A group of US-based Christian leaders have warned against the rise of “Christian nationalism” in their country, saying it threatens both their faith and nation.
The group, called Christians Against Christian Nationalism, have released a statement stating that “Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy”.
The group’s logo.
“Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian,” the statement says. “It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation. As Christians, we are bound to Christ, not by citizenship, but by faith.”
The statement also contains a list of beliefs including that one’s “religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing in the civic community” and that “[c]onflating religious authority with political authority is idolatrous and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalised groups as well as the spiritual impoverishment of religion”.
It also expresses the belief that those who have signed “must stand up to and speak out against Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation – including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship – against religious communities at home and abroad”.
Some 19 prominent Christian leaders from a range of denominational backgrounds had endorsed the statement when Sight looked at the website this week including Tony Campolo, one of the founders of the Red Letter Christian movement, Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners, Jim Winkler, president and general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, and Bishop Michael Curry, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church.
Hundreds of people have signed the statement which is an iniatiative spearheaded by religious freedom advocacy, BJC.
Amanda Tyler, the organisation’s executive director, told Ethics Daily, which is partnering with BJC to promote the statement, that the statement was developed as a way for Christians to stand against Christian nationalism.
“BJC recognised an urgent need for a strong response from the Christian community to denounce Christian nationalism as a gross distortion of our faith and a dangerously divisive movement for our body politic,” she said.
