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White evangelicalism is a movement thoroughly entrenched in American nationalism, White supremacy, patriarchy, and xenophobia.
What I realized then, and have been processing ever since, is that the Christianity I converted to was as much about a particular myth of the United States as it was about the gospel of Christ. Scholars now call this “Christian nationalism.” I didn’t have the term to label it back then. In the decade after I departed the church in 2005, I identified how the American myth had twisted American evangelicalism into a tradition that prioritizes patriotism over compassion, national defense over loving one’s neighbor, and protecting the unborn more than loving anyone on earth.
Recent data shows that over 80 percent of White evangelicals are Christian nationalists, to some degree.
For Perry and Whitehead, Christian nationalism has three foundational components: the myth of the Christian nation, nostalgia for past glory, and an apocalyptic view of the nation’s future.
The prevailing idea among Christian nationalists such as Falwell, Hagee, and Graham is that as a Christian nation, the United States has a covenant with God that trades obedience and loyalty for protection and blessing. The nation’s perceived decline is, in their view, a result of the United States breaking its covenant with God.
In essence, “make America great again” is code for “make America White and Christian again.”
God, nation, freedom: the holy trinity in the Christian nationalist theological pantheon. What’s critical to notice in Goldwater’s approach is that the politics come first. The foundations of the belief system are not Christian love or neighborliness but individualism, capitalism, and Whiteness. The political shapes the theological to its needs, forming a Christianity in line with nationalist and racist priorities. Religion is the vehicle. Politics is the engine.
Schuller was teaching the prosperity gospel, a brand of Christianity that promises material and worldly blessings to those who obey God. According to this way of thinking, calamity, sickness, and even poverty are the result of a mix of disobeying God and not trying hard enough. Those who are blessed with material goods are seen as spiritual scions. Those who are not are seen as spiritual failures.
Christian nationalism is an ideology that sees the United States as a nation built for and by Christians.
White Christian nationalism adds a racial layer to the mix by claiming that White Christians deserve to be at the top of the racial, economic, and political hierarchies. They reserve the right to make decisions about schools, taxes, and elections even if they are the minority and even if their proposals are racist and exclusionary.
