Christian Nationalism. Many of you have read or heard that term for the first time recently, but it isn’t new. Far from it, in fact. The idea of a Christian nation predates the fall of Rome. The first implementation of Christianity as a state religion occurred in 301 CE in Armenia; seventy-nine years before its adoption by the Roman empire.

The United States is a secular nation. It was founded as such, regardless of the rantings of many within our political organizations and churches. We’ve all heard the statements that the United States was founded upon Judeo-Christian ethics. We can assume that most of those making the statement don’t know what that means. The history of the term is complicated and goes back more than a century, and the definition and usage has changed over that time. But that isn’t the topic of this article.

The 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States speaks very clearly about freedom of religion and that there shall be no establishment of a state religion. Christian nationalists seem to reject this Amendment or, at best, strive to implement a mandatory religion without having to change the constitution. Mike Flynn spoke about one nation and one religion during his many fundraising performances.

Here is a video of Flynn saying it. The worst part starts at 3:47

He says it doesn’t matter what your denomination or ecumenical beliefs may be. We’re going to talk about that shortly.

Here is a video posted on X by Right Wing Watch (@rightwingwatch) in which Christian nationalist minister Doug Wilson promotes the idea of adding the Apostle’s Creed to the US Constitution.

For those unfamiliar with this creed, here is the text:

I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.

Amen.

Mike Flynn is a proud Irish Catholic, but Wilson describes himself as a Chestertonian Calvinist on his blog. Blog & Mablog

Other prominent Christian nationalists come from other denominations, such as Baptist, Pentecostal, and other fundamentalist camps. Many of the ministers involved in the movement come from the New Apostolic Reformation and Seven Mountains Mandate camp, which is a dominionist theology. Many consider themselves independent and shy away from talk of denominations. They all want Christians to run the country. With such a diverse group involved in the same movement, it leaves a rather large, looming question to be asked and answered.

Which Christians?

If you’ve seen the trailer for the recently released Civil War, you’ve seen this clip. It gives the impression that being an American simply isn’t good enough to keep you safe. You’ll have to be a certain kind of American during the next Civil War. Which kind will, of course, be determined by whoever is in control of your current location. If you are the wrong kind, well, we have all seen those movie scenes before.

In the righteous utopia envisioned by Christian nationalists, exactly which Christians should be in charge? I mentioned denominations earlier. This is where that becomes important.

The Catholic extremists and the Protestant extremists seem to be getting along, for now. That will last for a time as they work together to form this new Christian nation. But what happens after that? Christianity is still the largest religion on earth, but it is made up of so many different denominations and theologies that it would be impossible to even attempt to list them all.

And each one of them believes they are right. Only they know the true path to salvation. And all of you other people, other professed Christians included, are of the devil.

When I tell people I was raised in the church, I mean it in an almost literal sense. We didn’t go to mass once a week or sit through a sermon on Sunday morning. Church was every Wednesday night and twice on Sundays. Vacation bible school took up some of my summers, and if you throw in the occasional tent revival, Christian music festival, or traveling healer shows, a kid can spend more time in church than in history class.

Many of the members of my family were involved in various types of ministry or held church offices. My maternal grandfather was a deacon. My paternal grandfather was an occasional preacher, as was my father. My cousin performed my first marriage, and he later became a Bishop. I almost became a minister myself.

The most consistent teaching in our denomination was that all the rest of you were definitely going to hell. Sorry. That’s just the way it is. Especially if you were Catholic. Or one of the Catholic-light denominations like Orthodox or Anglican. Definitely the Baptists. (The Baptists tried to prevent us from having school dances. Unforgivable.)

Of course, the Catholics say they are the only true church. Us evangelicals were no better than Appalachian snake handlers. The Orthodox think they are the one true church. God forbid you are a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness. You didn’t even count. Seventh Day Adventists, well, good luck.

Are you a trinitarian? An adoptionist? A dualist? Are you of the oneness school of theology? Are you Sola Scripura? King James Version only? Which gospel do you prefer? Are you a predestination believer?

Who gets to be in charge?

“The Church” has been in charge of governments before. Once it was decided just what kind of church they would be, one of the first things they did was to begin oppressing those who believed differently. Entire crusades were dedicated to the eradication of Christians who dared believe or worship in a different manner than that prescribed by “the church.” When the church took control of nations and armies, it touched off hundreds of years of oppression, conquest, slaughter, and slavery. There have already been calls for Christians to take up arms.

Christian Nationalism isn’t simply about having a nation that serves Christ. It’s about Christian supremacy; where Christians will reign over the others. Most of us are the others. We already know what the church does when it holds power over nations. None of us should want that.

With the number of people claiming a religious affiliation dwindling, the number of others to be weeded out is growing. I’m sure they won’t be able to burn all of us at the stake. But they will probably try.