by Rodney Kennedy

Rodney Kennedy has his M.Div from New Orleans Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Louisiana State University. He pastored the First Baptist Church of Dayton (OH) – which is an American Baptist Church – for 13 years, after which he served as interim pastor of ABC USA churches in Illinois, Kansas, New York, and Pennsylvania. He is now a full-time writer, and lives in Louisiana. His eighth book, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit, has very recently been published (and sometime in the next few months we will have a rightingamerica Q and A with the author). 

My subject is the Christian nationalist controversy which threatens to divide the American churches, as though there’s already not enough trouble over abortion, gay marriage, transgenders, and immigration. Let’s begin by looking at Acts 5. The Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, is about to order the execution of two Christian apostles. In opposition Gamaliel speaks: “Refrain from these men and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God” (Acts 5:35 – 39, KJV). 

We now face a similar situation crying out for the voice of reason, in dire need of a Gamaliel to speak truth to power.  The Christian Nationalist program is essentially illiberal, intolerant, and idolatrous. They are on a campaign to roll back the gains in human rights and control the levers of political power. 

The leader of this pack of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” is David Barton. His wingman is Robert Jeffress. In his sermon, “America Is a Christian Nation,” now available as an illustrated coffee table book for a $30 donation, Jeffress borrows from Barton to make – as documented by historian John Fea – “wildly exaggerated claims” while also “peddl[ing] false notions” about the First Amendment and filling his sermon with “one problematic historical reference after another.” 

Fea is not alone in pointing this out. Nearly every serious American historian, “including those who teach at the most conservative Christian colleges,” has debunked Barton’s claims. May the Lord bless the historians for a faithful witness. 

Barton, Jeffress, and their fellow ahistorical Christian Nationalists claim that America was founded as a Christian nation, and that the major institutions of American government and culture are to be operated by and controlled by Christian Nationalists. Let’s examine these claims.

America Was (Not) Founded as a Christian Nation 

Christian Nationalists affirm, “America is a Christian nation.” How can I go against the preaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress? He is the pastor of the 12,000 member First Baptist Church of Dallas. He is on Fox and has an online ministry to hundreds of thousands. 

Who am I to go against such authority? Well, I am a Baptist preacher with a word from the Lord. That’s how. And Jeffress is a false prophet of Christian Nationalism, and his church is “the king’s sanctuary, and it is a temple of the kingdom.” 

American historian David L. Holmes, in The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, notes the influence of deism, agnosticism, and some Christianity among our founders. The makers of America were a mixed bunch. Some of the Christians among them were “lukewarm” and not much for church attendance. A few were strong evangelicals. Many were strongly influenced by the Enlightenment. 

Two of the most prominent founders, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, had a combination of deist beliefs and Christian ones. Actually, Jefferson and Franklin succeeded in using the Christian God to form the American God. As Mark Noll discovered, America’s God is America, and Americans do not need to believe in God because they believe in belief. And in our time, belief has been reduced to “opinions.” 

There is no Jesus in our founding documents. You would think a nation founded as a Christian nation would be rooted in the teachings of Jesus: “conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead.” There’s none of the Sermon on the Mount in the Constitution. There’s a Bill of Rights, but no Beatitudes. There’s none of the suffering, sacrificing servant of God in our founding documents. God is not portrayed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but, instead, as “Divine Providence.” 

America’s god is a generic god, more deist than Christian. And, as David Ray Griffin notes, it is deism that opened the door to what would become materialistic atheism. Benjamin Franklin, who was a paradigm for the religious beliefs of the founders, clearly laid out his beliefs: 

Here is my Creed, I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe …. As for Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; …. and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts to his Divinity; tho’ it is a Question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, where I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.

One has only to recall Jefferson taking a razor blade and cutting out all the miracles and claims to the divinity of Jesus as the son of God to realize the founding fathers were a mixture who were not easily capable of producing a Christian nation, but who were wise enough to leave in a god amenable to almost every American. 

America Should (Not) Be a Christian Nationalist Government 

Let there be no mistake as to the goals of Christian Nationalism. These self-proclaimed “apostles” and “prophets” believe they have been anointed by God to serve as God’s agents in ushering in his future kingdom – a “bringing of heaven to earth.” Their goal is to bring every aspect of American culture under their control: family, government, arts and entertainment, media, business, education, and religion. 

Christian Nationalists are not, in fact, Christian. As Stanley Hauerwas reminds, “The Christian God is the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is not some further specification of the generalized god affirmed in the Pledge, but the Trinity is the only God worthy of worship. The Christian pledge is not the Pledge of Allegiance, but rather is called the Apostles’ Creed.” 

Let me help you see this biblically. Jesus tells his disciples “You know that the rulers of the gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave” (Matthew 20:25 – 27). 

