Christian nationalists are still Christians despite their embrace of white supremacy and anti-democratic violence, academic Anthea Butler said during an episode of the Interfaith Alliance’s “State of Belief” podcast.
“They really believe in their Christianity. It’s just that they’re terribly wrong because they embraced the principle of nationalism, and they embraced it very harshly,” said Butler, chair of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania and author of White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality.
Anthea Butler
Christians Against Christian Nationalism defines the movement as a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to blend American and Christian identities in order to privilege white Christians in American politics and law.
“The threat of Christian nationalism is not new. But this movement, which promotes the idea that being a real American, it takes being a Christian, grows with dangerous intensity,” according to the organization, which is a project of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
Butler describes himself as “a little more pessimistic than most people” about the state and future of democracy, given the movement’s more recent social and political influence.
“We have to understand that we are living in a serious moment and these ideas about Christian nationalism have been around for a very long time, but they have been activated in some way by the massive embrace of Donald Trump and all the nefarious people who are present . that surrounds him,” she said.
“These ideas about Christian nationalism have been around for a very long time, but they have been activated in some way with this mass embrace of Donald Trump. »
Podcast Host and Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush noted that white Christians generally have difficulty seeing how deeply nationalist ideology is embedded in church history and theology.
Butler responded that black people have no problem seeing it because they have been the target of white Christian nationalism since the nation’s founding: “In this country, you don’t become a person of faith, a person of color , without noticing it. the sad ways in which the (Christian) message is distorted, and that what they say and what they do are two different things.
The fruits of Christian nationalism include centuries of global oppression, she added. “When you accept the message of Christianity, you also accept 2,000 years of history, some of which killed Muslims, killed Jews, trampled Native Americans, enslaved African Americans, and made Americans from of Asian origin are interned. I could go on, but if you really want to do history and tackle Christianity, you have to tackle all of that. We can’t blame just one party. »
Christian nationalism consists above all Butler accused Butler of taking history to pieces and distorting or concealing all evidence that challenges their belief that America was founded as a Christian nation. As an example, she cited Thomas Jefferson’s personal letter to the Danbury Baptist Association of Connecticut, emphasizing the importance of maintaining the United States as a nation free from entanglements between church and state.
“But we’re not paying attention to it and Christian nationalism is the best way to understand that we haven’t been paying attention to this message and the assumption is that this country is supposed to be a Christian nation and everyone could just do whatever you want.”
Raushenbush recommended Americans watch the recently released documentary God + Countrywhich includes an interview with Butler, to begin or continue their learning about the white supremacist movement in American politics and society.
“Your voice is so important in the film because of the way you talk about race and Christian nationalism. This is in some ways the foundation of the way you wrote White evangelical racism,” he said.
Butler said she wrote the book in 2020, but its publication came a few months after the January 6 insurrection.
The rationalization and justification of the attack by Donald Trump and his supporters illustrates how conservatives use Christianity as cover for white supremacist political goals, she added. “There has been an effort among evangelical historians to valorize evangelicalism in this country, to make this story a very beautiful story about our greatness. We wanted to get rid of abortion. We wanted to make sure that abolitionism happened. We have all done missionary work. We did all that, it’s true.
“What they overlook is the fact that they have whitewashed this whole history, and that this whitewashed history ignores that evangelicals were all for slavery, that the largest white denomination in this country, the Southern Baptist Convention, became a convention because of slavery. And you can’t ignore it.
“Don’t be surprised when evangelicals vote in droves for Donald Trump. They want whiteness.
Many Southern Baptists are unaware of the denomination’s history, said Raushenbush, who is a Baptist minister. “And they don’t want to know.”
The attempt to clean up this history continues in laws that prohibit the teaching of critical race and racism theory in public schools, Butler said. “You can look to the future and understand why states like Florida don’t want you to teach slavery. You must obtain permission to participate in Black History Month. This is because they don’t want you to know the truth about what happened.
And this aversion to the truth gets votes, Butler said. “So you’re not surprised when evangelicals vote in mass for Donald Trump. They want whiteness. And even though there are African Americans and other people of color, they want them to become culturally white. »
Persecution of the trans community is also a tactic used by Christian nationalists to distract from the injustice of their ideology, she added. “It’s not like (transgender people) aren’t there, but all of a sudden they’ve picked a particular issue and a particular group of people to smear, which is happening in a different way. “
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