Anglicans and Christian Nationalism
Embryo Parson Posted on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at 07:31PM “If you don’t want Christian nationalism, what kind of nationalism do you want? And if it’s not the Christianity that’s the problem, is it the nationalism? … if we don’t want nationalism, do we want globalism?”
These questions from Voddie Baucham demand answers from all of us Christians, including those who have expressed serious concern about if not outright contempt for the idea of Christian Nationalism.
The political Anabaptists among us, including some neo-Anglicans who seem to be wallowing in their ahistorical and theologically lacking approach to the issue, have delivered a resounding "no" to the argument for Christian Nationalism. But what is their alternative? Again, Baucham forces them to speak plainly on the matter and answer the questions.
I am one among many who have hoped, clearly now in vain, for a libertarian solution. Everyone just leave everyone else alone and leave the State, if it is to exist at all, to provide minimal services while "every man does what is right in his own eyes." I am still sympathetic to certain libertarian principles, but I see now that libertarianism has failed abysmally to deal with the reality of the organic nature of human society and culture. What's more, it is abundantly clear that we can't "just all get along" in that framework. There is no libertarian utopia, real or imagined. It really is all about tribes; about communal organisms. Burke was right. And the non-Christian tribe here in these States, the LGBT movement seemingly leading the charge, is intent on forcing its will upon us.
So. . .
Since this is the case, Christians should start thinking seriously about abandoning Lockean individualism. Whatever Locke meant, I do not believe that he would put his stamp of approval on today's state of affairs in America. It's clear that secularist government has failed. It's not in any sense "neutral" at the end of the day, but godless and intensely anti-Christian.
We Christians in the West (it applies to Europe too) are sick of it. We're done. If we are true Christians, we should have long ago resolved that we will not be ruled by these people. I have so resolved. Have you? Assuming you're not a political Anabaptist?
Though nations and states are admittedly distinguishable conceptually, we often talk in terms of "nation-states." The Jews have an official nation-state. The Muslims have official nation-states. Western secularists have official nation-states. Why can't Christians have an official nation-state or states? Because the New Testament commits us to political Anabaptism? Rubbish, I say.
A certain brand of Protestantism argues that the Constantinian Settlement represented the Church going off the rails. But what if these Protestants are wrong? What if, instead, the Settlement was part of the Father's plan to advance his kingdom as referenced in the Lord's Prayer? Or the national conversions to Christianity such as that of Armenia, the first nation to convert in the early 4th century? What if "Christendom" was actually his will, and not, as these Protestants claim, a woeful, pagan aberration from the Faith?
“If you don’t want Christian nationalism, what kind of nationalism do you want? And if it’s not the Christianity that’s the problem, is it the nationalism? … if we don’t want nationalism, do we want globalism?”
Or Western secular government? Why would we want Western secular government when it's now clear that it planted the seeds of its own destruction?
You who denigrate the idea of Christian Nationalism, answer these questions. You Anglicans among them, answer them along with question of why it is you do so when Anglicanism, including the prayer book you use, was the product of English Christian Nationalism. And while you're at it, tell us why the famous Anglican literary figure and social critic T.S. Eliot was wrong when he penned these words:
“The World is trying the experiment of attempting to form a civilized but non-Christian mentality. The experiment will fail; but we must be very patient in awaiting its collapse; meanwhile redeeming the time: so that the Faith may be preserved alive through the dark ages before us; to renew and rebuild civilization, and save the World from suicide."
Tell us as well what we mean when we pray in the Prayers of the People at every Mass:
"We beseech thee also, so to direct and dispose the hearts of all Christian Rulers, that they may truly and impartially administer justice, to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of thy true religion, and virtue."
Reader Comments (3)
A really excellent post, Father. I think a lot of us have gone through the evolution you describe from libertarianism, over the last few years, to realizing that neutrality doesn't exist, and then casting about for a replacement.
I'm OK with some versions of Christian nationalism, and maybe even accept them. I'd say I do. It's a broad spectrum, though, with some good and some very bad ideas both walking around with the same name.
You write that perhaps we are meant to go back to the Christendom of earlier Europe. It's possible, but I can never forget that it collapsed and led us to where we are now. What are the changes we need to make to that model to prevent that happening again? What if it's just that the model was wrong, or can no longer work in the modern world?
And so many Christian nationalists seem to have latched onto Donald Trump as some kind of savior. Look, I'm not voting for Biden, and I voted for Trump in 2020 and may do so again, but if that thoroughly evil man is anybody's hope for a Christian society, then it's unlikely their movement is headed somewhere worth going vis-a-vis church and state (in my opinion).
All of which leaves me, frankly, thoroughly befuddled. Neutrality seems dead. Christianity must play a role in the state of the future, but the state and the church are both collapsing, and neither seems to be the solution the other needs at this moment. I don't see what to do *at this moment* but struggle onward as a Christian in a chaotic world, pray for both the Church and the State, and try to prepare that I might recognize the virtuous order that I pray for when it arrives.
As I say, an excellent post. Thank you.
Thank you for your kind and articulate reply, Stephen. I think my answer is summed up in that quotation from Eliot. We wait and pray, but we also prepare. How we are to prepare, well, I haven't gotten that far yet, though I have a couple of inchoate ideas about localism and grassroots activism. I'll post more thoughts about this if and when I have them. You're right about Trump, however. He's not going to be our solution, though he is clearly much less hostile to us than the ”godless party”.
Thank you, Father. The Eliot quote is indeed beautiful and completely relevant. I will keep it in mind.