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

by Philip S. Gorski

So, we should not be too surprised if white Christian nationalism has changed over time in order to defend and restore racial, rel, and political hierarchies. As we have seen, it has taken many different forms since it first emerged over three centuries ago. For the first few centuries, “white” meant English, then native-born whites; “Christian” meant Protestant. And “others” included anyone falling outside those overlapping categories. Following World War II, it evolved into “colorblind,” “Judeo-Christian,” “American exceptionalism.” Whiteness became defined mainly in opposition to Blackness; Christianity was widened to include Catholics and Mormons and hyphenated to include (some) Jews, or at least so as not to seem anti-Semitic. And America became defined as a “global superpower” destined to oversee the “international order,” which is to say, its own empire.