Christian Opposition to Christian Nationalism

Christian opposition to Christian nationalism encompasses a wide range of theological, denominational, pastoral, and civic responses to efforts to closely associate Christianity with national identity or governmental authority. Opposition comes from Christians across numerous traditions, including Baptists, evangelicals, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians and Anglicans, United Methodists, members of the United Church of Christ, Catholics, Disciples of Christ, and other ecumenical and independent Christian organizations.

The arguments represented in Christian critiques of Christian nationalism vary considerably. Some emphasize traditional doctrines concerning the kingdom of God and the universal nature of the church. Others stress religious liberty, freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, democratic pluralism, or concern about the effects of government preference for one religion. Still others approach the issue through questions of race, historical memory, authoritarianism, political power, or Christian discipleship.

A recurring distinction in these sources is between Christian nationalism and ordinary Christian participation in politics. Many Christian critics argue that Christians can participate actively in civic affairs, advocate policies informed by their religious beliefs, or practice patriotism without maintaining that Christianity should possess a privileged political status or that national identity should be defined through Christianity.

Theological Critiques

One of the most common Christian arguments against Christian nationalism is theological. Critics contend that Christianity is fundamentally a transnational religion whose central allegiance is to God rather than to any particular nation.

Evangelical writers such as Russell Moore, J. D. Greear, Patrick Schreiner, Kevin DeYoung, Paul D. Miller, and other conservative Protestant thinkers have criticized different forms of Christian nationalism while sometimes disagreeing over how broadly the term should be defined. Their arguments frequently distinguish Christian political engagement from the use of Christianity to sanctify national identity, ethnic identity, or governmental power.

Some critics draw on Jesus' statements concerning his kingdom, the Great Commission, and the church's mission across national and ethnic boundaries. From this perspective, identifying Christianity too closely with one nation can transform a universal religious faith into an instrument of national identity.

Other writers describe Christian nationalism as a form of political idolatry when loyalty to the nation, political movement, or leader assumes a place that Christian theology reserves for God.

At the same time, several sources caution against treating every politically conservative Christian position, patriotic expression, or effort to bring religious convictions into public life as Christian nationalism. These writers argue that precise definitions are important both for theological clarity and for productive public discussion.

Religious Liberty and Church-State Separation

Religious liberty is another major theme in Christian opposition to Christian nationalism.

The Baptist tradition is particularly prominent in the collected material. The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and its Christians Against Christian Nationalism initiative argue that religious freedom requires government neither to establish nor privilege Christianity over other religions or nonreligion.

This approach draws on longstanding Baptist arguments concerning freedom of conscience and institutional separation between religion and government. Christian opponents working within this tradition maintain that government favoritism toward Christianity can harm both minority religions and Christianity itself by making religious authority dependent upon political power.

The Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign has developed statements, educational materials, podcasts, congregational resources, discussion guides, and local organizing efforts. Its materials distinguish Christian nationalism from Christianity itself and from ordinary patriotism or Christian political participation.

These arguments frequently emphasize equal citizenship regardless of religious identity. From this perspective, Christians may advocate their beliefs in the public sphere while also defending the same political and religious freedoms for Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists, agnostics, and members of other religious communities.

Denominational Responses

Opposition to Christian nationalism increasingly appears in formal denominational discussions and resolutions.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has debated Christian nationalism through committees, educational programs, General Assembly actions, congregational initiatives, and theological discussions. Its 2026 General Assembly considered measures describing white Christian nationalism as incompatible with Christian teaching and encouraging churches to address the issue through education and public witness.

Presbyterian congregations and organizations have also explored how Christians might distinguish patriotism from nationalism. Some Presbyterian materials draw on the Reformed tradition and historical church statements concerning the dangers of subordinating Christian institutions to political ideology.

The United Church of Christ has published resources and organized programs addressing white Christian nationalism, political extremism, congregational inclusion, and Christian public witness.

United Methodist sources document clergy and congregations participating in demonstrations and denominational discussions concerning Christian nationalism, authoritarianism, racism, and the relationship between Christian faith and political power.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has adopted denominational material opposing Christian nationalism and presenting pluralism, equality, and the common good as alternatives to government religious preference.

Lutheran resources, including material published through the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, examine Christian nationalism through theology, history, religious ethics, and the experience of churches confronting nationalism in earlier historical periods.

Baptist Opposition

Baptist opposition occupies a particularly large portion of the collected material.

Baptist critics often appeal to the historic Baptist commitment to freedom of conscience and the independence of religious institutions from government. They argue that establishing political privileges for Christians conflicts with the religious-liberty tradition that developed partly from the experience of Baptists and other dissenting Christians under established churches.

