Help us to trust and live as if your grace is
sufficient for us, O Lord. Amen.
I’m sure many of you remember the scene on January 6th at the US Capitol building. A preacher stood in the shadow of the dome and prayed that America might become “one nation under God.” Christian hymns were sung, supposedly in a country whose Constitution forbids the establishment of a national religion, and prayers were offered which suggested that those on the other side had corrupted our nation. Only the event that I’m describing didn’t happen in 2021; I’m talking about the events of January 6, 2022, when mostly Democrats gathered to claim the moral high ground and the preacher they chose to offer assuring words of blessing on their political correctness was none other than our own Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry. Separated by one year, both January 6th gatherings at the Capitol show us the problems of Christian Nationalism.
This
is the thesis offered in a provocative and important new book by Brian Kaylor
and Beau Underwood called Baptizing America, with the subtitle “How
Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism.” In this morning’s
epistle, we heard St. Paul write “I will not boast except of my weakness… [for
the Lord has said to me,] my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made
perfect in weakness.” As our nation has just celebrated Independence Day with military
flyovers, grilled meats, and fireworks, we might, understandably, be confused
about what constitutes true power. Infected by the idolatry of nationalism, our
faith becomes distorted, dangerous, and desiccated. As the authors of that book
put it in an interview, the problem with Christian Nationalism is sort of like
mixing mud with ice cream – it doesn’t really hurt the mud, but it ruins the ice
cream. And, to be clear about that metaphor, the Church is the ice cream.
Two
important working definitions to keep in mind are that Christian Nationalism is
the fusion of American and Christian identities to the point that to be a “good”
Christian is to be a proud patriot and to be a good American is to be a Christian,
or at least to agree with Christian sensibilities and moral norms. The other
important word is idolatry, when anything other than the God we know as Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit is placed at the center of our priorities or commitments. It
is as Jesus said, “We cannot serve two masters.” If Jesus is Lord, then nothing
else can be. In the early days of the Church, Christians were called “atheists,”
not because they didn’t believe in a higher power, but because they did not
participate in the imperial cult of Caesar. Today, many Christians are now Caesar’s
cheerleaders. We even often fly Caesar’s flags in front and inside of what are
supposed to be temples dedicated to the God not of a particular nation, but of
the entire universe.
The problem with
Christian Nationalism is that it seeks to have it both ways for the purposes of
partisan gain and worldly power. And to be very clear about this, the blame
doesn’t belong to only the Democrats or only the Republicans, only the Southern
Baptists, Presbyterians, or Episcopalians. The entire Church has come under the
lure of earthly power, thereby rejecting the claim that God’s grace is
sufficient for us. Power, might, and recognition are quite alluring. I know
this because I have willingly participated in Christian Nationalism. And, to tell
you the truth, at the time, I rather liked it.
When I served at St. John’s
in Washington, DC, I regularly interacted with Senators and Cabinet members in
both the Bush and Obama administrations. We would regularly receive invitations
to come to various White House events. It does something to the ego to walk up
to the gate of the White House and be allowed to walk right in. So, there I
was, wearing the collar of the Church and then being given an American flag
lapel pin for my jacket. I wore both proudly.
What I failed to
recognize at the time was what exactly my presence was all about. In inviting
the Church to such events, the State is having us, in the name of the Almighty,
to condone, sanction, and bless its actions indiscriminately. As the title of
the book I’ve mentioned suggests, the Church has baptized America – washing away
its sins without the work of repentance, perpetuating the myth of American
exceptionalism, and supporting the atrocities of Manifest Destiny.
To be clear, patriotism
is not the same thing as Christian Nationalism. There is nothing wrong with
being proud of being Kenyan, Lebanese, Cuban, North Carolinian, Salisburyian, or
American. Our music, food, landscapes, and culture can be celebrated in good
and healthy ways. The problem comes about when we combine patriotism or
tribalism with divine favor, when we think that we are superior to other
peoples or nations, when we claim that God has uniquely blessed us, when we see
ourselves in competition with others. The results of such Christian Nationalism
are disastrous for our national unity, the global community, and the witness of
the Church.
First, Christian
Nationalism ends up dividing us from one another. You might know that the
official motto of the United States, “in God we trust,” was only adopted 1956.
Prior to that, the unofficial motto was “E pluribus unum,” “out of many, one.”
Instead of being a nation that celebrated its unity without uniformity, we adopted
a motto that has a “take it or leave it” mentality. Just one look at the state
of our partisan landscape and I think we have sufficient evidence to prove that
Christian Nationalism has not been a good thing when it comes to unity or collaboration.
Christian Nationalism is
also bad for the world because Christian Nationalism fosters cruelty and
violence instead of compassion and peace. Christian Nationalism turns
governance and foreign affairs into the Crusades instead of the fostering of
beloved community. Christian Nationalism sanctifies violence and turns war from
a tragedy into something salvific. As Martin Luther King once said, “Either we
will learn to live together as siblings, or we will learn to perish together as
fools.” Christian Nationalism puts the whole planet closer to the foolish side
of that equation.
As a priest, my biggest
concern though is what Christian Nationalism does to our faith. Put simply, it
turns the God that we supposedly trust in into an empty symbol instead of us
worshiping the living God. For “in God we trust” to work, it has to be a fairly
tame and non-descript deity. In fact, when that motto has been challenged in the
courts, it is always upheld by the logic that it’s just a generic god. Justice
Sandra Day O’Connor dismissed the phrase as “ceremonial deism.” I hope I don’t
have to tell you this, but we are not here this morning because we are
ceremonial deists who worship a generic god. No, we worship the Holy Trinity:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Christianity is an offensively specific faith.
