The Christian Nationalism Boogeyman
13th November 2022
Which of the zillion prophesied crises will engulf America next? At the moment, the most chattered-about is a “second civil war,” though some also worry that the United States could lapse more peacefully into autocracy. The left, of course, is consumed by fears of climate change drowning New York, while some on the nationalist right foresee a Camp of the Saints-style immigrant invasion overwhelming public services.
Yet amid all the wandering imaginations and doomsday scenarios, there’s one contingency that has absolutely zero chance of happening: America as a Christian theocracy. With all due respect to Sohrab Ahmari and the Handmaid LARPers, there are greater odds of Beto O’Rourke being appointed god-emperor than of any kind of merger between church and state.
Yet this hasn’t stopped some on the left from discovering another boogeyman under the bed. “Christian nationalism” is their new bête noire, and it means roughly what you would expect: that America is a Christian nation and that biblical morality ought to be, if not nationally enforced, then officially promulgated. “Republicans… are openly embracing Christian nationalism,” warned Meet the Press skipper Chuck Todd. “In a matter of months,” pronounced Molly Olmstead at Slate, “‘Christian nationalist’ transformed from being a taboo to cultural signifier,” a normalization she called “dangerous.”