Patriotism as Salvation: The Political Theology of White Christian Nationalism

Abstract

In July of 2022, U.S. Representative Majorie Taylor Greene, Republican representative of Georgia’s fourteenth congressional district, declared “I’m a Christian, and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists,” (Golgowski, 2022). She is not alone in this declaration. Several members of the far right coalition of the Republican Party have either explicitly identified themselves as Christian nationalists or implicitly aligned themselves with the Christian right. Utilizing contemporary critical theory, I examine the Christian nationalist movement as a sociopolitical and cultural movement, which sits at an intersection of American Christian masculinity, white supremacist theology, and capitalist prosperity gospel. Professor of religious studies Dr. Anthea Butler said it best: “Jesus said, ‘By their fruits you shall know them.’ Evangelical fruit – the results of evangelicals’ actions in civic life – today is rotten.” (2021, 145). The patriotism inherent in white Christian nationalism conflates the love of God to the love of the state, and questioning one is an assault on the other. The expansion of civil rights and liberties to non-white, non-Christian individuals is an assault on white Christian nationalists’ God-given right to lord over the rest of the world. This dangerous and insidious sociopolitical movement is a threat to American democracy.