Christian Nationalists want to be lords instead of servants. They want to be self-righteous rulers, not slaves of righteousness. They want to “lord it over” instead of serving the needs of the people. The Christian Nationalists are like godless Gentiles in our midst, godless Gentiles with an unmitigated lust for power. Their spirit has nothing in common with the One who said he “came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:28). 

Moreover, Christian Nationalists are not good nationalists. They have forgotten that the church is supposed to be an alternative to the politics of Pharaoh and Caesar. William Sloane Coffin, Jr.  says, “Nationalism, at the expense of another nation [or the people of our nation], is just as wicked as racism at the expense of another race. In other words, a nationalist is a bad patriot.” 

While Jeffress, in “America Is a Christian Nation,” cherry-picks sayings from the founding fathers, he has almost nothing from Scripture. Apart from his reference to Hosea 4:6 and Psalm 33:2, there’s not much guidance from God’s Word. He ends his ahistorical lecture, disguised as a sermon with Psalm 33:2 like a preacher who has forgotten to preach from his text and throws it in at the end for good measure. I don’t trust preachers without texts. 

Various types of Christian Nationalists are selling us guide maps to buried treasure, pulling out yellowed parchments with “sayings of the founding fathers” (a patriot’s Gospel of Q) and trying to convince us these dated guides tell us the truth about America, about our past, about our present. But their maps are flat, and we feel like they are hiding something. We feel there are whole regions of our biblical and national experience they’ve never set foot upon – as if they claim to have mapped New Orleans because they visited the Super Dome. 

I’m not buying the maps of Chrisitan Nationalism, and I will not be guided by their false prophets – Barton and Jeffress. I’d rather go to a fortune teller for my future predictions than trust the misinformation and lies of David Barton about our past, our present, and our future. I’d sooner read my horoscope than the horrors of Jeffress predicting the apocalypse in the next twenty years. 

The story of Israel wanting, even demanding a king, is a major theme of the Old Testament. I would argue Israel’s unraveling as God’s faithful servant people started in the lust for a king. The Israelites said to Samuel, “Appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” Israel never quite came to grips with the hard parts of freedom: responsibility, accountability, and the common good. There was always something in the heart of the people wanting to abdicate freedom to a king. 

Let me refresh your biblical memories of God warning Israel of the perils of having a king. You can open your Bibles to I Samuel 8 and read for yourself what happens when you turn over your God-given freedom to a group desiring to rule over us in the name of God. This is the biblical expression of Christian Nationalism – a monarch. 

Do Americans want to abdicate our freedoms? Do we want to sit in bars, sipping on Bud Lites, telling bad jokes, complaining about the government, and allow a bunch of pious, stressed-out Christian leaders tell us what to do and how to do it? Do we want to surrender our freedom to people who don’t care about us? Do we wish for the Christian Nationalists to tell us what our children can read, what they can study in school? To tell us what we can do in our bedrooms? To tell us what we can watch on our Smart TV in our living rooms? Do we want these people in charge of all aspects of our lives? I say, “No.” A million times no. 

Please allow me to help you one more time biblically. Flip through the pages from I Samuel to II Chronicles and stroll through the Hall of Kings. A king like Saul, who performed so badly, God had to step in and take the “anointing” away from Saul. A king like Solomon, who enslaved his own people. A king like Ahab – a sniveling, pouting king willing to steal the land of one of his subjects and allow his murder. And a long list of little, maniacal, greedy, evil kings. The words of the Old Testament, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” – words which sound like clods of clay landing on the top of a casket – resound throughout Israel’s history. . 

There could be no greater tragedy than that the Christian Nationalists gain control of the government. And I do not believe for one moment they are going to succeed. Their agenda demolishes democracy, destroys truth, decency, patriotism, national unity, racial progress, their own people, and our nation. It is a negative, debilitating, fake cure for the problems we face. A Christian Nationalism based on bigotry, narrowness, and lack of empathy is not a good nationalism. And it flies in the face of the very prayer Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” 

Now, do we understand? God’s will, not David Barton’s will. God’s will, not Robert Jeffress’ will. God’s will, not MAGA’s will. God’s will, not the will of SCOTUS. “Thy kingdom come.” 

Shall the Christian Nationalists win? No. Hell no! That said, liberals need to become more vigilant and more involved. This is not a Sunday picnic. We are in a fight, and it must be waged by Christians and those of other religious commitments and those of no religious commitments – all those who are unwilling to live in a nation without democracy. 

In Benjamin Franklin’s terms, our nation is in better hands with “virtuous” heretics than “wicked” Christians. 

(Biblical texts for this article: 1 Samuel 8:1-22, II Chronicles 36:1-14, Acts 5:33-42, Matthew 6:7-13).