Amanda Tyler and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty are especially prominent in these discussions. Their work emphasizes distinguishing Christian nationalism from Christianity, conservative theology, patriotism, and legitimate religious advocacy.

Baptist writers also address Christian nationalism in relation to public schools, voting rights, gun culture, January 6, historical claims about the United States as a Christian nation, and contemporary partisan politics.

For these critics, opposing Christian nationalism does not necessarily require withdrawing Christianity from public life. Rather, their stated objective is to protect a public sphere in which people of different religious convictions participate without government assigning superior civic status to one faith.

Evangelical Opposition

The sources also demonstrate substantial debate within evangelical Christianity.

Evangelical critics of Christian nationalism include pastors, theologians, historians, political theorists, and journalists associated with organizations such as Christianity Today, The Gospel Coalition, Wheaton College, and Baptist publications.

Russell Moore has repeatedly argued against attempts to identify Christianity with American national identity or partisan political power. Other evangelical writers, including Paul D. Miller, Patrick Schreiner, Kevin DeYoung, and J. D. Greear, have offered critiques from conservative theological perspectives.

These critiques do not always use the term Christian nationalism in exactly the same way. Some distinguish moderate claims about Christianity's historical influence from stronger forms advocating governmental preference, ethnic nationalism, political coercion, or an officially Christian state.

This internal disagreement illustrates an important feature of the broader Christian debate: opposition to Christian nationalism is not confined to Christians with one political ideology or denominational identity.

Mainline Protestant Responses

Mainline Protestant denominations and congregations constitute another major center of opposition.

Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, United Methodist, United Church of Christ, and other mainline sources frequently emphasize pluralism, equality, historical reflection, racial justice, democratic participation, and institutional independence of churches from political authority.

Some congregations have organized sermon series, educational programs, workshops, Bible studies, and public discussions intended to help church members understand Christian nationalism.

Other approaches focus on pastoral practice. Rather than treating adherents to Christian nationalist ideas solely as political opponents, some pastors advocate sustained conversations, theological education, relationships, and discipleship within congregations.

This pastoral approach reflects concern that Christian nationalism may operate not only through organized political movements but also through assumptions about national history, cultural identity, patriotism, race, or the relationship between Christianity and citizenship.

Catholic Perspectives

Catholic responses represented in the material approach Christian nationalism through Catholic social teaching, religious liberty, political theology, and the distinction between church and state.

Catholic writers and bishops have debated how Christians should participate in public life without treating the state as an instrument for imposing a particular theological identity.

The sources also discuss Catholic integralism, which raises related but distinct questions about the proper relationship between Catholicism, civil authority, and religious pluralism.

Catholic discussions demonstrate that debates over religious nationalism are not limited to Protestant Christianity and involve broader questions concerning political authority, religious freedom, civic participation, and the common good.

Christian Nationalism and Democracy

Many Christian opponents connect the debate over Christian nationalism to questions concerning democracy and equal citizenship.

These sources often argue that government identification with one religion can create practical or symbolic distinctions between citizens who belong to the preferred religion and those who do not.

Concerns expressed in the collected material include voting rights, public education, government-sponsored religious instruction, political violence, authoritarianism, minority rights, and efforts to portray the United States as possessing a special covenantal or theological status.

Some Christian critics therefore frame religious pluralism as both a constitutional principle and a religious commitment. They argue that defending the religious freedom of people outside Christianity can itself be understood as a Christian moral obligation.

Other Christian writers emphasize that democracy and Christianity are distinct institutions and caution against treating any particular political system as identical with the Christian faith.

January 6 and Political Violence

The January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol became an important catalyst for Christian discussion about nationalism.

Several sources examine Christian imagery, prayer, biblical language, and Christian nationalist symbolism associated with participants in the attack. Christian leaders subsequently issued statements condemning religious justifications for political violence and distinguishing Christianity from the nationalist rhetoric present during the event.

Baptist, evangelical, ecumenical, and academic organizations produced reports, public statements, congressional briefings, and educational resources examining Christian nationalism in connection with January 6.

For some Christian organizations, January 6 accelerated efforts that had already begun before the attack. Christians Against Christian Nationalism, for example, originated in 2019 and subsequently expanded its educational and organizing activities.

Race and White Christian Nationalism

A significant portion of Christian opposition focuses specifically on white Christian nationalism.

These discussions examine historical relationships among Christianity, race, American national identity, slavery, segregation, immigration, and political power.

Some critics argue that narratives depicting the United States as inherently Christian can obscure the historical exclusion of Indigenous peoples, enslaved Africans, religious minorities, immigrants, and others from full political membership.

Black Christian writers and other Christians of color also complicate simplistic descriptions of Christian nationalism. The collected material includes discussion of Black Christian nationalist traditions as well as Christian critiques of white Christian nationalism from Black, Latino, and other perspectives.

Consequently, race appears in the literature not simply as an additional political issue but as part of a larger debate about who historically has been imagined as belonging within the American nation.

Patriotism and Nationalism

Many Christian critics distinguish nationalism from patriotism.

Within this framework, patriotism can mean affection for one's country, participation in civic institutions, concern for neighbors, remembrance of national history, or service to the public good. Nationalism becomes more controversial when national identity is treated as sacred, divinely chosen, ethnically exclusive, or entitled to religious privilege.

Christian critics frequently argue that Christians may love their country while refusing to identify any nation with the kingdom of God.

Some sources likewise caution against using the term Christian nationalism so broadly that ordinary displays of patriotism or conventional Christian political activity are automatically placed within the category.

The resulting debate is therefore partly about political theology and partly about definitions.

Pastoral and Congregational Responses

A substantial portion of Christian anti-nationalist activity occurs within congregations rather than electoral politics.

Pastors and church leaders have developed sermons, Bible studies, workshops, discussion groups, curricula, hymnody, podcasts, and other resources intended to help Christians think about nationalism through their own religious traditions.

Some leaders emphasize direct denunciation. Others emphasize conversation with Christians attracted to nationalist ideas.

Pastoral approaches represented in the sources include theological instruction, historical education, relationship building, confession and repentance, nonviolence, community service, interfaith cooperation, and discussion of religious liberty.

This congregational focus reflects the belief among many Christian critics that Christian nationalism cannot be addressed solely as an external political movement because its underlying ideas can also develop within Christian communities.

Christian Organizing and Grassroots Opposition

Christian opposition has also developed through organized networks.

Christians Against Christian Nationalism is among the most prominent examples. Launched in 2019, the campaign has developed national and local networks, educational materials, clergy initiatives, discussion resources, and community organizing projects.

Faithful America, Red Letter Christians, Sojourners, denominational bodies, state councils of churches, and local congregations have undertaken related initiatives.

The methods represented in the sources range from public statements and denominational resolutions to local organizing, preaching, community education, interfaith cooperation, school-board advocacy, and conversations among families and church members.

This diversity of tactics illustrates that Christian opposition to Christian nationalism functions simultaneously as a theological debate, a church reform movement, a religious-liberty campaign, and a form of civic engagement.

International Perspectives

Although much of the material concerns the United States, Christian concern about religious nationalism extends beyond the American context.

The Anglican Church of Canada and Presbyterian Church in Canada have addressed Christian nationalism explicitly. Canadian Christian statements emphasize religious pluralism, equality in public life, and resistance to identifying national membership with Christianity.

The material also includes examples from Kenya concerning churches attempting to preserve institutional independence from political leaders and political donations. These examples do not necessarily involve the same ideology or historical context as American Christian nationalism, but they illustrate broader Christian debates concerning the relationship between churches, governments, politicians, and national identity.

International examples also reinforce the theological argument that Christianity is not confined to any single nation and that churches frequently operate across national boundaries.

Diversity Within Christian Opposition

Christian opposition to Christian nationalism should not be understood as a single movement with one theological or political program.

The collected sources include progressives, moderates, conservatives, evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Baptists, Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, pastors, academics, activists, journalists, and denominational institutions.

They disagree about political policies, theological interpretation, definitions of Christian nationalism, the historical role of Christianity in the United States, and the most effective way to respond.

Some emphasize democracy and pluralism. Others emphasize orthodox theology. Some focus on racial justice, while others begin with religious liberty or evangelism. Some describe Christian nationalism as fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, while others caution against determining whether its adherents are authentically Christian and instead focus on criticizing particular beliefs and practices.

What connects these otherwise diverse approaches is concern about some form of fusion between Christian identity and political or national authority.

Conclusion

Christian opposition to Christian nationalism represents a broad and internally diverse current within contemporary Christianity. It includes theological arguments about the kingdom of God, Baptist defenses of religious liberty, evangelical critiques of political idolatry, mainline Protestant denominational responses, Catholic reflection on political theology, congregational education, and grassroots organizing.

Across these different approaches, several recurring themes emerge: Christianity transcends national boundaries; government should not determine authentic religious belief; religious freedom applies to people of different faiths and to people without religious affiliation; patriotism and Christian political participation are not necessarily the same as Christian nationalism; and churches must continually examine the relationship between religious identity and political power.

The debate also demonstrates that Christian opposition to Christian nationalism cannot be mapped neatly onto a single denomination or political ideology. Christians who reject or criticize Christian nationalism often reach that position through substantially different theological traditions and political assumptions.

The resulting discussion is therefore both political and theological. It concerns not only what role Christianity should play in government, but also how Christians understand the church, religious liberty, national identity, citizenship, political authority, and the relationship between allegiance to a country and allegiance to their faith.