# Christian Nationalism The belief that America is, was, or should be a Christian nation — and that American civic identity and Christian (usually Protestant) identity should be explicitly fused in law, culture, and the public square. After decades as a fringe current on the edges of the religious right, Christian Nationalism has become one of the dominant operating ideologies of the MAGA-era Republican Party, supplying the theological scaffolding for [[Project 2025]], [[The Seven Mountain Mandate]], and much of the [[New Apostolic Reformation]]'s political theology. Unlike the older Religious Right's [[Moral Majority]] framing — which demanded cultural influence but accepted pluralism — contemporary Christian Nationalism increasingly rejects liberal-democratic pluralism outright, arguing that a truly Christian society cannot be religiously neutral and that the state must actively privilege Christianity. ## Core Tenets - The United States was founded as a Christian nation and its laws, institutions, and public morality should reflect that - There is no neutral public square: every society is ordered toward some ultimate good, and pluralism is a cover for secular-progressive hegemony - The civil magistrate has duties to God, not just to citizens — including the duty to suppress public blasphemy, heresy, and "disorder" - Natural law and biblical law are the proper foundations for civil law - Traditional family structures (patriarchal, natalist, heterosexual) are civilizationally load-bearing and must be legally protected - The current "regime" — universities, media, federal bureaucracy, corporations — is actively hostile to Christianity and must be replaced, not reformed ## Strains and Factions Christian Nationalism is not a single doctrine. It's a spectrum that runs from "soft" (America has a Christian heritage worth preserving) to "hard" (America should be a confessional Christian state). Key subdivisions: ### Baptist / Reformed Protestant Nationalism The dominant theoretical wing, rooted in Reformed theology. [[Stephen Wolfe]]'s *[[The Case for Christian Nationalism]]* (2022, Canon Press) argues that nations are natural, God-ordained, and particularist — and that a Christian people has the right to govern itself as Christians, including with a "Christian prince." Wolfe explicitly defends ethnicity as a legitimate basis for political community, which puts him closer to the ethnonationalist edge than most contemporaries admit. ### Moscow, Idaho / "Christ Is King" Nationalism Centered on [[Douglas Wilson]]'s [[Christ Church]] and the Canon Press / [[New Saint Andrews College]] / Logos School ecosystem. Wilson's "mere Christendom" program is postmillennial, patriarchal, and openly seeks cultural takeover city by city. This strain overlaps heavily with [[Christian Reconstructionism]] — Wilson was influenced by Rushdoony — but repackages theonomy in more culturally aggressive, internet-native forms. ### Gab / Torba Nationalism [[Andrew Torba]] (CEO of [[Gab]]), co-author with [[Andrew Isker]] of *Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide* (2022). The most explicitly ethnonationalist and antisemitic of the major strains — Torba has stated the movement is for white Christians and openly rejects Jewish and non-Christian participation. Functions as the bridge between mainstream Christian Nationalism and the [[Groyper Movement]] / openly racist online right. ### Catholic / Integralist Variant Sometimes grouped under Christian Nationalism but better understood as its Catholic sibling — see [[Integralism]] and [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]]. Shares the anti-liberal framework and the demand for a state oriented to the common good, but grounds its claims in natural law and magisterial teaching rather than Reformed covenant theology. ### Apostolic-Prophetic / NAR Nationalism The charismatic wing, operating through the [[New Apostolic Reformation]] and the [[Seven Mountain Mandate]]. Less theoretically developed than Reformed variants, but far larger in raw numbers and more directly plugged into Trump's political operation through figures like [[Lance Wallnau]], [[Paula White]], and [[Dutch Sheets]]. ## Key Thinkers and Figures ### [[Stephen Wolfe]] Author of *The Case for Christian Nationalism*. The movement's most serious academic voice. Provides the Reformed-scholastic justification that gives hard Christian Nationalism intellectual respectability in evangelical seminary circles. ### [[Douglas Wilson]] Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho. Architect of the "mere Christendom" project. His network — Canon Press, New Saint Andrews, the CREC denomination — operates as a distributed training system for Reformed Christian Nationalist pastors, teachers, and writers. ### [[Andrew Torba]] CEO of [[Gab]]. The movement's most influential online organizer and its most explicitly ethnonationalist public voice. Directly overlaps with the [[Groyper Movement]] audience. ### [[William Wolfe]] Executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership. Former Trump administration official (State, DOD). Key figure translating Christian Nationalism into [[Southern Baptist Convention]] politics and Washington policy circles. ### [[Russell Vought]] Director of OMB under [[Trump II]] and founder of the [[Center for Renewing America]]. Publicly self-identifies as a Christian Nationalist. The single most consequential Christian Nationalist in actual executive power — principal architect of Project 2025's government-capture strategy and the "[[Schedule F]]" civil service purge. ### [[Mike Johnson]] Speaker of the House. A quieter Christian Nationalist who avoids the label but whose legal career (ADF) and public statements reflect the worldview. Says his worldview is fully articulated in the Bible and that he sees his role as Speaker through explicitly providential terms. ### [[Michael Flynn]] Former National Security Advisor. Tours the [[ReAwaken America]] circuit (with [[Clay Clark]]) preaching a fusion of Christian Nationalism, QAnon-adjacent spiritual warfare, and military-coded political rhetoric. The bridge between the apostolic-prophetic wing and militia-curious audiences. ## What They Want The policy agenda is remarkably consistent across strains: - End the "secular" interpretation of the [[First Amendment]]; permit and encourage explicit Christian expression in government, military, and public schools - Gut the administrative state (see Schedule F) and replace career civil servants with ideologically aligned Christian appointees - Use federal power against institutions deemed hostile to Christianity: universities, "woke" corporations, Big Tech, progressive NGOs, teachers' unions - Restrict pornography, same-sex marriage, gender-affirming care, and legal abortion — see [[Transphobia]] for the full anti-trans operation Christian Nationalism supplies the theological framing for - Pronatalist family policy: tax incentives, housing policy, and education subsidies aimed at larger traditional families - Aggressive immigration restriction on explicitly cultural/religious grounds (preserving a Christian national character) - Support for Israel on dispensationalist / providential grounds (the Torba wing is a notable exception — openly critical of Israel and of Christian Zionism) ## Political Footprint Christian Nationalism is now load-bearing for Republican governance in a way it was not before 2020: - **[[Project 2025]]**: The [[Mandate for Leadership]] is saturated with Christian Nationalist assumptions, particularly the chapters drafted by [[Center for Renewing America]] - **Schedule F**: The mechanism for purging the federal workforce — designed by Vought — is the Christian Nationalist institutional-capture theory in operational form - **State-level legislation**: Ten Commandments in classrooms (Louisiana, Texas), school-funded chaplains (Florida, Texas), public funding of religious charter schools (Oklahoma) - **Supreme Court**: The Leo-engineered majority has delivered Christian Nationalist wins on prayer in schools (*Kennedy v. Bremerton*), religious funding (*Carson v. Makin*), and tax-exempt religious institutions Polling (PRRI, 2023, updated 2024) finds roughly 30% of Americans hold Christian Nationalist views, with another ~25% sympathetic. Adherents are ~65% white, disproportionately evangelical, and politically ~75% Republican. ## Relationship to Adjacent Ideologies | | Christian Nationalism | [[Christian Reconstructionism]] | [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] | [[Integralism]] | |--|------------------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|------------------| | Theological base | Reformed / Baptist / Charismatic | Reformed / theonomic | Catholic natural law | Catholic magisterial teaching | | Vision of state | Christian nation, pluralism-skeptical | Biblical law as civil law | Muscular state for common good | Confessional Catholic state | | Key thinkers | Wolfe, Wilson, Torba | Rushdoony, North | Deneen, Ahmari | Vermeule, Pink, Pappin | | Political entry point | Republican Party, SBC | Homeschool movement, PCA | [[JD Vance]], [[American Affairs]] | Harvard Law, CUA | | Gradualism vs. revolution | Mixed — some gradualist, some openly revolutionary | Patient multigenerational | Counterrevolutionary | Theoretical / long-horizon | These are sibling movements, not rivals. They share an anti-liberal diagnosis, a rejection of neutral-state pluralism, a demand for hierarchical moral authority, and an overlapping network of donors, journals, and political operatives. They differ on which church's authority ought to order the common good — which is why the functional alliance holds despite the theological incompatibility. ## The Tech-Right Interface Christian Nationalism increasingly shares donor and institutional space with the [[New Right]] tech faction. [[Peter Thiel]] has funded both [[New Founding]] (a Christian-nationalist-aligned business network) and the network of JD Vance / post-liberal figures. [[New Founding]] and [[American Moment]] function as recruiting and staffing pipelines that place Christian Nationalists into Trump II political appointments. The [[Network State]] concept ([[Balaji Srinivasan]]) resonates with Christian Nationalists interested in geographic concentration — see [[Christian Network State]] for the fusion variant. ## Ecosystem For the umbrella network through which Christian Nationalism operates as a political coalition — funders, judicial pipeline, state-power vehicles, educational pipeline, legal-litigation infrastructure, and the cross-strain coordination architecture (CNP, Vought↔Wallnau↔Wolfe interface, Vance↔Deneen↔Vermeule axis, the Wilson↔Torba hinge) — see **[[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]]** (organized as five strains × seven functional layers). For the charismatic mass-mobilization wing in depth (which the umbrella ecosystem links to rather than duplicates), see **[[New Apostolic Reformation Ecosystem]]**. ## Lexicon For the vocabulary in which Christian Nationalism is spoken — its dogwhistles, loaded language, redefined common words, and the sacramental and historical concepts it deploys for political work — see the **[[Christian Nationalism Lexicon]]** (alphabetical dictionary view across `/Terminology/Christian Nationalism/`, `/Concepts/`, and `/Terminology/` cross-cutting terms). Related terms: [[Biblical Values]], [[Biblical Worldview]], [[Apostates]], [[Acolytes]], [[American Exceptionalism]], [[Ten Commandments]], [[Apostles]], [[Baptism]], [[Affirmative Action]]. ## See Also - [[Christian Nationalism Ecosystem]] — The umbrella network/funding/state-power map - [[New Apostolic Reformation Ecosystem]] — The charismatic wing in depth - [[Christian Nationalism Lexicon]] — The CN vocabulary as alphabetical dictionary - [[Christian Reconstructionism]] - [[Catholic Post-Liberalism]] - [[Integralism]] - [[Seven Mountain Mandate]] - [[New Apostolic Reformation]] - [[Apostolic-Prophetic Movement]] - [[Flawed Vessel]] - [[Cyrus Prophecy]] - [[Project 2025]] - [[Project Blitz]] - [[Russell Vought]] - [[Douglas Wilson]] - [[The Unholy Alliance]] - [[Christian Identity]] — The explicitly racist theological ancestor; modern Christian nationalism is the sanitized descendant - [[Crusader Complex]] - [[Christofascism]] — The authoritarian limit case; analytical framework for when Christian nationalism crosses the structural threshold into fascism - [[Groyper Movement]] - [[Narcissism and Religious Authoritarianism]] — the psychological mechanism account of why CN and personality-cult politics fuse rather than merely coexist