TIO Public Square

Religious Fervor and Political Manipulation: A Combustible Combination

by Robert P. Sellers

In 2019, Good Faith Media – a progressive news and opinion website that says it “provides reflection and resources at the intersection of faith and culture through an inclusive Christian lens” – published an article of mine: “Why you must repel insidious lies of Christian Nationalism.” With their permission, I include below an edited version of a portion of that five-year-old piece as an introduction to this Public Square article.

MUSLIM NATIONALISM IN INDONESIA

I had the privilege of living and working for 25 years in Indonesia, the beautiful string of island pearls that extends 3,100 miles along the equator in southeast Asia. Blessed with surprising biodiversity, racial and ethnic variation among its more than 1,300 tribal groups, fascinating and distinct cultures and a wealth of linguistic traditions and dynamic languages, Indonesia is the fourth largest nation in the world.

It is therefore entirely appropriate that the national motto of this complex of peoples and places is “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (‘Unity in Diversity’).

One other significant factor enriches the diversity of Indonesian life: the multiplicity of religions.

Throughout the islands, numerous folk religions engage the loyalties of tribal peoples and govern their daily lives. On the islands of Java and Bali are the monuments and rituals accompanying Hinduism and Buddhism, which date back to the seventh century CE. Immigrants from the East have brought an array of Chinese religious ways to Indonesia, while explorers and merchants from the West have planted Christianity in the soil of these tropical shores. But beginning in the 13th century, it has been the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad that have gained ascendency in Indonesia, now the most populous Muslim nation on the globe.

The diversity of this relatively young nation (1949) is enshrined in “Pancasila,” the national ideology of the Republic of Indonesia, which consists of five principles:

Belief in the only, one God
Just and civilized humanitarianism
Indonesian unity/nationalism
Democracy led by wisdom born of consultation
Social justice for the entire Indonesian population

The doctrine of Pancasila has helped the Indonesian government and people to resist any attempts to make the country more exclusive, sectarian or monolithic.

Nonetheless, there is a populism, especially on the most densely populated and politically influential island of Java, that has argued against this religious and cultural diversity. Thus, it was common to hear or read assertions that “to be Javanese (or Indonesian) is to be Muslim.”

This banner cry was a denial of the existence and contributions of the millions of Indonesians whose religious and cultural traditions were animist, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucian, Daoist, Christian, secular or any number of other philosophies.

Thus, when I heard or read this perspective, it not only seemed shortsighted, but also unkind and bigoted.

CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IN THE UNITED STATES

The United States shares some significant traits with Indonesia. We are a beautiful country with geographical, biological, racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity. We have a similar national motto, E Pluribus Unum (‘Out of Many, One’). Moreover, we have a huge population, making us the third largest country in the world.

An important element of our diversity, like Indonesia’s, is our religious differences. We Americans practice many religions, or no religion, and this freedom to believe as we choose was part of the founding vision of our forebears.

Yet, today there is a banner cry that has arisen which falsely claims “to be American is to be Christian.” When I hear this assertion, I feel the same way that I felt when we lived in Indonesia and I heard “To be Javanese is to be Muslim.” Here, I also believe this claim is not only shortsighted, but also unkind and bigoted.

Amanda Tyler is the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) in Washington, D.C., and the organizer of the Christians against Christian Nationalism Campaign. The BJC is an 86-year-old organization which describes itself as:

the only national faith-based group solely focused on protecting religious freedom for all. [W]e file briefs in pivotal Supreme Court cases, advocate for and against legislation, testify in Congress and unite with others across faiths to ensure that every American has – and always will have – the right to follow spiritual beliefs.

In a recent podcast with historian of religion, Bill Leonard, of Wake Forest University, Tyler discussed her new book How to End Christian Nationalism (Broadleaf Books, 2024). When asked to define Christian nationalism, she said:

**Photo:** **Quinn Dombrowski, CC 2.0 BY SA**

Christian nationalism is a political ideology and a cultural framework that tries to merge American and Christian identities. And it’s a subset of a larger phenomenon of religious nationalism which has been a recurrent problem throughout history and around the world today. American Christian nationalism suggests that to be a real American, a true American, one has to be a Christian. And not just any Christian, but a Christian who holds fundamentalist religious beliefs that are in line with certain conservative political priorities. So I think it’s important to note that Christian nationalism is not just an ideology and a framework but also a highly organized political movement.

On October 25, 2023, Tyler testified before the United States Congress concerning the threat of Christian nationalism. Democratic Congressman from Florida, Maxwell Frost, introduced the congressional hearing by saying:

Christian nationalism is a form of religious extremism making its way into our policies and undermining our democracy. These extremist actors are coopting the language of Christianity and religious freedom to push an undemocratic agenda. … As a man of faith, I know that Christianity is not Christian nationalism. I oppose my faith being used to whitewash a racist, violent and dangerous ideology.

WHY CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM IS SO DANGEROUS

Andrew Whitehead is associate professor of sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where he is housed in the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. His lauded 2023 book, American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, explains the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” of Christian nationalism and reframes the biblical question, “who is my neighbor?”

