The Flag and the Cross Quotes

“This question rests on two misconceptions. The first is that contemporary white Christian nationalism is “conservative.” It is not. It is “reactionary.” It does not seek to preserve the status quo. Rather, it seeks to destroy the status quo and return to a mythical past: to “make America great again.” The second misconception is that reactionary movements are themselves unchanging. They are not. As political theorist Corey Robin argues, such movements are only averse to one kind of change: change that threatens their power.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“White Christian nationalism is our term for the ethno-traditionalism among many white Americans that conflates racial, religious, and national identity (the deep story) and pines for cultural and political power that demographic and cultural shifts have increasingly threatened (the vision).”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“For white Americans who affirm Christian nationalist ideology, “true Americans” aren’t just natural-born white citizens who identify with conservative Christianity on, say, issues like abortion or transgender rights. Rather there is another aspect of what it means to be “truly American” that gets entangled in the conservative Christian identity: libertarian, free-market capitalism.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Donald Trump and his most zealous followers have already made their decision: they have rejected America’s experiment in multiracial democracy in favor of white Christian nationalism. Whether they are successful is up to the rest of us.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Audiences cheered Trump’s “honest” talk about “shithole countries,” “pig’s blood,” and “banging heads.” Not since George Wallace had a presidential candidate spoken this way. Not since Woodrow Wilson had such an outspoken racist occupied the White House.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“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.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Once we account for Christian nationalism in our statistical models, white Americans who attend church more often, pray more often and consider religion more important are less likely to prioritize the economy or liberty over the vulnerable.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Even as it’s become riskier for mainstream politicians to use negative dog whistles like “thug” or “welfare queen,” the word “Christian” remains the right’s most effective signal to white conservatives that “our values,” “our heritage,” “our way of life,” and “our influence” are under attack, and “we” must respond. Christianity and American-ness are both raced.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“It’s not that Christian nationalists have a different understanding of American history; it’s that they often have an incorrect understanding.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“White Christian nationalism is a “deep story” about America’s past and a vision of its future. It includes cherished assumptions about what America was and is, but also what it should be.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Here before his Christian Right audience, Weyrich explained the strategy: our group stays in power if fewer people—especially our opponents—are able to vote. The policy implication is clear: make it harder for “problem” populations to vote, or at least don’t make it easier.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“shows that this is largely driven by the merging of Republican and evangelical identities, so that when Americans are asked whether they’re “evangelical,” they increasingly read this not as a question about their theological beliefs, but whether they identify with the Republican Party.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“It should be little surprise that by the middle 2000s, one of the strongest predictors that white Americans affirm Christian nationalist ideology is their confidence that literal Rapture and Armageddon events will take place, in which the faithful are caught up to be with Jesus followed by a war of God’s faithful against “the Beast” of Revelation”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“Contemporary conservatives often make Roe v. Wade the turning point in the story. In this account, the Religious Right emerged out of opposition to abortion. But the facts don’t really fit that story particularly well. Conservative white Protestants did not become pro-life until the late 1970s. Before that, Protestants were divided on the question and abortion was seen as a “Catholic” issue. The rightward turn of white evangelicals actually began a quarter-century earlier with another Supreme Court case: Brown v. Board of Education. The political architects of the Religious Right—Paul Weyrich and Richard Viguerie—were quite clear on this point. Opposition to racial integration was the real catalyst for the rise of the Religious Right.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“A great deal. Christian clergy sometimes participated in lynchings or even gave them their blessings. And the racial terrorists of the KKK were not just anti-Black racists. They purported to defend the supremacy of white Protestants against Catholics and Jews as well.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“The result was the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny.” White Americans were still a chosen people. But their task was not just to build a “city on a hill” in New England but to “civilize” an entire continent. Their westward movement was part of a divine plan.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

“White Christian nationalism is one of the oldest and most powerful currents in American politics. But until the insurrection, it was invisible to most Americans. It was invisible to most conservative white Christians, because for decades it has been the water they swim in and the air they breathe.3 It was invisible to most secular progressives, because they live in a bubble of their own in which white Christian nationalism seems “fringe” rather than mainstream. But that bubble was burst on January 6, 2021, by the white-hot rage of pro-Trump insurrectionists.”
― Philip S. Gorski, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy