My Understanding On Christian Nationalism
(only a small portion off this thought comes from academic studies)
Good friends, pardon me while I express my understanding!
Obviously, Christians don't support Constantinianism-the force of Christian ideals on the nation through government (what I'm calling 'a Christianized governmental universalism' placed on the rest of the country without their permission) because that is not the way of Christ. As a result many are swinging the other way to the opposite extreme to remove what I'm calling "Christian idealism" from the government (which is not an avocation for universalistic theology that all people must become Christian and should adopt the Christian life regardless of permission).
A quick read of the definition of Christian nationalism from wiki tells me that it is defined as follows: "Christian nationalists primarily focus on internal politics, such as passing laws that reflect their view of Christianity and its role in political and social life." I have to wonder though, how Christians cannot support Christian nationalism and retain Christian identity when you cannot support the spread of the gospel and Christian thought on a large level such as at the political level. I do not see how your effort in not supporting Christian nationalism is not going to lead to the support and rise of atheism and cause churches to decline further and go underground. You are asking to raise your children in atheism and reinforce pluralism which is hostile to the gospel truth.
I think Christians in support of Christian nationalism need to redefine it for those who are anti-Christian nationalists and I think many are misunderstanding it for constantianism. You who are against Christian nationalism are asking for a pagan country and supporting the spread of pagan thought. Is this in the effort to support separation of church and state? So you are a Christian but not evangelical and want to remain private about your beliefs? Ok. If you do not support Christian nationalism as a Christian it seems to me that you have a different gospel. You can't spread the gospel as a Christian if you do not believe it. Christ himself disqualifies you and removes you from His service because you don't have a gospel that is worth living for in all areas of life and Christ calls you to live it and not just talk it in all of life whether in vocational ministry or out of vocational ministry. You might still preach but you are not evangelical with a desire for all people to come to Christ and vocal about it beyond your church without pressurizing others into it. You must be Christian in all areas of your life which would include politics if you specialize in that and are given room to speak in that. Who are you serving by asking people not to live by their Christian beliefs and passing laws regardless of Christian belief that makes believers stumble and give permission not to live according to the faith as Scripture reveals. If we are talking about different faiths then you have to discuss your interpretation of Holy Scripture if you are retaining your Christian identity and to do that with a Christian you have to be a Christian or you do not have room to argue the Scriptures with a Christian about Christianity on Christian stances to discuss liberalism or conservatism or moderates and progressivism.
Anti-Christian nationalism is the opposite of a Christian believer because it is hypocritical. When Christians are put in political places they are by the authority of God and called to advocate their Christian beliefs. You can never force another to receive Christ but you can make it easier for them to have the opportunity to do so. How do you read your bible and study it, and still support the rise of pluralism? You are supporting violent acts by not supporting Christian nationalism and you are not supporting prayer in public schools and you are not supporting students who fear God to meet together on campus freely but you are supporting the students that are against Christianity and not willing to dialogue and who do not care if churches are shut down. It is a myth that Christian nationalism is telling other people that they cannot operate in their personal 'other' faith. It is taking responsibility and making judgement calls with the reverence and conviction of biblical truth not personal bias and letting other believe freely according to whatever religion they are. Why? Because you are a Christian and you have the commission of Christ to exercise your Christian thought in your day to day life and you have the religious freedom and liberty of the United States to make decisions according to your Christian beliefs regardless of others who do not believe that way. By advocating anti-Christian nationalism you are advocating the removal of your religious freedom as the constitution has declared and you are advocating your right not to live according to your religious freedoms. The constitution gives us the freedom of religion and it does not give you the right to tell others that they cannot live by their religious freedom and this makes it possible for any religion to be in practice and not just Christianity. That is my understanding of Christian nationalism and why I have no problem advocating it. Christian nationalism is separated from acts of terrorism-don’t get the two mixed up. Christianity never supports terrorism and Christian nationalism always supports Christianity.
