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One of the hottest topics in the religion reporting world these days is the rise of Christian nationalism. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the topics I have the hardest time covering.
I struggle with Christian nationalism for a few different reasons. The biggest one is I can’t shake the sense that very few of my readers actually know what it means.
Dear readers, I’m not insulting your intelligence, I swear! My fear about misunderstanding stems from the fact that the concept of Christian nationalism arose from academia and is still more likely to be debated on college campuses than in the public square.
Thirty-five percent of U.S. adults have not heard the term “Christian nationalism,” according to new research from Public Religion Research Institute.
You might be thinking, “But Kelsey, isn’t it part of your job as a journalist to help people learn new things?” And you’d be right. But I find it very difficult to write about Christian nationalism in an approachable way, a way that invites people into the conversation rather than scaring them away.
Christian nationalism, you see, is a catch-all term for a complex web of intertwined beliefs. It refers to a worldview held by those who believe, among other things, that the U.S. is meant to be a Christian nation and that being Christian is part of being truly American. It can lead adherents to be skeptical of immigrants and non-Christians, people who are seen to threaten the traditional American way of life.
But what I’ve realized in my research into Christian nationalism is that not all people who hold Christian nationalist beliefs are created equal. For example, some folks who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation really do mean the laws should be based on Christian teachings, while others simply want citizens to share a passion for pursuing the common good.
“Some people who say the U.S. should be a Christian nation are thinking about the religious makeup of the population; to them, a Christian nation is a country where most people are Christians. Others are simply envisioning a place where people treat each other well and have good morals,” explained experts from Pew Research Center in a recent report on Christian nationalism.
For this reason, offering a textbook definition of Christian nationalism doesn’t accomplish very much. You also need to offer an explanation of where the associated beliefs can lead and how that threatens important American ideals, like religious freedom.
That work is important, and I’m glad many of my journalistic colleagues are passionate about covering today’s Christian nationalism-related trends. But I’m still struggling to figure out what I can offer to the conversation. As it stands, my stories that touch on Christian nationalism are usually hampered by my fear that I’ll explain something wrong or overwhelm people with lots of (probably boring) caveats.
It would be helpful to know what questions you have about this complicated topic and what you’ve read about it in the past. Maybe my assumptions are all wrong, and I should be writing much more often about Christian nationalism’s impact on politics today.
Tell me: What does Christian nationalism mean to you? Have you heard this term before? Your answers might be featured in a future newsletter.
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Watch: The NFL’s best kid reporter just prayed with Derek Carr
Person of the week: Pauli Murray
The Rev. Pauli Murray was a civil rights activist, attorney, author and religious leader. She was the first Black woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church.
Next year, the U.S. Mint will honor the Rev. Murray and three other women by putting their faces on quarters. The other honorees include an abolitionist and the “queen of salsa.”
Although I’d heard of the Rev. Murray before the U.S. Mint announced its new quarters, I hadn’t realized how big of a role she played in the development of civil rights law. An Episcopal News Service article about her forthcoming quarter noted that, “Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights attorney who later became a Supreme Court justice, ... called Murray’s book on segregation laws ‘the bible of the civil rights movement.’”
What I’m reading ...
Ahead of the Super Bowl, my friend Holly Meyer, an editor for The Associated Press, offered a fascinating look at the history of religion-related Super Bowl commercials.
Meanwhile, Lifeway Research wrote about surprising times when church Super Bowl parties got congregations in trouble with the law. These days, churches are allowed to host viewing parties for the Super Bowl, but they can’t charge admission, among other restrictions, the article said.
In non-Super Bowl news, here’s what Black and white congregations in Maryland have learned from worshipping together, according to The Washington Post.
Odds and ends
The Supreme Court has announced that it will hear oral arguments in Groff v. DeJoy, a case about how far employers must go to accommodate religious workers, on Tuesday, April 18.
Speaking of the Supreme Court, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty recently filed a request for the justices to hear a case involving a church-run school that’s been sued by a former employee for racial discrimination. Here’s a tweet thread about the battle.