Focus on 'Christian nationalism' is 'smokescreen,' real threat is 'neo-Marxism,' Christian scholars say

The Christian Post ^ | October 29, 2022 | Ryan Foley

[Perseverando]

As media attention on "Christian nationalism" looms large in American politics heading into the 2022 midterms, Christian scholars this week debated the definition of the term and whether the increased media focus is an attempt to intimidate Christians from sharing their values in the public square.

The Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University held a debate Thursday titled "Is Christian Nationalism a Threat to America?"

Luige DelPuerto, the editor of Colorado Politics in The Denver Gazette, moderated a discussion between Centennial Institute Director Jeff Hunt, whose organization hosts a prominent annual conservative summit, and Scott Wasserman, the president of the left-leaning think tank Bell Policy Center.

The debate comes as a new Pew Research poll released this week finds that 45% of Americans think the United States should be a "Christian nation," compared to 51% who don't believe the U.S. should be a "Christian nation."

While Americans may be divided on whether America should be a Christian nation, they hold differing opinions about what that phrase means.

While nearly a third of respondents (31%) stated that they don't know what Christian nationalism means, 34% of respondents and 48% of those who think the U.S. should be a Christian nation said Christian nationalism means the country is "guided by Christian beliefs/values."

Nearly a third of respondents who don't think the U.S. should be a Christain nation believe the term means the country is run by "Christian-based laws/governance," and 21% said Christian nationalism is defined by negative attributes like "bigotry, authoritarianism, white supremacy."

"I've got a lot of questions about what Christian nationalism is," Wasserman, who identifies as Jewish, said. "Over the past year or so, we have seen the emergence of politicians — notably Marjorie Taylor Greene as well as Congresswoman Lauren Boebert — speak very overtly about this

[Perseverando]

Can we all agree that America (for the most part) has rejected God's mercy, and has turned to other gods? Therefore God is not happy with America.

Though the following scripture was addressed to Israel, I believe it is very much applicable to America, and the rest of the world even today:

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14

[MeganC]

There is no “Neo-Marxism”.

There is only Godless, genocidal Marxism.

[cuban leaf]

The kingdom of which we are members is not of this earth. We won’t have a “Christian nation” on this planet until the Lord returns.

[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps I live under a rock. And I won't say that I have never heard of "Christian Nationalism" -- but am not really aware of this idea. It seems to me that it may primarily exist in the minds of Liberals who wish to use it as a whipping boy of sorts. I suppose I agree with the article, but it seems to me that it's more straight-forwards to simply say "Marxism is the problem" and not even bother with "Christian Nationalism isn't the problem".

[No name given]

When Jesus returns, things will be better than ever before.

[jjotto]

Most European countries have government established Christian churches. Are they all Christian nationalists?

Is Jewish nationalism OK? How about Hindu nationalism?

[ConservativeInPA]

Christian nationalism is proffered by the left and media as being some kind of inherent evil. Most of us probably relate Christianity with morality. MAGA is a movement that encompasses others that are not Christians, but share a common morality. Thus, a good substitute for Christian in Christian nationalism is ‘moral’, as in moral nationalism. MAGA is definitely about nationalism. It is making America great. It’s about American exceptionalism. It’s about striving to be one’s best. So there is no need to change ‘nationalism’. We can be clearer by saying we are Moral Nationalists.

You know what that makes the left … amoral anti-American freaks. Just look at all the transgender crap they are pushing, all the racism with CRT, no consequences for crimes, cashless bail, releasing murderers from prison, murdering innocent unborn babies and in some cases just born babies. Just yesterday, Paul Pelosi was off on a gay tryst. They are amoral freaks.

Please keep calling us Christian Nationalists. When we hear that we’ll think normal, moral, Americans striving to be our best. Wear this label with your head held high, but not with pride. Pride is a sin.

[GaryCrow]

There’s no such thing as “Christian Nationalism”. It’s just the latest manufactured buzzword phrase designed to try and paint Christians in a negative light by globalist leftists.

[BuchananBrigadeTrumpFan]

Nationalism is just favoring/supporting/defending your country over others. It’s what she might call patriotism.

The left is just continuing their endless effort to pervert the vernacular by trying to turn Christian into a pejorative.

[right way right]

Yes to what you said.

I also think of what God about Sodom and Gommorah about what he would not do for the sake of very few righteous people.

He did do it in the end because there were zero righteous people left in those cities.

Just something to ponder.

The bible is reflective as well as historical.

[ClearCase_guy]

I get that.

I see “Christian” and “Western Civilization” and “Judeo-Christian” as all largely the same cultural trend. IMO it’s the best the world has come up with and provides freedom and tolerance and productivity. It’s good in every way. If someone is an actual Churchgoer, then that’s even better. By all means, be a good Christian who believes that Jesus is your savior. I do. But even apart from the terribly important spiritual aspect, this broad notion of Christian or Western Civilization is nothing to turn one’s nose up at.

And then Nationalism. That’s used to be standard too. Love your country. Love your neighbor. We’re all in this together, and we should support our country. What’s wrong with that?

So, yes — these people seem to be taking two very good things and turning them into some sort of pejorative: “Christian Nationalism”. I guess that’s supposed to be yucky.

[livius]

I think “neo-Marxism” means Marxism that is expressed in fuzzier, softer terms more acceptable to moderns.

