This is a really quick update to the first blog post about this subject. Delving into the subject in Google has turned up quite a bit more stuff, and whilst this post will be shorter than the last one, the additional information is really pertinent to this topic. Firstly, Ed Stetzer of Wheaton College has really hit the nail on the head when he questions the whole basis of Christian nationalism, suggesting that it is very easy for its proponents to lead people into an idolatrous worship of the American nation or the president, rather than God. Stetzer followed up this viewpoint with a commentary on the Charlottesville protests in mid-2017, when he questioned why so few Christians had criticised POTUS 45 who initially appeared to endorse white supremacists.
Activism site ThinkProgress also contributed a three part series at about the same time as Stetzer, doubtless in response to the same events, as Christian nationalism was thrown sharply into the spotlight as a result of the mixed messages coming from Trump’s evangelical supporters. The first part took a look at the roots of CN in the Moral Majority of the 1970s, which in turn is allied with dominionism and other similar theological heresies. The second article looked at the historical roots of CN in US history, starting with the huge misstep over Charlottesville, and alluded to the cult of Trump amongst his evangelical champions. The post went on to make a less than flattering comparison with church backing for Hitler in Nazi Germany, and whilst things were very different then, there is one quite obvious parallel, and that is the way in which Christian nationalists in the US have been quick to advocate for the Trump campaign to try any means possible to overcome the democratically held elections for the 46th president, which has key similarities with the way the Nazis suspended and then abolished elections in Germany. The last of the three parts took a more indepth look into Christian nationalist beliefs and found people who voted for Trump on the basis of his CN platform held very black and white views on a number of subjects, implying that CN was closely tied with other conservative movements in the US that held more extreme viewpoints such as racial segregation.
What’s been in the news for the last three days is that ardent Christian nationalist Pat Robertson has been on CNN telling Trump to move on. Gradually most of Trump’s most ardent supporters have been caving in to the inevitable but there are still a few diehard standouts, whilst Trump himself is pushing for a last ditch effort on January 6 when Congress must receive the votes from the Electoral College. However, as the Think Progress articles point out, there will eventually be a point at which the CN people will ditch Trump and look for a new champion to continue their campaign, and it may be that this is all that is really happening, rather than that they have backed down on their campaign in the face of the election loss. Robertson’s comments were carried on the Charisma Magazine website alongside a continuing stream of articles urging believers to continue praying for the election outcome to be overturned.