What is Christian Nationalism, and what are its characteristics? Encyclopedia Britannica describes it as “a political ideology that seeks to merge national identity with a particular vision of Christianity, shaping laws and public life around that vision.”
Authentic Christianity is a faith centered on the life, teachings, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, the Nazarene.
President Trump’s devotees often identify as Christian Nationalists. A chasm obviously exists between those who promote this belief system and those who do not. Here are some questions that can be helpful to understand why there is such a disparity in beliefs.
#1.) Can you name the first four books of the New Testament? No peeking!
#2.) Can you recite at least three of the Beatitudes?
#3.) Where in the Bible is the Sermon on the Mount found?
My purpose in asking those personal questions stems from what American Christians did in the 1950’s. Norman Vincent Peale was a popular speaker, listened to on his radio programs and watched on his TV broadcasts. His book, The Power of Positive Thinking, took the country by storm and influenced a dramatic increase in Bible purchases.
Four-fifths of adult Americans polled on the question claimed the Bible to be the “revealed word of God” (Richard Hughes, Myths America Lives By, Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003, p. 170).
When asked to name “the first four books of the New Testament,” however, 53 percent of those same Americans could not name one. Writing in 1955, Will Hedberg observed that “This is at least part of the picture presented by religion in contemporary America: Christians flocking to church, yet forgetting all about Christ when it comes to naming the most significant events in history; men and women valuing the Bible as revelation, purchasing and distributing it by the millions, yet apparently seldom reading it themselves” (Hughes, p.170).
Hedberg concluded, “Americans seem to be at once the most religious and the most secular of nations” (Hughes, p.170).
Summing up Richard Hughes’ comments in his history of religious belief and practice in this country, depth of feeling is important, but not without objective meaning. Many Americans in the 1950s, as now, were fervent believers in a very vague religion.
I was a teenager when our Sunday school teacher said that, if you are thirsty and near cool, clear water bubbling up from a spring, there is the best place to quench your thirst. Miles downstream, the water becomes polluted with dirt and all kinds of trash. Going straight to the teachings of Jesus is like drinking the pure waters of that spring.
Something Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said in his prayer at the Pentagon is an example of exactly what that Sunday school teacher said about drinking from polluted water. Hegseth stunned and dismayed many Christians. He prayed, giving the impression he was quoting from the Old Testa- ment to justify the violent war against the Iranians: “And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother” (forbes.com/sites/ maryroeloffs/2026/04/16/ pete-hegseth-quotes-violent- prayer-from-pulp-fiction- references-bible/).
Hegseth let people believe he was quoting from the Bible, but his words were actually a gross misrepresentation of that verse in Ezekiel 25:17. He really quoted from a line in Pulp Fiction (1994), specifically famous but famously false (forbes).
Those like Hegseth rely on the Old Testament examples of violence and vengeance but avoid the Beatitudes. We read the Old Testament for wisdom, its histories, and prophecies. We should not read it as a guide for rulekeeping.
In my view, the current Christian Nationalists’ policies and practices echo Richard Hughes’ observations of 1950’s Americans; much talking about Christianity but failing to fully live by its teachings. We remember the violence against Blacks during that decade and the one following, often falsely defended by sermons from pulpits.
Particularly in the deep South, White preachers and laypeople strongly opposed the ending of segregation (mississippiencyclopedia. org/ entries/religion-and-thecivil- rights-movement/).
I vividly remember a 1950’s preacher who came one Sunday to my small church. He said, “Negroes’ brains are smaller than those of White people, so they can’t mix equally with Whites in school or anywhere else.” The ignorance and racism evident in that statement are appalling.
Christian Nationalists and their preachers do not quote the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, or other teachings of Christ Jesus regarding how we should care for each other. Because of that, racism is reappearing. This is evident in the way I.C.E. treats brown- or black-skinned immigrants. It is evident in the surprise attack on February 28, 2026, that exterminated thousands of innocent Iranian civilians, beginning with 160 schoolgirls killed on the first day of Trump’s illegal war. These examples show how the lives of our fellow humans are not valued.