Christian nationalism: a contradiction in terms?
Date posted: 20 Mar 2025
Dear Editor,
In your February feature, Martyn Whittock says Christian Nationalism is a contradiction in terms. Really? Does he disapprove of Christians supporting the blue and yellow flags of Ukraine? What about Nelson Mandela, head of the African National Congress – a nationalist organisation? Again, what about Gandhi, Kenyatta, Nkrumah, etc., who were nationalists in the cause of colonial liberation. Were they wrong? That was in the 20th century. In the 19th century, Greece, Italy, Poland – just about all Eastern European countries – were the products of their nationalist struggles against foreign feudal Empires like the Hapsburgs, Romanovs and Ottomans. Were those struggles wrong too?
letter from America
Thinking through ‘Christian nationalism’
Josh Moody
It’s hard for me to tell from my current location in Chicagoland, but I suspect that the ideas floating around, dubbed at times ‘Christian nationalism’, have also made their way to the fayre isles of my homeland, the United Kingdom. Certainly, at any rate, they have caused some waves in America. How do we think through the issue of ‘Christian nationalism’?
Part of the problem is the slipperiness of the term. After all, raised as I was in England, the idea of a ‘Christian nation’ hardly seems strange –though, even by then, we were acutely aware that England was in no real sense ‘Christian’ anymore, if it ever had been. But the Church of England was, and is still, the established church. It has legal standing; there are bishops who sit in the upper house of the Houses of Parliament. The laws upon which the countries of the United Kingdom base their legal existence are deeply rooted in Christian ideas. None of this can be denied by anyone who has given much thought to the matter. Why then the controversy over ‘Christian nationalism’?
How US evangelicals could affect the entire world
So, ‘Super Tuesday’ has happened – and Donald Trump looks on track for the Republican Party nomination in the US presidential elections.
A lot could happen between now and the actual vote, of course – but currently polls show Trump leading Biden, and so we could well be facing a second presidency from the businessman and former TV host. The role that US evangelicals play could affect the entire globe – and should be viewed, as I will explain below, with some concern.