“The supposed Christian nationalists of today might confess a syncretic folk Christianity, but catechized and committed Christian churchmen devoted to systematically creating a substantive Christian state they certainly are not.”
Miles Smith
American Conservative Article
This is true but it does not prove what Smith is trying to prove to wit; that there really is little Christian Nationalism going on in America. All this proves is that Christian Nationalism is being expressed by people who would be better serving in the rank and file and not as the leadership.
The problem that Christian Nationalism has had, at least since the Tea Party phenomenon began, is that the rank and file are longing for this renewed Christian Nationalism but there have been no learned Christian leaders (a Cromwell or even a Burke) arise to fill that vacuum. God has provided that thirst for Christian Nationalism but he has not yet provided the catechized and committed Christian churchmen devoted to systematically creating a substantive Christian state. So, contra Smith, the problem is not an absent Nationalism. The problem is an absent leadership that can channel all this rank and file energy into something systematic and organized.
Out in America hinterlands, there is a brewing resistance to Leviathan and Babel that is grounded in something like Christian Nationalism. The problem is that there are no leaders to organize these disparate elements and fuse them into a coherent movement. It is the hope of Iron Ink to represent a stream of that movement–a small portion perhaps, but one that is potentially outsized in terms of its influence. Further, it is the hope of Iron Ink that it will be a worthy shield upon which the wrath that represents the fear of grassroots Christian Nationalism will fall.
It seems fear of persecution and prosecution keep the would-be leaders from emerging. God bless you at Iron Ink for your faithfulness to Christ.
I tend to think that Christian Nationalism, like White Nationalism, has a flaw, and the flaw is that it, like “America” tries to organize around an abstract idea. While nations, by definition, must share a religion, and while every true Christian rightly desires a nation which shares his Christianity (a broad statement for which I offer no apology), it does not follow that as long as a group of people are Christian, they can therefore qualify as a nation.
The other primary elements are shared culture, shared geography, shared language, and shared ancestry.
I love the brethren. I do not share culture with them all, though our Christianity should shape all of our respective and distinct cultures. Ditto geography, language and ancestry.
I agree with this Clem. One cannot delete the necessity of both a common faith and a common heritage in order to make a nation.