Local community members and stakeholders gathered Thursday at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas to address what many see as a growing threat in North Texas and across the country: Christian nationalism .
The event included a presentation by Rev. Pamela Cooper-White, a licensed psychotherapist and Episcopal priest, based on her book. The psychology of Christian nationalism: why people are drawn to it and how to speak across the divide.
“I believe we are at a pivotal moment in the American experiment with democracy, and also in the very character of American Christianity,” Cooper-White said.
The tenets of Christian nationalism, she said, include that God established the United States as a Christian nation and therefore it should be governed by conservative Christian ideals.
Cooper-White cited statistics from a Public Religion Research Institute survey of Christian nationalismwhich finds that 27% of all Americans at least mostly agree with “that the U.S. government should declare America a Christian nation” and 38% at least mostly agree with “if the United States United move away from our Christian foundations, we will no longer have a country.”
She also outlined four motivations that she believed led people to embrace Christian nationalist ideas. They include the desire for belonging and purpose, white people’s fear of a loss of privileged social status, fear of a loss of patriarchal authority, and the lure of conspiracy theories.
“Trump has tapped into a deep and vast reservoir of resentment and paranoia that has been building for decades – a large pool of Christians who feel persecuted and called by God to rise up and defend themselves against their enemies,” a- she declared.
Cooper-White ended her speech by describing how to have conversations with those who believe in Christian nationalism.
“If you take one thing away from tonight, it’s that argument doesn’t work,” she said. “The only way to begin such a conversation is to show respect and listen, not to jump on an error in thinking or immediately try to “enlighten” or “cure” them.
Cooper-White’s presentation followed a panel discussion with Cooper-White, Rabbi Nancy Kasten and Amanda Tyler. It was moderated by Reverend George Masona prominent Dallas pastor, now retired, who founded the local interfaith group Faith Commons.
Tyler, who runs an organization called Christians against Christian nationalism, said his group recently hired a North Texas organizer to begin mobilizing people against the ideology. She described the group’s efforts to fight the Texas law that took effect in May. allow school districts to place unlicensed chaplains in schools and the growing pressure for school voucher programs.
“An estimated 70 percent of private schools in Texas are religiously affiliated,” Tyler said. “So, what do you think will be the result if we divert our tax dollars away from non-sectarian public schools and invest in private education, including home schooling?
Those who worry that school vouchers could “aid and abet a Christian nationalist agenda,” she said, can call their state and local representatives and encourage them to vote against the school voucher policy.
Kasten, relations manager at Faith Commons, said she was educated in public schools in Massachusetts and was raised to believe she was “equal to any other American of any other religion “.
“The rise of Christian nationalism threatens everything that has made my life possible, especially the public school education I received. »
After the event, Wendy Fenn, a 71-year-old Oak Cliff resident and retired Presbyterian minister, said she attended because “I’ve been so exposed to Christian nationalism that it makes me very fear”.
“It’s just not the Christianity I know.”
Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.
