By Imani K. Bryant
President Donald Trump and his sycophants want us to believe that the Constitution was handed down to the founders like the Ten Commandments were to the biblical Moses – divine, untouchable, and interpreted in whatever way allows Trump the most power – ignoring the checks and balances at the heart of our democracy. This power-hungry, extremist agenda is the unholy marriage of Christian Nationalism and fascism. It is a political and theological movement that is not simply authoritarianism, but a belief system that fuses God and government. The result is a modern theocracy cloaked in patriotism.
Despite his obvious lack of devotion, Trump and Trumpism appeal to the most extreme, power-hungry sect of American Christians. They favor strong, authoritarian leaders who espouse a semi-secularized version of their rhetoric, which is how Christian Nationalists found their champion in Trump. Their ideology is American fascism repurposed and repackaged for the 21st century, and white Christian Nationalism is its theology. To understand how we arrived at this moment, we need to examine the origins of this belief system – and how it has been embedded in America from the beginning. It’s a deeply American idea. And it’s working exactly as designed.
Christian Nationalism is often referred to as something that is “unrecognizable” to many Christians; however, it is specific to the values and principles of America’s founding. These are not the values you might find scrawled in the Constitution or any of its 27 amendments, nor are they to be found among the Federalist Papers or the Declaration of Independence. They are the unwritten values of white supremacy, patriarchy and unfettered capitalism. Christian Nationalists superimpose their rigid worldview onto American values. Rigid gender and sexuality norms, economic inequality and a racist reading of the Bible are mapped onto American conceptions of freedom, liberty and justice.
When the first waves of English settlers arrived on the east coast of North America, they were driven away from their homeland, but they also believed that they were being driven toward something greater. They recontextualized biblical passages to align with what they were experiencing. They believed that they were God’s new chosen people and that it was His will they be cast out of their own Egyptian bondage and settle in the wild lands of the New World. They believed God was setting them up to build a society unlike any the world had ever seen.
This idea has suffused through the American psyche and has become the backbone of the Christian Nationalist worldview. The early settlers sowed the seeds of American exceptionalism, and those seeds were watered by their version of Christianity. Ultimately, that foundational myth of divine purpose, white purity and patriarchal order didn’t vanish. It evolved. And today, it finds new life in the modern political tools of Christian Nationalism.
Power and control are its ultimate beliefs, and any threat to that is viewed as an existential threat to America itself. Trumpism, Project 2025, and policies opposing Critical Race Theory and diversity, equity and inclusion are all responses to perceived threats to white Christian dominance. Christian Nationalists see the expansion of civil rights and liberties to women, non-white people, the LGBTQ+ community, religious minorities and immigrants as a threat to not only their dominance, but their very existence. They believe that power is a zero-sum game that requires some to be assigned to second-class citizenship. They believe that if they are not the dominant group in society, they will be second-class citizens, and to them that is unlivable and unthinkable.
This dangerous movement does not seek to allow for any dissent or plurality; rather its sole goal is to subjugate everyone to its dominance to maintain their “God-informed” leadership. For Christian Nationalism the ultimate expression of the faith is the installation of a paternalistic theocracy at the expense of American democracy.
As a Black, queer Christian, this co-opting and bastardization of the faith at the core of my beliefs is deeply personal. I grew up in the Atlanta metro area, where the scars of Jim Crow continue to shape public policy. I grew up visiting the Civil War battlefield at Kennesaw Mountain with my elementary school, seeing markers of Sherman’s march to the sea, touring the King Center and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home, and even visiting former plantations.
I learned from a young age the power religion has to aid in liberation and oppression, and the value of an inclusive, multiracial, pluralistic democracy. And I can’t sit by idly while Christian Nationalists take center stage. They’ve been patiently waiting for their moment, and if we don’t stop them now, we will not only lose the public debate, but also our democracy.
White Christian Nationalism conflates the love of God with the love of the state, and questioning one is an assault on the other. This dangerous and insidious socio-political movement is a threat to American democracy, but it is not a foreign one. This homegrown virus of the body politic of America seeks to destroy the written principles of this nation because Christian Nationalists believe they are the only ones who are entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And unless we confront that theology, we risk letting fascism march forward in the name of God.
Imani K. Bryant is a Youth Organizing Fellow at Americans United for Separation of Church and State and a scholar of American political theology. The views expressed here are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of Americans United. Photo by Getty Images.
