Christian Nationalism

“My prayer is that not that you would take them out of the world, but that you would protect them from the evil one.”

John 17:15

We’re called to engage in our society and influence our world with the gospel message, both in word and deed. We could say that Christianity is a ‘go and tell faith.’ The call to love our neighbour immediately involves us in our society and can involve social policy that could benefit or harm our neighbours. Therefore, being involved as a caring citizen in public policy is not at odds with Christianity.

In recent years, secularism has branded faith/worship as private and personal. It has no business in the public square. Yet, our nation was founded on democracy, which is backed up by our Constitution. Our rights are also preserved in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, backing up a citizen’s faith as a fundamental right of our nation.

In more recent times, we have seen a rise in what is known as Christian Nationalism, which by no means is a new approach to bringing faith to a nation. We will look at this below.

Christian Nationalism: A Definition

Christian Nationalism is a political distraction that lures allegiance and worship away from the creator, seeking to turn a Christian’s eyes away from Jesus toward a person, political party, or false perception of a nation’s past or future.

Christian nationalism is the expressed desire of a group to acquire unfettered political control to impose allegedly Christian public policy on all residents of a nation.

Gleanings From the Mind of a Christian Leader and Lawyer; Don Hutchinson

Imposing vs. Influencing

This movement is comprised of those who identify as Christians. Its primary goal is to gain influence and power to control the direction of values in our nation. From Mr. Hutchinson’s definition, I tend to focus on the keyword of imposing our faith. Granted, we are called to do our utmost to influence society with the truth of the gospel message, but we do this with an expressed desire to influence, respecting an individual’s God-given right to differ.

God calls us to be involved as salt and light, bearing witness to the truth of Jesus Christ. Yet, both the Apostle Peter and the Apostle Paul exhort us to do so with great respect, courteousness, and gentleness.

See: 1Peter 2:13-17; 3:15; Titus 3:1-2, and Romans 13:1-4.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Titus 3:1-2

This posture (above) does not cower from being public about our faith. The Apostles prayed for greater boldness or confidence in sharing the good news in the face of persecution (Acts 4). But it is not to be done aggressively and with an attitude of being ‘in your face.’ Of course, we will have those who adamantly disagree with our faith in Christ, and that is their choice. Our witness needs to honour that choice, realizing that God has created us to have free will.

Faith As a Tool for Political Purposes

It should be noted here that in our background of intercession for our federal government, we witnessed other religious groups—other than Christians—doing their utmost to try to influence the highest levels of government. Thankfully, these government leaders were able to appeal to our laws and our constitution to defend their stance of not supporting one faith group over the other.

I have often heard that Canada has been and should continue to be a Christian nation, thus calling for a privileged position for Christianity in the public square. While it is true that much of our laws and founding as a nation come from identifying with Christian values, it is also true that any Canadian’s faith, whatever that may be, has an equal right of expression as anyone else.

Therefore, we must not confuse our faith in God’s Kingdom with national pride or political power. Otherwise, we’d be merging Christian identity with national politics, hoping to enforce Christian values through political power. This is mixing our faith with nationalism, which is neither Christian nor nationalism.

From this idea of a privileged group, Christian nationalism would try to achieve Kingdom outcomes by coercing the government to do only its bidding. This would cause division, marginalize different people groups, weaken democracy, and muddle the gospel message. The gospel message would become distorted and eventually erode religious freedoms. This is what we currently see happening in many Muslim or Hindu nations, where the state religion has power over the actual government. But let us also remember that this has been part of the long history of Christianity as well.

Before the Reformation of Christianity, ‘Christian Nationalism’ was prevalent within the Catholic Church and held power to impose its reign over most people in Europe. The Pope had authority even over kings of sovereign nations; most essential government decisions had to run through the Church. When the Protestant Reformation began with leaders like Martin Luther or John Calvin, for example, much of their leadership style took on a similar form to what they had previously been under with the Catholic Church. Even though salvation was now seen to be by faith versus something you earned, there were strict rules for the converts to live by.

John Calvin and Geneva

In the 16th Century, the government of Geneva held John Calvin’s teachings, ‘Ecclesiastical Ordinances’ in high esteem. He was also considered a gifted prophet, and they wanted his regulations to help establish better civil laws within Geneva to clean up their society. In some ways, Geneva did improve, but there was a very steep price, namely, democracy and personal freedoms.

Every Thursday, the city council would meet with pastors to see if any disorder required a remedy. Dissenters of the regulations were brought before them for things like a failure to attend church or treating ministers with contempt. They were admonished, and if the sinner was still impenitent, they might excommunicate him and inform the magistrate with the expectation of expelling them from Geneva.

Personal freedoms were crushed, and religious tolerance was nonexistent. The enforcement of Calvin’s laws left little room for personal choice or extending grace towards your fellow man. An atmosphere of fear prevailed as people would watch for someone to ‘slip up,’ and they would be reported to the officials. This was an enforced morality.

It was mandated, for example, that no one could name their child anything other than approved biblical names. Only specific colours of clothing were allowed. Dissenters were punished, some severely. The heretic Michael Servetus was executed. Servetus, a Spanish theologian, was burned at the stake for rejecting the Trinity and opposing infant baptism.

