To get the most recent and  thorough understanding of this thing we call white Christian nationalism, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to America, published in April this year should be just such a book, especially if you are interested in a smattering of academic sociology research surveys used to inform a deeper dive into the mindset of citizens participating in the surveys. Over a dozen graphed surveys using their "christian nationalist scale" are documented  by the authors Phillip S. Gorski, a  comparative historical sociologist and Professor of Sociology at Yale U., and Samuel L. Perry, an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma and a sociologist of American religion, race, politics, sexuality, and families. Packed into a mere 130 pages, the information density of the book is high, with the analysis of these plotted “binary regression models,” and tempered with a wealth of themes from political philosophy, many illustrated by current events. So high, in fact, that I found myself highlighting and bookmarking passages and pages at more than twice the frequency I am used to, any and all things “not to be missed, or forgotten,”  but unfortunately too numerous to get mentioned in this review, so I hope to convey the most important takeaways that I found that need sharing.

So what is  white Christian nationalism? The authors borrow a term from Arlie Russel Hochshild’s Strangers in Their Own Land—”deep story.”

 

“White Christian nationalism’s “deep story” goes something like this: America was founded as a Christian nation by (white) men who were “traditional” Christians, who based the nation’s founding documents on “Christian principles.” The United States is blessed by God, which is why it has been so successful; and the nation has a special role to play in God’s plan for humanity. But these blessings are threatened by cultural degradation from “un-American” influences both inside and outside our borders. Like any story, this one has its heroes: white conservative Christians, usually native-born men. It also has its villains: racial, religious, and cultural outsiders. The plot revolves around conflicts between the noble and worthy “us,” the rightful heirs of wealth and power, and the undeserving “them” who conspire to take what is ours. Sometimes, the conflicts culminate in violence—violence that restores white Christians to what they believe is their rightful place atop America’s racial and religious hierarchy. The heroes are those who defend the purity—and property—of the white Christian nation: with violence, when necessary.”

 

But this is pure myth, say the authors, given the diverse religions of deism and others present in the foundational era of the country, using  political ideas from The Enlightenment’s classical liberalism and civic republicanism borrowed from Athenian democracy, and, with the understated fact that “More than a little of the nation’s wealth and prosperity were derived from stolen land and slave labor.” And the authors point out that it is not just a matter of what it is, but also of what it should be: a Christian nation, “or at least a nation run by Christians.”

And why “White”? The myth was begun, built, and amended by first the original Anglo colonists (“we were here first”), and subsequent (mainly Protestant) theologians and other cultural factors; and like many myths has a Manichean theme of good versus evil, complete with heroes—themselves,  and villains—beginning with their combative cohabitants Native Americans and Black slaves. The list of villains evolves, as does that of who would be in the heroes column. “Secular” Christian nationalism may seem to be a contradiction in terms, but it is part of that evolution. Many that identify  with the concepts of the overarching movement are not particularly “religious” in practice. Gorski and Perry surmise the movement might better be labeled an “ethno-traditionalist” political movement rather than a predominantly Christian one. Andrew Seidel, in his debut study The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American refers to another of Perry’s studies that concludes “the single most accurate predictor of whether a person voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election was not religion, wealth, education, or even political party: it was believing the United States is and should be a Christian nation.” Gorski and Perry ask “Why would someone strongly affirm that the government should ‘advocate Christian values’ and yet support the use of torture or oppose gun regulations?.....and many of them don’t have an obvious connection to Christianity at all: There is no Commandment saying, “Thou shalt not wear a mask”. Identifying with white Christian nationalism is an especially effective political ploy to would-be aspirants to elected office in many regions of the country. You would think Donald Trump has run the batteries dead on this gadget politics by now, but the problem is, he hasn’t, and the remaining wattage available from it is being used by an increasing number politicians and would-be demagogues becoming actors in what now seems to be a self-fulfilling prophecy inherited from the nascent days of our republic. But some key metrics remain consistent through the years (and now centuries): racism, the struggle of good v. evil, persecution, hierarchy, patriarchy, redemptive and restorative violence, aversion to liberal democracy, messianism (the most recent savior, of course, being Trump),  and a quirky libertarianism.

