The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

In this short primer, Gorski and Perry explain what white Christian nationalism is and is not; when it first emerged and how it has changed; where it's headed and why it threatens democracy. Tracing the development of this ideology over the course of three centuries and especially its influence over the last three decades, they show how white Christian nationalism motivates the anti-democratic, authoritarian, and violent impulses on display in our current political moment.

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LibraryThing member deusvitae

An exploration into the nexus between the recent political posturing and violence from the reactionary right and its connections with Evangelicalism and Christian nationalism.

The author considers the events of January 6, 2021, and the pervasiveness of Christian nationalist imagery. He explores the

stated ideology and purposes of many of the reactionaries and how they have fused their fervent nationalism with a bastardized Christian faith. He spoke of the "1619 Project" and the "1776 Project," but wishes to focus on 1690 and the effects of "King Philip's War" on the Puritans and the development of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant male dominated society interested in expansion into Indigenous areas, upholding slavery, and fervently anti-Catholic, and shows how this ideology undergirds modern Christian Nationalism. He also speaks of the connections between ethno-nationalism, a particularly libertarian economic ethos, and racial hostilities and how they have been manifest among reactionaries in recent times. He concludes with encouragement on how to avoid a violent overthrow of the government by such forces.

While I can sympathize with the author, and do think more critical exploration of the late 17th century would be productive, I found the work a bit myopic and lacking. There's not enough consideration of authoritarianism and how it would interface with a homogenizing impulse within Christendom writ large in America, for instance. Likewise there is little conversation about the various compromises many Christians proved willing to make in order to accommodate reactionary postures and how that came out of political expedience over the past 40 years.

So there's some good things here, but the examination is not complete.

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LibraryThing member 4leschats

The events of Jan 6 shone a spotlight on a long festering problem in American society: white Christian nationalism. The authors show how the false narrative of American exceptionalism blended with religious adherence has created a secularized version of Christianity and a righteous version of white

supremacy that is a threat to both Americans and Christians.

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