Thanksgiving was last week, and the business/Christmas season is well underway (I think I saw displays of decorations in Home Depot before Halloween). In some Christian traditions, we are in the Advent Season. Important as these celebrations are, we must not be distracted from what continues to go on, perhaps under our very noses.
In my last column I observed that “The tectonic plates underlying our economic, social, and religious practices have been shifting for decades. One result is the creation of a great pool of men who are in despair, so much so that they are willing to follow a would-be dictator.”
One reason so many are in despair is that women’s roles and identities have changed drastically over the last century, but men’s have not. Women can be independent in a way they could not be a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago. But far too many men are stuck in the roles of protector and provider, largely stripped from them by the shifting culture.
In search of purpose and direction, many have embraced a muscular version of evangelical Christianity known as Christian nationalism. It equates American patriotism with evangelical Christianity; rejects religious pluralism; and sees no wall of separation between church and state. In its most lethal form, it justifies the use of violence to get its way, as seen in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In a way, it makes sense. If one has grown up in evangelical culture, the word “nation” has been prominent in both scripture and sermons. For example, in Genesis 12:2 God is depicted as saying to Abraham, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great”--part of the Covenant that bound Abraham’s offspring together.
Then there’s Isaiah 1:4, “Ah, sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, . . . who have despised the Holy One of Israel, who are utterly estranged!” God was angry with the Southern Kingdom of Judah in the 9th century BCE for their disobedience. Finally, there is the New Testament book of I Peter, likely written early in the second century of the Common Era: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people.” This time “nation” refers to those early followers of Jesus and not to the ancient Israelites.
Christian nationalism transfers the Biblical “nation” over to our nation, The United States of America. By a kind of linguistic slippage, the US then becomes “a holy nation, God’s own people,” and God is going to make of the United States a great nation that will be blessed by God. But when we fail to obey God, God will punish us.
Such a transfer of the Biblical “nation” to the current nation-state of The United States of America ignores that “nation” in the Old Testament (as in the passages cited above) refers to a tribe, the large extended family of Abraham and Sarah that is held together, not by politics or constitution, but by covenant relationship with God. The two “nations” have nothing in common, and the Hebrew historians and prophets were not referring to a country in North America two to three thousand years after they lived when they used the Hebrew word for “nation.”
But, of course, Christian nationalism looks very attractive to a segment of the male population that is seeking purpose and direction and who are steeped in this evangelical transfer of the term “nation.” When politicians come along equating American patriotism with evangelical Christianity (as the identity of the Israelites was centered on the worship of Yahweh), it makes sense.
It makes sense that hundreds of men forced their way into the halls of the Capitol shouting Hang Mike Pence and calling Where Are You, Nancy! It was God’s work, after all. Saving the nation. God demands obedience, and who were they to question God?
If the Christian nationalists had succeeded that day, the minority Christian nationalists would today be making laws for the rest of us to live by and would be undermining the Constitution and the democratic practices we have relied upon over two centuries to guide us to a more perfect union.
Dr. Conville is a professor of communication studies (ret.) and long-time resident of Hattiesburg. He can be contacted at rlconville@yahoo.com.