This all became too much for the oppressed citizens of Geneva, and Calvin was overwhelmingly voted out of their city. They had realized that authentic Christian faith only flourishes when it is freely chosen and lived out in the context of personal faith and in relationship with other Christian faith communities.

Outside of this example of Geneva, many people across Europe were persecuted for their faith, both Protestant and Catholic. Many of the first European settlers of North America were escaping religious persecution for their convictions. As a new government was being established, both in the United States and Canada, it was determined that there would not be a ‘State Church.’ A person’s freedom of religion and beliefs would become a foundational belief of both democracies. The imposing of faith was not tolerated, although, to some degree, within Quebec, the Catholic Church still held to impose some of its values on the citizens.

Multi-Culturalism

Canada’s population has swelled during the last few decades, primarily due to the arrival of immigrants. Many of these families come to Canada hoping for a good life and bring their religion with them. For the majority, this has not been Christianity. Again, I’ve heard it argued that these individuals are welcome to come to Canada but not their religion.

Biblically, God does not show favouritism for one group over another. He is the creator of us all and treats us all equally, as He loves all mankind regardless of nationality. Nor does He go against a person’s free will, as stated above. A person must decide for themselves to embrace Christianity; it is their choice, and it is the bottom line of our relationship with God.

Within Canada, a person’s choice of religion is protected. This does not just apply to Christianity but is available to all. We will enjoy freedom of religion to the degree that we protect someone else’s freedom to worship as they choose.

Christian Nationalism seeks to impose its beliefs on all citizens, which becomes especially difficult when we are no longer viewed as a Christian nation, but today, we are more identified as a secular nation without a state religion.

Getting Back to a Biblical Position

Jesus was asked:

“Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:28-31

We are called to love our neighbour. The question is often asked, “Who is my neighbour?” The biblical response is the person standing in front of you—the person you may disagree with or the one who has a different religion than yours. We are to go out of our way to demonstrate a love for this individual, not, “I will love them if they become like me and worship as I do.”

We must question if imposing our beliefs on another is a form of religious intolerance.

And this is where things become very muddy. It is here where we make up our minds. For example, I am all for teaching our children to pray or read their Bibles within my own family, church, or Christian school. But do we have this same right in a public school? What about those who do not believe or who worship differently? In a multicultural society like ours, would we not need to allow people of different faiths to say their prayers in the manner of their choosing?

I recently read that the state of Louisiana is now posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. I believe in the Ten Commandments, but should they be forced on individuals to read or obey, even if they don’t believe in the same God?

Let’s pose a different question. Imagine being moved to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a political theocracy where a distinct religious perspective has been imposed on the people of the nation. For the sake of this article, let’s call it: ‘Islamic Nationalism.’ All who disagree are penalized if found out of step, even those who are of the same religion but have a different understanding of the religion’s beliefs and/or practices. What if they wanted to impose these beliefs on you or your children? Should the thought of this not dictate how we should respond to others in our own country?

From what I understand of the Bible and church history, we are called to love unconditionally. We are to do what we can to protect the vulnerable, care for the needy, and share the good news of Christ alone for salvation while respecting the individual as one who is created in God’s image.

Show Me Your Laws, and I Will Show You Your God

Canada is now considered to be a secular nation without a state church or religion. However, Christian teachings and traditions have deeply influenced our laws and institutions and shaped many of our equity and human rights ideas. I would be deeply disturbed to see an abandonment of these foundational principles of our democracy. Yet, it appears that we are seeing an erosion of these very things.

There are many examples, from losing the right to appeal to ‘natural law’ in our courts to doctors losing their right to practice if they are pro-life or are reluctant to at least refer women to where they can have an abortion. Or the recent concern, the possible removal of charitable status from Pregnancy Care Centres because they do not list abortion as a viable alternative in their counselling. Therefore, I believe that penalizing these centres goes against their freedom of beliefs and religion.

In some democratic countries, because of the increasing population of Islam, governments are being pressured, and in some cases allowing, the practice of Sharia Law.

I’m not trying to sound the alarm, but I do want to encourage you that there is a way we can become more engaged and involved without embracing Christian Nationalism.

A short study into the life of William Wilberforce, a Member of the British Parliament, and the Clapham Sect (a group of social reformers) brought democratic reform to the nation of Britain, ending human slavery. To do so, they realized that they could not just try and influence the House of Commons through debate but needed to influence the society that elects these leaders to the House of Commons. A short book, the ‘Reformation of Manners,’ was distributed far and wide, which produced a change of hearts among the common people. This, in turn, influenced and pressured the government from the grassroots level to support Wilberforce. This took more than 40 years, but the process of democracy, which is translated from ‘the people govern,’ is what won the victory. This was not through imposing a viewpoint but through educating and influencing the change that was made.

How we respond makes the difference. We should make our voices heard through the foundational principles of voting for our government, supporting Christian advocacy groups, writing our MPs and MLAs, becoming personally informed and involved in our political process, and encouraging some of our young men and women to pursue law or a career in politics. Yelling louder and turning to a more aggressive form of public Christianity is not the way forward. Choosing to influence our society by being the salt and light we are called to be within our communities is the way forward.

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