Thank you for your nuanced piece. As a historian who has just published a religious history of Iowa (shameless plug: The People Are Kind), I have some thoughts.
Mainly definitional. "Christian nationalism" has always seemed to me at once too anodyne--as a citizen, "nationalism" can seem an innocuous term--how about, "racism?"--and as a Christian, too idolatrous--could we just say "religious"? After all, other religious groups besides allegedly Christian can be recruited for the project, with their own nationalist-racist agendas.
Also porous are the categories "evangelical"--surely a word given multiple definitions, varying over time; mainline Protestant, and Catholic. The sleight-of-hand here, that since evangelicals only constitute 18% of Iowa, they are over-represented, fails to take into account that many mainline Protestants have acquiesced to the present regime, and a considerable number of white Catholics have made common cause with evangelicals for several decades--a circumstance unthinkable early in the twentieth century.
From the vantage point of Iowa religious history I'd like to suggest four tendencies that need to be confronted:
*A premillenialism that denies the importance of this present life and wishes for an apocalyptic solution to our problems;
*a conservative, patriarchal, authoritarian Catholicism that pushes rigid gender norms;
*a fundamentalism that denies science and common sense;
*a heritage of anti-communism that sees danger lurking in any progressive notion.
This is a more complicated line of attack than on "Christian nationalism," but perhaps it may gain more attention.
This is very sad. Worse yet, this is not only happening in Iowa. Christian Nationalism has been growing and gaining power over many years. It seemingly took a big step forward when Jerry Falwell decided to get involved politically because he was a segregationist and his school was losing its tax exemption because of it. This movement has been gaining strength ever since and most people look the other way. They think those of us talking about it and warning about it are alarmists and making to much of it. Yet, here we are today, with Christian Nationalism about ready to make a major push into our government and our country. This movement is nothing like the example of Jesus, but is only concerned about gaining power to force their interpretation of the Bible on everyone. This is absolutely horrible.
Thank you for your nuanced piece. As a historian who has just published a religious history of Iowa (shameless plug: The People Are Kind), I have some thoughts.
Mainly definitional. "Christian nationalism" has always seemed to me at once too anodyne--as a citizen, "nationalism" can seem an innocuous term--how about, "racism?"--and as a Christian, too idolatrous--could we just say "religious"? After all, other religious groups besides allegedly Christian can be recruited for the project, with their own nationalist-racist agendas.
Also porous are the categories "evangelical"--surely a word given multiple definitions, varying over time; mainline Protestant, and Catholic. The sleight-of-hand here, that since evangelicals only constitute 18% of Iowa, they are over-represented, fails to take into account that many mainline Protestants have acquiesced to the present regime, and a considerable number of white Catholics have made common cause with evangelicals for several decades--a circumstance unthinkable early in the twentieth century.
From the vantage point of Iowa religious history I'd like to suggest four tendencies that need to be confronted:
*A premillenialism that denies the importance of this present life and wishes for an apocalyptic solution to our problems;
*a conservative, patriarchal, authoritarian Catholicism that pushes rigid gender norms;
*a fundamentalism that denies science and common sense;
*a heritage of anti-communism that sees danger lurking in any progressive notion.
This is a more complicated line of attack than on "Christian nationalism," but perhaps it may gain more attention.
This is very sad. Worse yet, this is not only happening in Iowa. Christian Nationalism has been growing and gaining power over many years. It seemingly took a big step forward when Jerry Falwell decided to get involved politically because he was a segregationist and his school was losing its tax exemption because of it. This movement has been gaining strength ever since and most people look the other way. They think those of us talking about it and warning about it are alarmists and making to much of it. Yet, here we are today, with Christian Nationalism about ready to make a major push into our government and our country. This movement is nothing like the example of Jesus, but is only concerned about gaining power to force their interpretation of the Bible on everyone. This is absolutely horrible.