Obviously many scholars disagree with Christian nationalism and I am not sure why because by being anti-Christian nationalist they are advocating for a change in the religious amendment of the constitution even if they say they are not. I do not know how you could advocate as an 'anti' and not be doing so. Apparently, anti-Christian nationalists are not evangelicals but is that an excuse? Not all Christians are evangelicals but the answer is not to take away the voice of the evangelicals by using excuses of other issues not related to anti-Christian nationalist but which are a 100% different topic. The reason I might support Christian nationalism is because I haven't found any valid reason to support anti-Christian nationalism as scholars describe it. If I am a Christian, then I am to be a Christian in my home, in my work place, and as a manager of whatever God calls me to. That means I am to support Christian thought where ever I work and as I make decisions it is to be in favor of minorities including the Christian minority. By asking me not to be a Christian as God has revealed in Scripture you are asking me to be a profane person and to think profanely. That never has any room in the Christian lifestyle and profanity removes the Christian's ability to pray for anyone and to make healthy decisions on behalf of others with Christ-like character.
The Christian minority strives to stand for their beliefs but works to live at peace with one another. The Christian minority thinks of others and serves others with the attitude of Christ-or at least strives to do so by seeking God in prayer. You can't read Scripture and take in Jesus words without reading the beatitudes and the gospels and pauline letters and turn around and advocate what could lead to marxism with the wrong leader at the same time. Obviously, I do need to study some more on those theological topics but my surface impression of the controversy is not for anti-Christian nationalism because of the worse situation that arises when you do not stand for your Christian convictions in public and in the government. If I were an anti-Christian nationalist than I would be denying my evangelical youth stance for Christ, I believe. Don't give Satan a foothold and encourage others to do so.
And you are asking why so many Christian things have been shut down? Christians have lost ability to stand for their beliefs and commune together in the past decades and that is what Christian nationalism sounds like it is about: living it out and not forcing beliefs on your neighbor and making it possible for Christians to be a Christian in this country without pressure of idolatry that comes from sin, and through atheism and other religions that you advocate when you do not advocate for Christian thought. How do you live in unity when you can not advocate it or when you advocate sin in the country by not passing laws and working against lawlessness? Christ is very clear on that.
The only other thing that has not been mentioned so far here is that Christian nationalism advocates the Christianity of our forefathers and the discussion of this leads to the understanding that they were not as Christian as we think they are because of the idea that they cut and edited Scripture and only believed certain parts and threw out other parts of Scripture and decided not to live according to all of God's Word but rather part of God's word. As a result, you can not advocate the country as being founded on Christian ideals and should not continue to advocate the country to seek to be a Christian country. The problem with calling out the United States forefathers with being not so Christian as we think is that not one of us is perfect and we all set out in endeavors in the fear of God and have those favorite passages we go back to and we all learn and grow in what we do and as we get older some passages seem to become more meaningful than others as God begins to speak to us through them in a different way than when we were younger. Our fore fathers were founding a country and fleeing from a different life and what they dealt with and their responses are under eye of a sovereign and good God who will judge all things in a way that we never could because He sees our hidden motives and what we are capable of doing and what we are not capable of doing and why. In addition to that idea, is the idea that all people are sinners and none of us have it together and we should be thankful for those who did achieve some good for the development of this strong nation, we should also recognize that the understanding of the bible at that time was different and the translation was different and the general acceptance of certain biblical understanding continue to evolve and change over time and the church determines what is heresy and what is not and then begins to teach that and each local protestant/Baptist church operates through the priesthood of the believer. Shooting down people for not holding to Christian beliefs of the 21st century that lived in another period of time is a little heretical since the church deals with heresy and evolves in her teaching over the centuries through quarrels and discussions and sometimes through abuse and persecution. Obviously we must continue to go to God in prayer that we teach Scripture in accordance with His will. Obviously we, do not want Marcionites either but we should be thankful for the faith of our Christian founding fathers even if it wasn't perfect or completely 100% like ours lest we find and preach the cracks in our own faith as well .
Republican, Christian, and pro-Trump, right winging it all the way! For the party, not the person-as I was taught growing up through God fearing parents not necessarily academically!
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