Friends: I love Jesus and I love America, and am beyond thankful for both.  But being called a “Christian Nationalist”? That is not meant as a compliment. Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #1008

March 10, 2026

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

National Interest

By Bob Walters

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. …” – Psalms 33:12

There exists a contemporary pejorative sobriquet that is a dog-whistle attack on American patriots who also happen to believe in the proper Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In our Left vs. Right political climate, with even the Gospel-believing Right muscularly subdivided between those who revere Donald Trump and those who revile Donald Trump, “Christian Nationalist” communicates a disdain for any who would dare claim salvation in Christ but not assert and fear imminent destruction by Donald Trump.

America has never been nor would long survive as a theocracy, which is when a religious faith actually is the government.  That is what Islam and the Koran comprise, an inseparable package deal of faith being the government. The Mullahs are in charge.

While the chosen Israelites were a theocracy of Laws, the New Covenant in Christ holds a valuable separation of church and state enumerated by Jesus himself some 1,770 years before Thomas Jefferson’s famous comments on the matter.

In John 18, Pontius Pilate asks Jesus if he is a king. Jesus affirmingly replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Adding, “I was born, and came into this world to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me” (John 18:36-37).

In the high school government class I teach, we spend a couple days early studying Romans 13:1-7, where Paul delineates faith apart from government, but saying governments are ordained from God based on what the people deserve. In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, Paul instructs Christians to pray for their governing leaders and for themselves to be “salt and light” as moral examples in their nations.  It is worth noting that in the Old Testament 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites reject God as their king, insisting on a human king.

Rusty Reno, editor of First Things journal I constantly read and frequently cite, this week wrote, The Case for Christian Nationalism. Reno is no particular fan of Trump, but makes the point that if one is going to be a nationalist, Christian Nationalism is the best.

Why has “Christian Nationalism” entered our lexicon? I think because it is a handy “scare” epithet meant to harken back to the evil World War II Axis nationalisms of Fascism in Italy and the Nazis in Germany. A “fasce” is a bundle of wooden rods, a traditional Roman decoration, which became the symbol of Mussolini’s 1930s leftist “Fascist” party. “Leftist,” like “progressive,” refer to government control superseding individual freedom. Faith in Jesus undermines that control; leftists cannot abide it.

The Nazis – Hitler’s “National Socialist” party, was also leftist but added in a racist component, Aryan Supremacy, heavily laced with pagan mysticism.  Atheist socialism, and its more draconian progression, communism, further eliminate personal freedom by calling for government or “collective” ownership of all property and industry.

Christian Nationalism is nothing like any of those, but the phrase has a linguistic Nazi echo of “National Socialist,” useful to those who like neither Christians nor Trump.

I’ll close by noting that there is a convenient alliance of thieves that explains how a Muslim communist like New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani can even exist.

Islam, as with any form of progressive leftism or collectivism, cannot exist beneath the authority of Jesus Christ. Communism refuses all religion, and Islam is a religion strictly governing itself.  Neither will share moral or cultural authority with Christ, but they will work together in common cause until their interests diverge. When is that?

They will get along as long it takes them to get rid of Jesus. And that’s the truth.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) is a Christian and an American patriot who  understands our nation was founded on Christian values, not “religion.”