Excerpt From The Interview
“I don’t want to become pedantic, but I need to make a distinction. So according to the critics, Christian nationalism is a toxic stew of those who would conflate Christianity with the United States of America. And in addition to doing that, they’re racist and they’re sexist and they’re homophobic and they’re militarist. And so they want to use the power of the state, the police power, to absolutely oppress all racial minorities, all religious minorities, to impose white Christian nationalism upon the rest of the nation. So this is a scary thing. And then we get all the more scared when we learn from Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead that 51.9 % of Americans fully or partially embrace this toxic stew.
I have a different definition for Christian nationalism. To me, it is a view that America is specially chosen by God to do His work in the world and that Christianity should be favored above other faiths by the government. This favoritism would include things like Congress formally declaring America to be a Christian country and the reintroduction of teacher-led Christian prayers into public schools.”
About Mark David Hall
Mark David Hall is a Professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Religion, Culture, and Democracy, an initiative of First Liberty Institute. He is also Distinguished Scholar of Christianity & Public Life at George Fox University, Associated Faculty at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.
Links Mentioned
Who’s Afraid of Christian Nationalism? By Dr. Mark David Hall (Available April 4, 2024)
Mark’s review of God and Country
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