WASHINGTON (AP) – Christian images and rhetoric seen during this month’s Capitol uprising are sparking a renewed debate over the social effects of merging the Christian faith with an exclusive race of nationalism.
Riot police who raped the Capitol on Jan. 6 and sparked federal charges against more than 130 people so far have included several people carrying placards with Christian messages and the video showed a man in a fur hat and horns driving others. people in a prayer inside the Senate Chamber. They also included several current or former members of the U.S. Army or Police, as well as a West Virginia state lawmaker.
The rise of what is often called Christian nationalism has long led to the retreat of leaders of multiple denominations, with the Joint Baptist Committee on Religious Freedom forming the Christian Coalition Against Christian Nationalism in 2019. But then of the insurrection, other Christian leaders spoke out to denounce what they saw as a misuse of their faith to justify a violent attack on a government headquarters.
Russell Moore, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy group, said that when he saw a “Jesus saves” sign near a gallows built by riot police, “I was infuriated to a point that I didn’t “This is not only dangerous and unpatriotic, but it is also blasphemous, as it presents an image of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is not the gospel and that is its exact reverse.”
Dwight McKissic, one of the leading black Southern Baptist pastors who has publicly criticized the denomination of racial justice by leaders of the denomination he urged them in a tweet to “also denounce this flagrant manifestation of white Christian nationalism” by the insurgents.
However, to curb what liberal and conservative clergy consider an misappropriation of their faith, they must first face the challenge of defining Christian nationalism for a wide audience. Christians against Christian nationalism describe it as an ideology that “demands that Christianity be privileged by the state and implies that to be a good American one must be a Christian.”
During a virtual panel the coalition held this week, a prominent leader stressed that love for the homeland and God can coexist without making of a Christian nationalist person.
It is “very important to understand that we are not condemning ourselves to be patriots,” said the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, who heads the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Christians “can still be active participants in the public square” as long as they remain faithful to their faith, he added.
The Rev. Walter Kim, president of the National Evangelical Association, sounded a similar note in an interview citing the corrosive effects of “the convergence of a nationalist identity and a Christian identity.”
“I certainly love our country and, as a child of immigrant parents, I am deeply grateful for the hope that this nation represents,” Kim said. “But as a Christian, my highest fidelity is to Christ.”
Still, some supporters of former President Donald Trump say allegations of Christian nationalism are a way to attack them politically. Former Rep. Allen West, now president of the Texas GOP, said in a group Tuesday with several religious conservatives sponsored by the My Faith Votes group that the term is used against those who “do not fit into a progressive ideological agenda. and socialist “.
Another wrinkle in efforts to turn Christians away from an openly nationalist projection of their faith is QAnon, the conspiracy theory whose believers were at the center of the January 6 rally in support of the unsubstantiated claims. Trump’s foundation of widespread election fraud, as well as the riot that followed.
In the video filmed by a New York reporter during the siege, Jacob Jacobs, known as the “shaman QAnon” for his alignment with conspiracy theory and self-described spiritual inclinations, uttered a prayer thanking God “for allowing states to be reborn.” United States of America. ”As Chansley spoke, other riots fell silent in apparent participation.
Robert Jones, CEO of the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute, said QAnon focuses on a set of “very apocalyptic, good versus evil” assumptions that connect Trump’s party to divinity. and the Democrats with the pagan.
“The fact that we saw QAnon, white supremacy, and white Christianity all together in a violent attack on the Capitol means that particularly white Christians must do a real search for the soul,” said Jones, author of two books on the white Christianity in America.
Christian author Jemar Tisby said in an email that elements of Christianity present in the riot indicate that “violent nationalists have developed ways to display these religious symbols in the service of their malevolent ends.”
“Christians who want to take advantage of Christian nationalism may find themselves leaving their churches because the ideology is so ingrained that there are no significant changes on the horizon,” said Tisby, CEO of The Witness, a black Christian organization.
Meanwhile, Moore said he has begun talking to pastors about stifling the potential influence of QAnon within congregations and that he plans to do more to provide resources for that purpose.
“One of the barriers to talking about these conspiracy theories is that many pastors and leaders rightly recognize these things as crazy, so they assume there is no need to talk about them,” he said. “But we’re living a crazy time.”
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