The book addresses four basic questions outlined by the authors: What is white Christian nationalism, When did it emerge?  How does it work politically? and Where might it be headed tomorrow? They call it a “primer,” and based on its brevity, I guess you could call it that. But 130 pages of text followed by over 30 pages of notes, acknowledgements, and a comprehensive  index makes it a sourcebook that should serve any reader a wealth of ideas and references for some time. Or at least until it is banned, if a white Christian nation becomes a reality, which seems to become more of a possibility with each passing day’s news. The authors do give some answers as to minimizing these threats, and list some built-in Constitutional structures and laws of the Republic that would make it difficult to achieve, but…..

 

Marty Bankson reporting for The Humanist Advocate

August 13, 2022

 

1.  “Binary logistic regression models the relationship between a set of independent variables and a binary dependent variable. It’s useful when the dependent variable is dichotomous in nature, like death or survival, absence or presence, pass or fail and so on. Independent variables can be categorical or continuous, for example, gender, age, income or geographical region.” 

 

There is a church in the city of Bethlehem built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born called the church of Nativity. If you consult UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites, it will tell you that the church is located in Palestine. But when the question of its location came up during a round of Jeopardy in January 2020, the answer of one of the contestants who mentioned Israel set off something of internet firestorm.  

 

Today, evangelical Christians are the most politically powerful political bloc in the United States. And in the Trump administration, they’ve been given unprecedented power. They’ve turned support for Israel and hostility towards its enemies into core tenets of conservative ideology. And a big part of those policies is rooted in how they interpret the Bible. In 2016, more than a quarter of all US voters identified as white evangelical Christians. One of the primary differences between evangelicals and other Christians is their relationship with the Bible.

 

Conservative Evangelicals believe that the Bible is literally true. The majority of them believe that the Bible is sort of this prophetic roadmap of modern life, the events described and prophesied in the Bible will become true. For evangelicals, the most important of the Bible prophecies is the second coming, when Jesus will return to Earth. The Bible doesn’t say when it will happen, but it says where. Simply in Jerusalem. Greg Laurie is an evangelical preacher, one of several who meet regularly to advise President Trump. They’re the leaders of megachurches with tens of thousands of members. And many of them, including Greg Laurie, preach a belief called Christian Zionism, the idea that the return of Jewish people to Israel is one of a series of events that will trigger Jesus’s second coming.

 

According to this theology, God will save those who help Israel and punishes those who don’t. But let’s pause here. After the Holocaust, the United Nations divided up the then- British territory of Palestine, home to more than 1 million Arabs, into two states, giving Jews who had been persecuted in Europe a homeland. Over the next few decades, Israel fought multiple wars with its neighboring Arab states and seized much of the land that had been originally set aside for Palestinians. Evangelical Christians see that as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Ever since, groups like Hamas have been fighting against the Israelis trying to regain their legal territory. 

 

Esther saved the Jewish people by using her persuasion with the king. Evangelicals who are very wrapped up in this kind of theology, because Persia is modern day Iran, they contextualize this Bible story into foreign policies. Mike Pompeo approves of this interpretation of this biblical story.

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and vice president Mike Pence both identify as evangelical Christians. And both have enormous influence over America’s foreign policy. A ProPublica investigation found that Pence re-routed millions of dollars in foreign aid that has been earmarked for humanitarian projects in Iraq, diverting it towards Christian groups in the country. When President Trump approved the drone strike that killed Iran’s top military commander in January 2020, it was, according to the Washington Post, at Pompeo and Pence’s urging. When President Trump moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the move had more support from American evangelicals than American Jews. 

 

Judge Jennie Pirro compared Trump to King Cyrus, also a part of this Biblical prophecy. This evangelical support isn’t by any means an accident. After the administration—under the oversight of Jared-come-lately Middle East diplomat-expert/real estate heir/speculator/investor/son-in-law-Kushner put out a “peace plan” that would’ve given Israel unprecedented control over Palestinian land, the Christian Broadcast  Network interviewed Trump’s ambassador to Israel, who talked about opening the Bible and bringing it to life in many ways for those who are listeners. He also added that it is an opportunity for Biblical tourism that will grow and flourish in profound ways.* The networks coverage followed his lead. For evangelical Christians in America, the Bible isn’t just a foundational text, it’s a prophetic roadmap that tells the future and shapes the way we view the present.

