The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

by Philip S. Gorski

We define white Christian nationalism and identify white Christian nationalists using a constellation of beliefs. These are beliefs that, we argue, reflect a desire to restore and privilege the myths, values, identity, and authority of a particular ethnocultural tribe. These beliefs add up to a political vision that privileges that tribe. And they seek to put other tribes in their “proper” place. White Christian nationalism is nationalist because it rejects pluralism and what many on the right call “globalism.” It expresses a desire for national unity and international power. But unity around what? And power for whom? Unity around what political scientist Eric Kaufmann calls “ethno-traditionalism,” a national myth that blurs distinctions between culture and race with talk of “Christian heritage and values.”2 And power for whites. Because when some whites—many whites, in fact—hear the words “Christian” and “American,” they think of “people who look and think like us.” A truly Christian nation, in their view, would celebrate and privilege the sacred history, liberty, and rightful rule of white conservatives, tolerating “others” at best; enslaving, expelling, or exterminating them at worst. This is the root of the massive resistance of some whites to removing Confederate statues or to teaching about racism in American history—to impugn the racial history of the nation is to dispute the chosenness and fundamental goodness of white Christians. When the QAnon Shaman thanked his ...