Whitehead prefers to name this destructive phenomenon “white Christian nationalism,” because of his understanding that it “essentially teaches that this country was founded by white, conservative Christian men for the benefit of white, conservative Christian citizens.” He identifies three distinct “idols” of white Christian nationalists – power, fear and violence.

All three of these idolatrous “golden cows” of white Christian nationalism have been present in the words and actions of president-elect Donald Trump and his political allies.

The Big Lie about the 2020 election “steal” was Trump’s effort to retain power, including everything he did to overturn the election results: continuously talk about the steal, spread conspiracy theories about voting irregularities and write about being cheated on Truth Social; plot to set up alternative lists of state electors to overturn the results of a Biden victory; pressure the vice-president, swing state governors and election officials to declare he won; lodge more than 60 court cases in an effort to be declared the winner; gather supporters in Washington on January 6, 2021, and send them to the Capitol to disrupt the joint session of Congress which had convened to certify the results of the presidential election.

During the months of campaigning for this recent election, fear was generated repeatedly to turn voters away from Kamala Harris – fear of invading “illegal aliens,” fear of children being given sex-change operations at school, fear of rising costs and increasing struggle for average families to survive, fear of foreign attacks against the United States and a woman president’s inability to keep us out of war, fear of continued influence of “crooked Joe” and his “corrupt” administration.

The hints of coming violence were not infrequent: the warning that a loss for Trump could even lead to a new civil war, a conflict more deadly than the January 6 insurrection; the promise that the national guard and the military would be used against his political enemies, journalists and other detractors; the threat that women who obtained abortions and the doctors who provided their care should be prosecuted; the suggestion that world leaders would be so intimidated by Trump that they would never dare to oppose the U.S.

All of this seems to be okay now for seasoned members of the GOP. It reminds me of a statement of South Carolina senator Lindsay Graham, decrying the loss of John McCain to Barack Obama in 2008. Graham concluded: “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.” Well, Senator Graham should be pleased now, for angry white guys have been successfully generated.

**Pete Hegseth — Photo:** **Gage Skidmore, CC 2.0 BY SA**

Those who support and surround Trump gladly identify as Christian nationalists. Pete Hegseth, his nominee for Secretary of Defense, has ties with Christ Church, a “controversial congregation in Moscow, Idaho, that has become a leader in the movement to get more Christianity into the public sphere.” Russell Vought was the director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term and is president of the Center for Renewing America, a think tank which is planning to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in a second Trump term.

Christian nationalists were active on the campaign trail for Donald Trump. Lance Wallnau, formerly a marketer for the oil industry but now a charismatic Christian author and media star, made at least six stops on his Courage Tour through Pennsylvania. The tour’s goal was to recruit the attendees at his rallies to become poll watchers and election workers. Using Christian nationalist persuasion, Wallnau said – from the convention hall stage in Monroeville, near Pittsburg – “This isn’t a political rally. It’s much different than a revival meeting, it’s kind of a new type of thing. It’s where the people of God, the citizens of heaven, bring heaven to earth.”

Not a Christian nationalist but its opponent, Robert P. Jones – a leading scholar and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute – has written three best-selling books about white Christian America. In a recent essay for Time Magazine he explained that “the connection between Republican voters and their leaders was never primarily about abortion. Rather, as Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) transformation of the [Republican] party reveals, Trump’s bond with his supporters is forged from different material: namely, his militant mission to return power to white Christian America.”

It is no accident that “illegal aliens” coming across our southern border were identified repeatedly as the evil that Donald Trump alone could fix. The air at Madison Square Garden at Trump’s rally was rancid with attacks on people fleeing poverty, oppression and danger in their own countries to seek a better life in the United States. They were all grouped together and identified as gang members, drug cartel criminals, rapists and murderers. When Stephen Miller, Trump’s subsequent choice to serve as the White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy in his new administration shouted, “America is for Americans and Americans only!” it was as if he was using a secret code to awaken white Americans, even white Christian Americans, with the fearful images of a nightmare future without Trump to protect them.

Whitehead notes some identifying markers for Christian nationalism in our society. He says that in local Christian congregations, the presence of the American flag in the sanctuary, annual “Celebrate America” services around July 4th, and self-interested or fearful sermons from the pulpit all signal this phenomenon. Among Christian individuals, the signs are prevalent also, including defending access to power, a focus on fear, us-versus-them thinking, a willingness to approve of violence, nostalgia for the “good old days,” and a view of our Founding Fathers as Christians just like us.

You may not be a Christian, but the increasing prevalence of Christian nationalism in America should concern you also. Your freedom to practice your own or no religion is at risk. Laws may be passed that radically shift how the distinctiveness of you and your family is recognized, like the new Texas School Board’s approved ruling that Bible teachings may now be incorporated into the curriculum of public grade schools for children in kindergarten through the fifth-grade. Incidentally, schools that follow this “optional” plan will receive more funding than schools that do not.

Researchers have found that 45% of Americans embrace Christian nationalism and think that America should be a Christian nation. They, perhaps even innocently, are helping set fire to America’s “out of many-oneness,” because religious fervor and political manipulation are a combustible combination.

Header Photo: Sharon Tate Soberon, CC 2.0 BY ND