There's a Way for Democrats to Call Out and Rally Against White Christian Nationalism

Dean Obeidallah, MSNBC: Why Republican's "Christian Nationalism" is so Strong 

Christian nationalism "poses a very real threat to our freedoms and our democracy," says MSNBC Opinion Columnist Dean Obeidallah.  "Yet Democrats have still not found a way to call out and rally against this xenophobic radical, religious movement even though the answer is staring them in the face:  This is yet another example of the GOP's dangerous embrace of extremism." 

I believe there is a way for Democrats to call it out, rally against it and then put themselves in a position to defeat it.  

I've written about this threat before, partly in response to Marjorie Taylor Greene's suggestion that the Republican party become the party of Christian Nationalism, though she leaves out the racial reference even though that's exactly what she  means. White Christian Nationalism is pseudo-Christian in that it uses some of the symbolism and language of Christianity to define itself, and to convince white Christians in particular that they have been "chosen", in the same way that the Jewish race was chosen in the Old Testament, to reclaim worldly domains for God that have been taken over by Satan.  While it looks and sounds "Christian," it exhibits none of the virtues or characteristics that Jesus and the Apostles taught as the evidence of the presence of God and his indwelling Spirit in the lives of those who have experienced the spiritual transformation of the conversion experience.  It is anti-Christian because it is a counterfeit philosophy which subverts and distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ, turning faith into a tool for achieving political ends.  

The white, Christian nationalist movement is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  You can find some of what I've written here:  A Pseudo-Christian Threat to Both Church and State.  

Not All Christians are Republicans

One of the reasons Democrats have difficulty calling this movement out, and finding a way to defeat it is that the approach that is taken excludes much of the direct evidence which undermines the basic premises and assertions made by Christian nationalists, and some of the most effective voices capable of arguing against it.  The main argument against it is that it isn't Christian.  That's the approach that Democrats need to take.  

"I'm not a Christian," said Medhi Hassan in a conversation with Ayman Mohyeldin during their program transition on MSNBC, "but I'm a fan of Jesus and I'm pretty sure that Jesus would want to have nothing to do with nationalism or AR-15's for that matter."  

He's absolutely correct.  I don't disagree with anything he said.  But, forgive the irony here, he's preaching to the choir.  If Democrats want to be successful in their efforts to create awareness of the genuine dangers of this movement and motivate voters to cast ballots against politicians who support it, they need to embrace the Christians within their ranks who have the theological expertise, and the credibility, to lay out the evidence against it from their own faith perspective.  

Both Hassan and Mohyeldin are Muslims, which doesn't prevent them from having an excellent understanding of how the actions and philosophy of Christian nationalists are at odds with the gospel of Jesus.  But the point that Taylor-Greene makes in her attempt to convince people that the Republican party should help America become a theocracy under Christian nationalist rule is that they will be criticized by non-Christians and "outsiders" who will accuse them of being terrorists.  But if the critics are Christians themselves, using their knowledge of the very scriptures that Christian nationalists claim to believe are without error and are their sole authority, Taylor-Greene's claim is, in effect, "called out." 

That is one of the primary reasons for the existence of The Signal Press.  Christianity's foundation is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and his recorded revelation of himself to humanity, found in the New Testament, is the interpretive filter for all of the rest of the Bible.  He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophets and law (Matthew 5:17).  There are several confessions of faith, written by American Evangelicals, which emphasize this fact.  

"The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ," says the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message.  "All scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation," was included in the 2000 version of the same confession of faith.  Neither "Christian Nationalism," nor the white supremacy that is included in its vision for America, can be supported by the Christian scriptures when they are correctly interpreted in the spiritual and historical context in which they were written, including the words and life example of Jesus as the criterion and focus of the interpretation. So there is plenty of common interest linking Christians who want to preserve the integrity and veracity of the Christian faith from the infiltration of a non-Christian cult, and Democrats who want to preserve the American democracy and the constitution, including its guarantee of religious liberty and free speech.  

By embracing Christians who believe that their political expression is best represented by the Democratic party, who understand and hold strong convictions about the constitutional separation of church and state protecting their religious freedom which enables the unhindered practice of their faith, the party has both the means and the evidence to call out white, Christian nationalists as pseudo-Christian and anti-Christian, and help the party save American democracy from destruction by their fascist, racist ambitions.  It gives Democrats the credibility to call out this aberration that is dangerous to democracy and religious liberty, as well as to the church itself, because it is an invasive heresy that is hijacking the mission and purpose of the church and using Christianity as a means to achieve political ends.

"This is How You Know..." 

Christianity is not a nebulous, abstract ideology.  It has a very clear identity, and it can be distinguished in those who sincerely practice it by the virtues and values it produces, and, as Jesus taught and illustrated by personal example, in the way those who claim to be Christians treat other people.  

The primary confession of the Christian faith was stated by Peter, after Jesus asked him, "Who do you say that I am?"  Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."  

The Apostle John affirms this confession as a belief prerequisite to the spiritual transformation of God.  In his first epistle to the church, he writes, "By this you know the Spirit of God:  Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.  And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world" (I John 4:2-3).  

There is a very real sense in which attempting to establish a theocratic nation with Christianity assuming the same role that Judaism did under the old covenant in the Old Testament is a denial of the confession that Jesus is the Christ.  In the Old Testament, it was the covenant relationship itself through which people were spiritually transformed, or were brought into the Kingdom of God.  Christian nationalists are replacing the spiritual kingdom of God, based on Jesus as Lord and Savior, with a claim that they are being called to establish a political kingdom of God.  

The virtues and practices of the Christian faith must be lived out, they cannot be enforced by law.  People can be made to comply in obedience to a law requiring obedience to a specific principle, but doing so does not produce joy, peace, mercy, or any other "fruit" which Jesus and the apostles taught was the resulting evidence of being Christian.  And there isn't anything anywhere, in any of the New Testament writings of the Apostles, church leaders and in the record of the teaching of Christ himself, that offers a covenant relationship with a nation or country to make it "Christian" by establishing some kind of theocratic government.  

Those who are best equipped to call out the errors of Christian nationalists are Christians.  And there are plenty of sincere Christians, who are Evangelical in their expression of the faith, within the ranks of the Democratic party, who can lay this argument out.  The motivation for doing this is to preserve the religious freedom we have under the constitution which allows for the free exercise of our faith, and to prevent the further infiltration of our churches and denominations with the ideology and philosophy of a pseudo-Christian, anti-Christian cult that subverts the gospel and destroys the church.