomes far more difficult for totalitarians to exert the control they wish to exercise over our lives and property.
Upon reflection, Christian nationalism might actually be essential to America, as D.G. Hart has argued.
Given the contents of the Christian nationalism self-test, I should not be surprised to learn that far more than 45 percent of Americans lean toward it, and I’m not convinced that would be a bad thing.
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