"Christians will have power" and other things Jesus never promised

Christian nationalism desires a Christianity that takes what Satan offered our Savior

Those of us who grew up in Christian spaces know the story well. After Jesus was baptized he spent 40 days in the wilderness. Satan, the deceiver, came to him and tempted him.

In Matthew 4, we read:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

And in Luke 4, we read:

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

One of the things we see in these passages is that Jesus is tempted to bypass the struggle he is bound to engage in, and he turns down this opportunity to gain the authority and splendor of the kingdoms of this world.

He did so again when being questioned by Pilate. Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

I think the key idol of Christian nationalism is power, and specifically, a self-interested power. Power is the ability to get others to do what you want despite their resistance. While power can be used and applied toward a common good (think about the Civil Rights movement and expanding access to the vote), Christian nationalism is intent on gaining and defending access to power that only serves “us,” the in-group of “right” Christians.

Within Christian nationalism, any attempt to share or distribute power is anathema. This places folks who embrace Christian nationalism in direct opposition to the foundational principles of any pluralistic democratic system or society.

If God has told “us” how the world should operate, why would we cede any say or control to those who disagree with us?

It is this worship of power that leads Americans who embrace Christian nationalism to be much more comfortable with authoritarian social control. In a world of chaos, constantly moving away from God’s design, we need strong rules and a strong ruler to enact and enforce order.

I recently wrote about the link between Christian nationalism and authoritarianism for the October issue of The Revealer.¹

“Years of social scientific research demonstrate that a vital element of Christian nationalism is authoritarianism. Americans who consistently embrace Christian nationalism are primed to walk down authoritarian paths to ensure their rightful place atop the national hierarchy. We also know a strong connection exists between Christian nationalism and a comfort with violence and the weakening of democratic values. So, when Trump uses Christian nationalist rhetoric he is, in a sense, preaching directly to a choir ready and willing to make his rhetoric a reality.”

I share two primary avenues through which this connection between authoritarianism and Christian nationalism influence our current state of affairs: comfort with political violence and suppression of voting access.

Regarding political violence, I share how,

“In my book American Idolatry, I show how violence serves as a fundamental attribute of Christian nationalism in relation to two other attributes: power and fear. Christian nationalism is focused on maintaining privileged access to political power, allowing any group to do what they want despite resistance. Holding privileged access to power raises the specter of someday losing such access. So, with power comes fear and a sense of threat that “they” are coming to take power. When facing that possibility, a group will increasingly embrace violence to defend their position.”

There is a plethora of research demonstrating this link. But one peer-reviewed article that just appeared from Stephanie Shady, Liesbet Hooghe, and Gary Marks shows that Christian nationalism exerts a powerful influence on support for the use of force to defend the “traditional American way of life” among Republican pastors in North Carolina. Their conclusion is disturbing:

“White grievance and Christian nationalism produce deep divisions among Republican pastors. The most powerful factor leading a pastor to condone the use of force is Christian nationalism—the ideology that traditionalist Christianity should be infused in American public policy. The second most powerful factor is White grievance—anger, resentment, and perceived victimization in response to the challenge to White privilege and power. Both factors, and particularly the latter, are intensified by distrust of the electoral process.”

And this focus on the electoral process is key. Because in my piece for The Revealer I turn from comfort with political violence to desires to limit access to the vote. This is perhaps even more nefarious that openly embracing violence as it operates in the shadows and guarantees the outcome…

“Closely related to comfort with political violence is support for weakening democratic values to ensure political outcomes. In this sense, the undermining of democratic values is a subtle but much more nefarious threat than outright political violence to any pluralistic democratic system. Put another way, there is no need to enact political violence—like attacking the Capitol—if the outcomes to elections in the United States are all but ensured for one side. This is yet another part of the playbook for authoritarian leaders.”

A recent survey and report from PRRI provides some additional data points and empirical evidence for the overlap of authoritarianism and Christian nationalism. They find that:

• There is strong overlap among Americans who hold Christian nationalist and authoritarian views.

• Authoritarians and Christian nationalists are more likely to agree that those convicted of crimes from Jan. 6^th are being held hostage by the government or that Trump should do whatever it takes to be President if he is not declared the winner in 2024.

• Right-wing authoritarians and Christian nationalists are most supportive of the need for a strong leader who is willing to break the rules.

• Those who score high on authoritarianism and Christian nationalism scales, as well as Republicans with favorable views of Trump, are more likely to endorse the use of political violence.

As we move closer to the 2024 election it is important we keep these realities in mind. Christian nationalism, political violence, and voter suppression are all tightly intertwined with a desire for power and the comfort with authoritarianism that accompanies such desires.

How should Christians respond? In the short term, we must do what we can to defend access to the democratic process and ensure all have the opportunity to vote—particularly those in minority communities. In the conclusion to the chapter on power in American Idolatry, I write how

“Instead of looking to exercise self-interested power over other groups, American Christians could instead leverage our power and privilege for those who have little or none. American preacher and theologian Howard Thurman wrote, “Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life too often has been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to defenseless people.”

Power and supremacy over others to enact our vision against the wishes and input of our neighbors is not the way of Jesus. White American Christians can lay down the desire for power and commit to service and sacrifice for those around us, be they family, friends, or enemies. The Christian religion began far from the seats of earthly power. This perspective saturates the writings of the New Testament and the witness of the early church. It is important to read it through this lens.”

Just like Jesus we must reject the promise of earthly power focused on only serving “us” at the expense of others. The Kingdom of God operates according to a different principle where we leverage what we have for the benefit of others.

Let us do what we can, where we can, however we can. Onward, together.

1. October was actually a special issue on Christian nationalism with a number of other articles by folks working and writing on this topic.