I have written about this topic before but the controversy again among believers is intensifying. Often there is a lot of heat and little light because terms are not defined.
Idolatrous Nationalism
Nationalism can be defined in an idolatrous way where our loyalty is to be to our nation, right or wrong. This is then applied in a way to the United States that produces real imbalance. I don’t know any Facebook friends of mine who argue for this. But I know this is the attitude of some.
Loyalty to a nation-state
Others point to nationalism about the 19th-century organization of former tribes and regions into nation-states and argue that all are called to loyalty to their nation-state, to make their state the best it can be. As long as they recognize that we are called to care about the world and not only our nation, I embrace this idea. However, America First can be imbalanced if it means America only. I see an isolationism in some that is troubling.
The United States as a Covenant Nation
When one adds the word Christian to nationalism, there are several meanings. One is that the United States is in a special covenant relationship with God like Israel. They trace this to the Puritans and Pilgrims and even the Mayflower Compact. But despite these origins and the theistic theology of the Declaration of Independence, which asserts that all men were created equal, there is no explicit profession of being a Christian nation as was the case for example in the United Kingdom or the Hapsburg Empire. This view of a covenant with God and even an election of the United States is argued in the book by Peter Marshall Jr. The Light and the Glory. The son of the famous Senate Chaplain and the famous mother, Catherine Marshall, is persuasive but I still believe it is wrong.
Christian Nationalism as Seeking the Good of the Nation and Biblical Norms in Society
Others use Christian Nationalism to mean that we are to seek the good of our nation and that our nation was dominated by the influence of the Bible on its laws and its cultural norms. God’s rule of sowing and reaping applies to nations as well as individuals. This is the clear teaching of the prophets and is made clear in the Psalms which call for all nations to acknowledge God and his basic law. Our nation is Christian to the extent that our people are Christian and produce a dominant culture of Christian values. I am very sympathetic to this understanding of Christian Nationalism but still have reservations. I think this was close to the idea of the founders who taught that the republic depended on the Christian life and piety of its citizens.
A Better Approach, a Judeo-Christian Nationalism
Our rights and freedoms are rooted in the Bible. No biblical influence, no human rights! Many historians have noted that. And there is a blessing of God for a nation that acts righteously. But when we say Christian nation, it tends to exclude those who are not Christians. In the book The Hebrew Republic, by Eric Nelson, the author argues that the Hebrew Bible is the source of Western liberties and advancement in laws and rights. Christianity adds wonderful standards of love and mercy that are even greater due to the New Testament, but it is the Hebrew Bible that is the primary source of so much.
It would be better to say that our ideal is to return to being a Judeo-Christian republic and that all are welcome who affirm the laws and standards that arise therefrom, to enjoy the rights and liberties. As such we are a pro-Judeo-Christian religious society. To say that we believe in a quest for a Judeo-Christian Nationalism would be in order. But we are not there at this point. Where things are now, we are drifting away and are not a nation that is truly Judeo-Christian in our values. Many are bible based on their views of law and liberty but many are not. This is why the work of evangelism and revival is the key to restoration.