 

And for an influential group of evangelicals, that motivates their support for a foreign policy that they see as affirming those prophecies, and a president who depends on their votes.**

 

 

Fidel Azazi  

Writing and Middle East Political Affairs Editor for The Humanist Advocate

Leap Day. February 29, 2020  

 

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*one of which is, of course, money—prophets for profits, if I may.—Ed.

**Perhaps getting more of these religious geopolitical misconceptions as questions (or is it answers?) by writers for Jeopardy, more people would get involved and protest the insanity of these end times predictions.—Ed. 

 

It has been over three years since Donald Trump was elected and Evangelicals can now claim to have the momentum practicing political power since  gaining a foothold in the administration of Ronald Reagan. America is witnessing an unprecedented political turnover in defining the very existence of the union. Despite the unconstitutionality of intertwining religion with politics, evangelical Christians have influenced many social policies the White House administration has passed since 2017. 

 

Despite not being a constitutionally religious republic, Donald Trump and allies have passed series of social policies that show a relation to  a strict doctrine from the unpacific version of Judaism and Christianity, from states that passed severe restrictions on abortion—to complete ban in states like Alabama, Louisiana, and Ohio; to private healthcare and insurance companies denying basic services and health coverage to same-sex couples. It shouldn’t be shocking to learn that Trump appointed Paula White as the spiritual advisor in the White House. The culture of theological radicalization has been standardized under an administration that has as a powerful platform unlike any of its predecessors. Donald Trump is popularizing the culture of conspiracy theories and an alternative reality platform that is very appealing to his ill-informed conservative white population in many suburban and rural communities. 

 

The practice of fear mongering in U.S. politics became an insult to the position of America itself worldwide. Evangelicalism is working effortlessly in Christianizing the nation at any cost, despite showing an increasing sign of its dysfunctional approach. At what cost does this appear? The answer is clear, the humanist community in the United States has become so weakened that all rational arguments related to secularism and the separation of church and state become dangerous blasphemies, blamed on the force of evil embodied in Satan.  

 

Also strengthening the conservatives, the liberal and left wing based critique has never been unified on a single socio-political platform that could unite their base, unlike the Republicans, who unified under a religiously motivated message—which has become  a commandment to vote for “candidate-whomever” their pastors tell them at Sunday’s church service. 

 Demotivation is symptomatic  of the Democratic base when it comes to political activism. It took the DNC until late 2019 to recognize the religiously unaffiliated, agnostic and atheist Americans as a major component of the fabric of their base, for example. Much of what happens seems to be in hindsight. 

Is suffering a God commandment? Are people without healthcare just another expression of God's will? Is humiliation part of the life journey, such that over 500 thousand people in the U.S. cannot get decent shelter? 

It is clear that conservatives with their message are working effortlessly to speed up the coming for the End of Days and the return of the Messiah so that they can get justification for practicing such political tribalism and institutionalized corruption. There is one motto that conservatives follow: “God is not a pacifist”;  and from there the justification for the brutal policies that are religiously fueled are rationalized. Is suffering a God commandment? Are people without healthcare just another expression of God's will? Is humiliation part of the life journey, such that over 500 thousand people in the U.S. cannot get decent shelter? 

 

The moral compass seems to have spun off its axis a long time ago for conservatives when they learned about catastrophes in the history of the violent version of the Christian god they worship. When six migrant children died in ICE detention facilities, Republicans defended ICE and blamed the parents for actively putting their children at risk. Ironically, no one has ever criticized America’s catastrophic foreign policy that supported the overthrow of democratically elected governments in central America— which had long-term left-leaning ideologies—and worked on installing dictatorships that favored America’s interests.

In the same argument, prominent televangelist of Texas Robert Jeffress stated in an interview that God commanded us to install a wall at the border to protect the nation from foreign invasions. In an interview for “Fox and Friends” in early 2019 Jeffress said “The Bible says even Heaven itself is gonna have a wall around it, not everybody is going to be allowed in. So, if walls are immoral, then God is immoral.”

