Watch- White Christian Nationalism: How Racism Undergirds Christian Nationalism

If you're not learning about white Christian Nationalism, you're not prepared to address one of the greatest threats to both democracy and the church.

When people ask me whether I think the racial justice uprisings in 2020 did any lasting good, I always tell them about the state flag of Mississippi.

It was the last flag in the country to feature the Confederate battle flag emblem, and it stood as a monument to white supremacy. For 126 years it cast its long shadow over the state of Mississippi which also has the highest proportion of Black people of any state.

Then in 2020, lawmakers finally mustered the political will to take it down. Victory!

But there was a catch.

The new flag, by law, had to include the words, “In God we trust.”

No big deal, right? After all, that phrase is already on our money and we we pledge allegiance to “one nation under God.”

In the context of 2020 and the mandate to include “In God we trust” on the new state flag is a sign of white Christian Nationalism.

Want to know what I mean? Then listen to this conversation with me, Amanda Tyler of the BJC, and Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it: White Christian Nationalism is the greatest threat to the witness of the church in the United States today.

From celebrating the Fourth of July like a liturgical holiday to revering the Constitution as an almost divinely inspired document, broad swaths of Christians believe that promoting an unholy alliance between God and country is the best rule for faith and practice.

Thankfully scholars such as Jones and advocates such as Tyler use their skills and energy to help us understand the urgent issue of white Christian Nationalism and what to do about it.

This is my first event with Jones whose work I have long respected. He is the author most recently of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, and if you don’t already have it, you’ll want to grab it now. He also has a newsletter on Substack, #WhiteTooLong, so be sure to subscribe.

Also be sure to check out the most extensive and practical set of resources for understanding and addressing white Christian Nationalism that I’ve seen. It comes from Amanda Tyler’s organization, and it’s called “Christians and Against Christian Nationalism.”

What are your experiences with white Christian nationalism, whether in the church or beyond? Let me know in the comments.