Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism
Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism? Where is it? A close read of the document will show that it’s just not there.
My Patheos and Facebook reader friends criticized my recent post, PT 3244 No Threat of Christian Nationalism, for failing to perceive a commitment to American Christian Nationalism (ACN) at the Republican National Convention (RNC) July 15-18, 2024. My critics said: “It’s there. But it’s hidden. Go read Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism.” So, I read Project 2025, looking for ANC. I could not find it there either.
Project 2025 for the Democratic Party
Because I’m a lapsed futurist – President Ronald Regan took away our future so I’ve been maudlin ever since – I applaud the accomplishment of Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. This is the kind of document a futurist dreams about. This document provides an astonishingly thorough blueprint for future reform of American government, morality, and culture. If only the Democrats in 2023 would have had the integrity and foresight to have produced a comparable design for the next presidency! Is this party’s failure to plan in effect a plan to fail?
So, alas, I have a recommendation for the Democratic Party: adopt the equivalent of Project 2025 as the Democratic agenda but simply reverse each policy this conservative document advocates. Except one. That’s religious liberty. Embrace religious liberty.
Project 2025 on Religious Liberty
As I was combing through Project 2025, my comb did not clog with ACN gnats or lice. In contrast, the comb’s teeth bit into support for religious freedom. Accordingly, the next administration should…
“… champion the core American value of religious freedom, which correlates significantly with poverty reduction, economic growth, and peace …. [and] strengthen … relationships with local faith-based leaders; and build on local programs that are serving the poor” (Heritage 2023, 262).
One surprising assumption at work here is that the exercise of religious liberty has surplus value—that is, religious freedom reduces poverty. I don’t get the logic. But this seems to be what is declared.
We should note one other item included here in religious liberty, namely, the freedom to take a stand on the basis of religious belief toward matters such as “marriage, gender, and sexulaity”(Heritage 2023, 586). By removing existing federal mandates on these cultural issues, people of faith will regain the right to express that faith in the workplace. Does this suggest a loss of protection from discrimmination against LGBTQ+ persons? Yes, it does.
Particularly worrisome is the dismantling of DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) initiatives within Project 2025’s dismantling of federal support and oversight of education. “Under the veil of school choice the expansion of charter schools, voucher systems that promise greater educational outcomes for students, particularly low-income students, but always fall short.” This according to the Daily Beast. For progressive Christian believers, DEI is a religious issue. But it does not portend ACN theocracy.
What is obvious to anyone informed on the subject is this: religious freedom and ACN theocracy are incompatible systems. So let’s ask: what is the specific stand of Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism? It’s clear that it supports religious liberty over against ACN.
Recall from my previous post how even Franklin Graham at the RNC defended religious liberty with no mention of ACN.
If, as my critics suggest, ACN is present though hidden at RNC and Project 2025, where is it hiding? And why would it hide? If ACN is actually the MAGA Mania plan, one would expect it to be trumpeted both at RNC and Project 2025. But it’s been replaced by religious liberty.
Is the Republican Party religious?
If we affirm that the Republican Party is religious, American Christian Nationalism is certainly not the right name for its religion. It is more accurate to describe MAGA Mania as a cult of personality. Like other cults, the cult leader connects heaven with earth ( as the shaman or axis mundi ) and demands absolute authority. And like certain periods of the ancient Roman empire, the emperor is thought to be divinely appointed. Certainly, the visual effects of the RNC with “Trump” engulfed in ethereal light back staged with the imperious pillars of government connoted a transcendent validation of this ruler.
This is the fabricated religion of Trumpism. It is not ACN.
Anti-ACN is a smokescreen for Anti-Evangelicalism
Why do scholars insist against evidence to the contrary that America is on the brink of Christian theocracy? Here is my tentative hypothesis: anti-evangelicals are taking advantage of the Trump controversy to stimulate widespread public fear of, and anger against, evangelical Christianity. Many fear mongers are themselves ex-evangelicals or progressive Protestants.
Note the slight of hand in anti-evangelicalism. Critics announce that they are going to inform us about Christian nationalism. But then, like a magician, they substitute complaint after complaint against evangelicals.
Here’s an example within the Patheos family of columnists. In his post, “Kierkegaard and Christian Nationalism,” Eric Scott leads the reader to think he’s going to critique ACN. But he quickly substitutes a diatribe against evangelicals.
“Evangelicalism is built upon the irrational …. It’s for this reason that Christian nationalism continues to grow. Since Christian nationalists believe God is on their side it’s not a far leap for them to be irrational as a result. This is because in their mind it is God who is orchestrating certain events or ideas …. we can help evangelicals understand that their Christian nationalism subverts the Gospel when they are largely unequipped to even see the problem.”
If you abhor ACN, then blame the evangelicals! That’s what this author tells us. It’s simple. But it’s misleading.
Theocracy versus Religious Liberty
Now let me try to unravel some entangled spaghetti. Up until this point I have treated Christian nationalism and religious liberty as mutually exclusive. But, this is not how an ACNer views it. Here is ACNer David Wilson reminding us that it was Baptist Roger Williams who gave America it’s religious liberty. Might we count Baptist Roger Williams among the evangelicals? Mmmmm? Here’s Christian Nationalist David Wilson.
So when they say, “If you Christians get in control and create a Christian social order, religious liberty of conscience is going to evaporate,” I say, “Look, you guys, we invented those things.” Liberty of conscience is a reformed Protestant Christian value, and it took root in the West because of us.”
So, the Christian Nationalist right along with the Anti-Christian nationalist together affirm religious liberty. Did I get that right?
But this confusing theological spaghetti is put on our plate by Anti-Christian Nationalists who describe Christian Nationalism as opposed to religious liberty. Did I get that right?
Conclusion
How should we conclude? If you abhor both the doctrinal planks of American Christian Nationalism and Donald Trump’s MAGAism, I recommend you not displace your anger elsewhere. Stay on target. Don’t blame either Christian Nationalists or your evangelical neighbors for Trump’s MAGAism. They’re not all the same.
The real threat to the American way of life is Donald Trump and the MAGA Mania wing of the Republican Party. I recommend we counter this threat directly, actively, and truthfully. I recommend we not divert our energies during this election cycle into fighting against evangelical Christianity under the banner of Anti-Christian Nationalism.
Finally, my advice to the Democratic Party. Adopt the equivalent of Project 2025 as the Democratic agenda but simply reverse each policy this conservative document advocates. Except one. That’s religious liberty. Embrace religious liberty.
Post-Script
According to the Daily Beast, the Trump presidential campaign has disavowed a connection with Project 2025. The project “backfired politically,” because it drew so many critics of “its extremist proposals that would demand fealty from federal workers, promote Christian nationalism, and overhaul policies from abortion to civil liberties.”
PT 3246 Project 2025 on Christian Nationalism
Christian Nationalism Resources
A More Compassionate America? Trump Tyranny
Reading Passages from the New Trump Bible
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For Patheos, Ted Peters posts articles and notices in the field of Public Theology. He is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus professor at the Graduate Theological Union. His single volume systematic theology, God—The World’s Future, is now in the 3rd edition. He has also authored God as Trinity plus Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society as well as Sin Boldly: Justifying Faith for Fragile and Broken Souls. He recently published. The Voice of Public Theology, with ATF Press. See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com and Patheos blog site on Public Theology.
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References
Heritage. 2023. Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://static.project2025.org/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf, Washington DC: Heritage Foundation.
Peters, Ted. 2023. The Voice of Public Theology. Adelaide: ATF.
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