 

The fact that the current theocratic-conservative movement, which has been in the making since before Ronald Reagan took office and appears not to be going away anytime soon, it wouldn’t be too far off the mark  to declare the defeat of the liberal movement in the past four decades despite small victories. It’s a trend we have been witnessing in traditionally democratic nations in Europe. Conservatives are aligning the elements of corporate capitalism, religion, and nationalism in one blend that has effectively crippled the United States over the past few decades. How? America has been transformed into a corporate haven and an aggressively consumerist market in the world that led to an effective decline of innovation. Also, the power of corporations is superseding that of the government where the former has privatized most  basic human rights like education and healthcare. Additionally, the promotion of the identity of the U.S. as a Christian nation energized the appeal of Christian nationalism, which is contradictory to the very foundational principle of the union. 

In a political culture of deception and manipulation, constituents have been successfully deceived about their own rights and the potential power they have in selecting transparent lawmakers who truly represent their political values. The current mechanism has led to the loss of the power where people once had control, and to the transitioning the political culture that was once the beacon of hope to the entire world.

Can the process be reversed, or even slowed down? The coming year is setting up to be  a watershed for the future of the promise of progress toward freedom and the shared and equal value of citizens of Planet Earth. We should have a better idea no later than 11 months from now.

 

 

Fidel Azazi

Local and International Viewpoint

The Humanist Advocate

December 21, 2019

 

 

 

It is not coincidental to assume that Donald Trump won the presidency by chance for being an outsider. This rhetoric of him being an anti-establishment person who managed to break the system in order to win over the White House isn’t by any means realistic. In fact, Donald J. Trump is part of the traditional establishment, the elitists,  who have been running the country for decades. And, regardless of the bogus methods he used accumulate his wealth, Trump is part of the 1% that have sabotaged the system for a long-time of course by advantaging of the wealth and power he inherited from his father Fred Trump. 

 

Trump benefited from an underestimated weapon that has been surfacing since Ronald Reagan and the emergence of religious right. This recipe that has been used by the religious right is known as Christian Nationalism, which paved the way to the Tea Party, the most conservative political movement in the modern history of the United States. This can be translated by the power of the election results in 2016 and 2018 elections.  In 2016 presidential election, Trump won the vote of the born-again Christians and Evangelicals by 81 percent and in 2018 midterm elections by 75 percent. The radical shift that the Republican base has taken since Reaganism is reflected by the irreversible social and cultural changes that have threatened the current status-quo since the Civil Rights Movement. 

 

The fever of such change has been translated into radicalizing the political rhetoric by the Conservatives who have survived the left-leaning administration under President Obama who is mostly credited for extending the civil rights.  As a reaction, the religious right allowed anger to dominate conversations over public media platforms and is now normalized to a level that the audience is jaded to the uncivil and vile rhetoric that was long deemed incorrect in previous political eras.  Christian Nationalism isn’t a new phenomenon. Regardless of the left-leaning influence the nation has taken since the New Deal era, the United States is still by far very Christian and very homogenous in its rural parts.

The left will be facing a new phase of modern conservatism that is no longer threatened by political correctness or empathy,  or even engaged by the mainstream tools of communication to appeal to its masses.

White America is still playing the major influence in the country’s policies and elections. This privilege that always dominated the political establishment, which is characterized by the White-European heritage, is slowly vanishing by the changing demographics of the nation and, as a result, political polarization has become standardized to resist the changes that  are reshaping the country. 

While it is too early to predict whether Trump will win re-election or not; and even if he is defeated by a classical establishment from the Democrats, his effect and influence in the political scene towards potential conservative leadership will be unprecedented. The left will be facing a new phase of modern conservatism that is no longer threatened by political correctness or empathy,  or even engaged by the mainstream tools of communication to appeal to its masses. Although winning the midterm elections in 2018 by a historic margin or 10 million votes, the Democrats will still face an aggressive beast that has redefined political leadership in Washington. 

 

The question is not will Trump be defeated or not? The real question is: How many Trumps will be unleashed after Donald J. Trump ends his potential two terms?

 

Fidel Azazi, Reporting for the Humanist Advocate.  July13, 2019