It’s still the same old Marxism, call it what you will.

[Perseverando]

I think their problem may be a lack of proper education, instead of the marxist indoctrination they received:

SEPARATION CHURCH & STATE

Was the U.S. Constitution ratified by "Christian" states?

Same week Congress approved First Amendment, it requested Washington declare Nation's first National Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God

Treaty of Tripoli, & the confusion surrounding it explained in four points

First Things First: Religious Freedom! How Baptists influenced Jefferson on Separation of Church & State

Jefferson on Govt. Censorship, Coercion, & Molesting for Religious Opinions: Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom & How Courts violated Freedom of Conscience

"'Wall of Separation,' a phrase nowhere to be found in the Constitution"-Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart

War on Prayer by Atheists, Socialists, & Communists: It is Legal to Pray in School (Voluntarily!) & the danger of socialism in public education

Presidents Acknowledged God in Inaugural Addresses

Senator Byrd-God acknowledged in the U.S. Capitol; Reagan "From the early days of the American colonies, prayer in schools was revered as an important tradition"

Why "So Help Me God"?: The Purpose of an Oath

Presidents & Churches they attended

"America, America, God Shed His Grace On Thee ..." 50 States acknowledged God "from sea to shining sea"

FRENCH REVOLUTION & NAPOLEON

Bastille Day, Reign of Terror, French Revolution's "liberté, égalité, fraternité"

Early History of Yale College, & Its 8th President, Timothy Dwight, who exposed Voltaire's anti-Christian agenda for France

James Monroe, 5th President "When the people become ignorant & corrupt ... they become the willing instruments of their own ruin"

"People have an Incontestable Right to Check the Creatures of their Own Creation"- Mercy Otis Warren, & her brother James Otis

Government Intolerable Acts, Dr. Joseph Warren, & the Suffolk Resolves

Edmund Burke on French Revolution "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

Founding Influences, particularly the Three Eras of Masons

How Napoleon Rearranged Global Politics

The Louisiana Territory, the Haitian Slave Rebellion that convinced Napoleon to sell it, & Napoleon's final spiritual reflections

Cinco de Mayo preceded by Dos de Mayo, Spain, Napoleon, Mexico, Maximillian, & Juárez

"DUTY is ours; results are God's"-Admiral Horatio Nelson

EARLY AMERICAN REPUBLIC

John Quincy Adams: Anti-Slavery Champion, His Lifetime of Public Service, Guided by Bible

The Man without a Country: The political ambition of Aaron Burr & his fall from Vice-President to treason

Noah Webster & his 1828 Webster's Dictionary: "The Christian religion is the most important & one of the first things in which all children ought to be instructed"

Ancient Hebrew education, Noah Webster's Dictionary, & Public School Code, 1915 "The Holy Bible shall be read ... at the opening of each and every school day"/a>

Before CRT - McGuffey's Readers sold a Million Copies a Year for 120 Years! "The Ten Commandments are basic"; "Pray to God to keep you from sin & harm"

Tennessee's interesting History, Heritage, & Faith

[livius]

Yes, I agree. The only established state churches, btw, exist in the UK and a couple of other minor places. I think Russia may have reestablished the Orthodox Church, but I’m not entirely sure that it’s a state church in the full sense.

However, one thing you could say about Christianity is that it has always been opposed to the state. In its bad times, it’s been in alliance with the state, but sometimes in its good times, this has also been true.

And sometimes, being the state church worked out well for Christianity. For example, the Spanish royal expeditions to the New World were required to provide priests and missionaries to bring Christianity to the population of this unknown place...and one thing Columbus, Ponce de Leon and Pedro Menendez all said about the Indians was that they were fully human in every way. Thus, they could be converted and baptized.

Prior to that, nobody knew that part of the world and the speculations ran amok. My favorite was the “monopods,” a big foot hopping around with an eye on top. This was a common feature in some mediaeval descriptions of the world.

So if you were a created human, you could make it to being a saved (and thus immortal) human, thanks to the state sponsored missionary activities.

But then there were the conflicts, and the problem over time is that the churches have gotten more and more accommodating to state control.

So they no longer defend humanity. Christians surely should do this, since we have the only real anthropology and understanding of what it means to be humans. But all of the Christian churches - including, alas, the Catholic Church, which should be the bedrock of the Christian Faith - have ceded their authority to the state.

This was particularly visible during the “shutdown,” when almost all of the churches, Catholic or Protestant, abandoned their people and shut down or went virtual.

Interestingly, I’m seeing that the ones that refused to do this are blossoming now.

And they’re being called “Christian nationalists.”

[hopefullamerican]

So I’ve been spending my weekends handing our flyers, knocking on doors for Republican candidates and I can tell you people in my district have defiantly heard of christian nationalism.

I have been told straight out that some people will NOT be voting for a Republican because they fear a theocratic style government. Folks use the term christian taliban when they are responding to the question of why they might not vote for a self-identified christian candidate.

I have worked neighborhoods that are a mix of voters so I have heard both sides responses to this country’s issues. And in many cases people are not that far apart as to what they want our politicians to focus on going forward. And I have not had anyone talk about marxism or communisiam as far as what political partys platforms are.

[Valin]

Two Wolves of Christian Nationalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=123ccXk3O8Q
The New Discourses Podcast with James Lindsay, Episode 114