When we say “in God we trust,” we’re not talking about an abstract deity, we’re
talking about Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontus Pilate, was crucified,
died, and buried, and rose again on the third day. That is where our allegiance
lies, not with a nationalistic and generic god. As the authors of this book put
it, saying “in God we trust” doesn’t keep God in society, it kicks the living God
out of religion.
But Christian Nationalism
erases the specificity and radicalness of our faith in Jesus. Russell Moore
served as the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the
Southern Baptist Convention. He recently resigned after a lot of pressure and
tells the story of preaching on Jesus’ words to “turn the other cheek” and
being berated about where he was coming up with such liberal talking points.
When he simply said he was quoting Jesus, the response was “That’s weak. That
doesn’t work anymore.” Again, is God’s grace sufficient for us, or do we strive
for our own strength instead of the weakness of Jesus on the cross?
What forms us as a
people? What sets our standards and determines our morals and priorities? Is it
the Bill of Rights or the Ten Commandments? Which do we know better – the Constitution
or the Sermon on the Mount? Do we pledge our allegiance to a flag or a cross? Are
we better Americans than we are followers of Jesus? Flags have generally found
their way into church buildings during times of war; when tribalism is at its
highest, the State will use whatever means necessary to inculcate a spirit of
unity, even if that means using the Church. When the Flag Code was codified in
1942, it made it clear that the US flag should always have the place or
prominence, even when displayed within a church where a Christian flag is
displayed. Worse than being a sort of two-kingdoms message, the result is one
of national supremacy over the kingdom of God. Christian Nationalism is not
really Christianity and undermines the faith.
So where did all of this
come from? The push for practices that build Christian Nationalism have largely
come from four groups: Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Episcopalians.
Protestants have often enjoyed places of prominence in our nation and government
and have historically assumed that they can speak for an entire nation. We have
used Scripture to support our positions, whether or not Scripture actually
supports our actions. We have perpetuated the idolatrous myth that our nation
is divinely chosen or uniquely blessed. We have forgotten that there are no
boundaries or borders when it comes to God’s love, grace, and redemption. We have
enjoyed the prominence afforded us when we get close to the thrones and desks of
earthly power.
The result today is that
many who would be described as mainline Christians denounce Christian
Nationalism as an evil, while ignoring the fact that we are the ones who wrote
the playbook, and still often use it. We cannot say that Christian Nationalism
is bad when they do it, but righteous when we do it. If we care about the
future of our nation, our world, or our Church, we must respond to the scourge
of Christian Nationalism with honesty, courage, and repentance.
To be clear, I’m not
saying you did anything wrong if you enjoyed a hot dog or fireworks on
Thursday. If you want to sing the Star-Spangled Banner at a baseball game or
fly a flag on your porch, well and good. There is nothing wrong with being proud of where we are from. But we must confess that salvation
comes from Jesus Christ alone, not from military victories, strong borders, or
a growing gross domestic product. We must resist the urge to ask God to bless
the United States without also asking God to bless Uruguay, China, or Somalia. When
called upon to be the chaplain of empire and invited to take seats of power, we
must decline the invitation. We must remember that God intends to bless the
world through the Body of Christ, the Church, not a nation. The United States
is not a city on a hill, the Church is. We must proclaim that the Church’s one
foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord, not a policy, party, or candidate. We have
to think long and hard about the symbols that we bring into the Church, and
expunge the ones that should have never come in.
As an example of this –
typically when Stephen and I typically choose hymns, it takes about five
minutes per Sunday. We easily spent double that on the hymns for today – which are
very carefully chosen to reflect the themes of this sermon. Resisting Christian
Nationalism, which has become the default, takes intentionality and challenging
our assumptions.
This does not, however,
mean that the Church should just shut its doors and become uninterested or uninvolved
in our society or the political sphere. There is an important difference
between Christian Nationalism and faith-based advocacy. We can and should
advocate for just laws. When we vote, serve as government officials, or petition
our elected officials, we can and should do so as people of faith. However, our
goal is never to make the State Christian, it is not to baptize America. Jesus
Christ, not the United States or any other nation, is the instrument of God’s
salvation for the world, and we get into a lot of trouble when we confuse the
two.
Prophetic Christianity is
about expanding rights and including more people into God’s call for justice
and abundance. Often, Chrisitan Nationalism is about narrowing and limiting who
the blessings of God are for. So if we find that our faith is leading us to
restrict and exclude in our political views, that might be a sign that
Christian Nationalism has found its way in. The challenge of prophetic and
Jesus-centric Christianity is to expand and include more and more of God’s children
into the boundarilessness of God’s grace. As Christians who live in the United
States, we live not to transform our nation, but rather to be transformed by
the Holy Spirit and grow as the Body of Christ.
The foundation of our
faith is that Jesus’ grace is sufficient for us, that we do not need anything
else other than the love of God which we are given in abundance and
unconditionally. This means that we are not competitors, but companions; not
enemies, but neighbors. And this grace is grounded in and made perfect in
weakness. Our only boasting, our only allegiance, our only unity is found in
the cross of Jesus Christ, which is where we find amazing grace about which we
are to lift every voice and sing.
