I was wrong. In fact, I wasn’t even close on this one—an intellectual anomaly for sure. I believed Christian nationalism would begin to die down by now. I thought, after January 6th we would see a steady decline in evangelical participation. I failed to take into consideration the audaciousness of evangelicals as demonstrated by their history of doubling down on cultural issues like these.
Evangelicalism is built upon the irrational. It is built upon such extravagant metaphysical ideas that it is not out of character for them to accept things that may be irrational. Granted, not all irrational ideas are bad, and not all their theology is irrational. Ultimately, anyone claiming to be a Christian has some belief that smacks of irrationality. However, there is a difference between having an irrationality based upon a metaphysical being who is above rationale and accepting the irrational truth of humans bound by the rational. This will be parsed out later.
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.
As many know by now, recent efforts by the Louisiana Governor to place the Ten Commandments in every K-12 classroom in the state as well as Oklahoma’s state Superintendent of Public Education, Ryan Walters, requiring the Bible be taught in public schools across the state are just the latest examples of how nationalists are investing in a new generation. Nationalism is not being contained but spreading beyond the political arena. Conservative evangelicals are swapping the Gospel they used to passionately proclaim for nationalism by evangelizing like missionaries our nation’s youth. This of course makes the lines between religion and government even more blurry.
This is similar to what Kierkegaard experienced in 19th-century Denmark. And as you can imagine, he had some things to say about that.
Kierkegaard and Christian Nationalism
Although he has become more popular since the birth of Postmodernism, Soren Kierkegaard is still widely underappreciated. Being underappreciated has been Kierkegaard’s lot in the history of philosophy as he was a joke to his contemporaries. But, as is the case today, their dismissal of him was a result of their inability to grasp what he was telling them. This was the same issue Jesus had with the religious leaders of his time and the same issue we have with conservative religious leaders today.
For Kierkegaard, Christian nationalism, which he often referred to as “official Christianity” or “Christendom”, is more like a game that people play. Everyone has their part and everyone receives their earthly reward. The only thing that suffers is the Gospel.
In essence, religious leaders get power; the government gets control; and the people are handed a comfortable lukewarm faith. Below are some quotes from Kierkegaard about Christian nationalism.
Playing the Christian Game:
“Where all are Christians, the situation is this: to call oneself a Christian is the means whereby one secures oneself against all sorts of inconveniences and discomforts…And orthodoxy flourishes in the land, no heresy, no schism, orthodoxy everywhere, the orthodoxy that consists in playing the game of Christianity” (Attack upon “Christendom”).
Hiding from God in the Crowd:
“The most pernicious of all evasions is—hidden in the crowd, to want, as it were, to avoid God’s inspection of oneself as a single individual, avoid hearing God’s voice as a single individual, as Adam once did when his bad conscience fooled him into thinking that he could hide among the trees” (Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits).
On Truth:
“There are two ways to be fooled: one is to believe what isn’t true, the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” (Works of Love)
On Christendom:
“There is in Christendom an incessant twaddling on Sundays about the glorious and invaluable truths of Christianity, its mild consolation. But it is indeed evident that Christ lived 1800 years ago; for the rock of offense and object of faith has become a most charming fairy-story character, a kind of divine good old man. People have not the remotest idea of what it means to be offended by him, and still less, what it means to worship… Christendom has done away with Christianity, without being aware of it. Therefore, if anything is to be done about it, the attempt must be made to re-introduce Christianity.” (Sermon: Preparation for a Christian Life)
“To set God’s name to politics does not turn the scales any more than to say ‘now in God’s name I am going out to steal’, or – ‘in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ I shall go hang myself.’” (Journals)
This is why Kierkegaard was the last great prophet.
“What looks like politics, and imagines itself to be political, will one day unmask itself as a religious movement.” (Journals)
The Irrationality of God and Evangelicals
Accepting the irrationality of God is paradoxically rational because it is based on a truth that is above and beyond what humans perceive as real or normal. Logic is how the universe organizes itself. Rationality is how humans perceive that reality. Since God is above such things it is inevitable that at times serving such a God might be illogical and irrational from our perspective despite the fact that it is a part of some greater truth and therefore rational. For the most part the majority of Christians would agree with this premise. The issue that arises is two-fold as it relates to Christian nationalism. The first is the Bible and the second is how certain people interpret the Bible and as a result speak on behalf of God based on their interpretation.
The first issue has to do with inerrancy. I won’t go through and rehash the irrationality behind this theology because I, along with several other columnist’s on Patheos have already written good articles addressing it. But in essence inerrancy creates a pseudo-authority whereby the individual is given the confidence through certainty to speak on behalf of God – regardless if their understanding of what they are reading is correct or not. And, because so many evangelicals have not been taught how to read the Bible correctly, much of their beliefs are based on propositionalizations, which oftentimes disregard the intent of the author.
The second issue has to do with anachronisms. Reading the text anachronistically means one is reading their own context into the text, instead of allowing the context of the text to speak on its own. This is why we often hear White Christian Nationalists regurgitate Old Testament passages about how God will bless the nation that will follow him. Take Psalm 33:12, which states: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose for his inheritance.” Passages like this have nothing to do with our current situation, nor do they have anything to do with America. Passages like these are specifically referring to Israel. But they act as propositional fodder for those with nefarious agendas.
Some Concluding Thoughts
I have struggled to understand how it is that we can help evangelicals understand that their Christian nationalism subverts the Gospel when they are largely unequipped to even see the problem. This is the task of my forthcoming book, The Kingdom of Man. The Kingdom of Man demonstrates through Evangelicalism’s history how their leaders have intentionally brainwashed them through years of propaganda campaigns all in an attempt at establishing power and attempting to bring forth the Kingdom of God. However, in their misguided haste they are simply bringing for the kingdom of man. I believe this is the crux of the issue and perhaps may be the only way evangelicals will begin to see the folly of their ways and take back their faith instead of relying on leaders who are intentionally and unintentionally subverting the Gospel.
However, I am not naive and I know that many evangelicals have been taught to disregard the words of rational people. So, perhaps it’s time to reinvigorate witnessing and begin trying to spread the real Gospel to those who believe they already have it.
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