{"id":6672,"date":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2023\/09\/01\/christian-nationalism-and-the-art-of-flossing\/"},"modified":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T00:00:00","slug":"christian-nationalism-and-the-art-of-flossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/2023\/09\/01\/christian-nationalism-and-the-art-of-flossing\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Nationalism and the Art of Flossing"},"content":{"rendered":"

An interview with sociologist and author Andrew Whitehead.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a book written by a social scientist, Andrew Whitehead\u2019s American Idolatry<\/i> has surprisingly few statistics in the opening pages (American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and the Church<\/i> [Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023]). Instead, Whitehead, a nationally known writer and speaker on religion in America, has a more personal story to share\u2014a story of faith, discovery, and hope. His latest book explores the corrosive influence of religious nationalism within American Christianity, and it doesn\u2019t always make for comfortable reading. Whitehead\u2019s warm, relatable approach, however, helps this difficult topic feel less daunting.<\/p>\n

Whitehead is an associate professor of sociology and director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University\u2013Purdue University Indianapolis. His 2020 book, Taking<\/i> America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States<\/i>, authored with Samuel Perry, won the 2021 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.<\/p>\n

Bettina Krause, editor of Liberty<\/i> magazine, recently spoke with Professor Whitehead about his motivation for wading, yet again, into the challenging and often divisive waters of White Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Bettina Krause: Your last book, written with Sam Perry, gave us an in-depth look at the research and data around religious nationalism. But American Idolatry<\/i> has a distinctly different tone. Why did you write this book?<\/p>\n

Andrew Whitehead: I\u2019m really trying to speak directly to a Christian audience. I\u2019m a Christian, and I want to speak to those folks who, like me, grew up in largely White Christian spaces. I wanted to highlight the personal journey I\u2019ve been on in my faith, and how that has intersected with my professional journey, studying religion in America and Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

For the most part, we social scientists don\u2019t make normative claims\u2014we\u2019re just laying out evidence. But with this book I wanted to take that next step and say, \u201cHey, we claim we want to follow the way of Christ, but Christian nationalism just gets in the way. It hinders us from living our faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whenever we talk or write about Christian nationalism, I think it\u2019s important to italicize the ism<\/i>. We\u2019re looking at Christian nationalism<\/i>; we\u2019re not trying to label folk as Christian nationalists<\/i>. Christian nationalism is clearly on a spectrum. It\u2019s not binary\u2014something that someone either is or isn\u2019t. People can embrace certain aspects of it strongly, and other aspects not as strongly.<\/p>\n

So with this book I\u2019m trying to thread that needle and say, \u201cI\u2019m not attacking anyone personally, but I do want us to look very closely at this belief system, this cultural framework, that we\u2019ve been handed, and to question it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krause: Your book focuses specifically on White<\/i> Christian nationalism. You write that it\u2019s important not to leave off this adjective when discussing Christian nationalism within the American context. Why?<\/p>\n

Whitehead: I\u2019d define Christian nationalism as a cultural framework that seeks to fuse American civic life with a particular expression of Christianity. But, of course, there are many different expressions of Christianity in America, so what are we talking about? It\u2019s an expression that\u2019s both ethnocentric and politically religiously conservative.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to call this White<\/i> Christian nationalism because Christian nationalism, both historically and today, tends to benefit a particular group\u2014White American natural-born citizens. It isn\u2019t the skin color of a person who might embrace Christian nationalism that matters. I\u2019m not talking about White Christian nationalism simply in terms of White people, but \u201cWhiteness.\u201d And Whiteness is made up of values, beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that result in the organization of our society in such a way that it, by and large, benefits one group over others.<\/p>\n

Krause: Your book is titled American Idolatry<\/i>\u2014what idols are you referring to here?<\/p>\n

Whitehead: I focus on three really important idols, and the first is power. When we talk about White Christian nationalism in the United States, when we really get down to it, it\u2019s absolutely focused on gaining privileged access to power. This is power in the sense of using it for self-interested ends to benefit only \u201cus,\u201d the people who are in the \u201cin group.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second idol that I talk about is fear. And as we look through American history, but especially during the past 40 or 50 years with the rise of the Christian Right, fear has been used as a political tool to help draw lines of distinction between the \u201cus\u201d and the \u201cthem.\u201d<\/p>\n

For instance, in my book I talk about fear of immigrants and how they might raise the crime level in our communities. Well, let\u2019s investigate this claim. And in doing so, social science is a powerful tool. When we look at the data, we find that there\u2019s no evidence of increased crime in communities with higher levels of immigrants. In fact, some studies show lower levels of crime.<\/p>\n

And then the last idol that I talk about in the book is violence. When Christian nationalism is focused on gaining privileged access to power for self-interested ends, and when it draws lines of distinction between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d based on fear, then the natural outcome is violence. We can see, throughout our history, that violence\u2014whether enacted or threatened\u2014is the result of our efforts to defend access to power from those we\u2019re supposed to fear.<\/p>\n

Krause: One of the many practical sections of your book is your \u201cfield guide to Christian nationalism,\u201d and it identifies certain red flags we may not otherwise notice. I wanted to focus on just one of those\u2014the tradition of having an American flag displayed in church sanctuaries. I spent my early years in Australia, where I\u2019d never seen flags in churches. So when I moved to America 25 years ago, this was jarring for me. Now I don\u2019t notice it at all. Tell me why something as commonplace as a flag in a sanctuary is a warning sign.<\/p>\n

Whitehead: I think your experience gets at an important point. In many ways American Christians have become blind to certain practices, and our Christian brothers and sisters from other countries can help us see our blind spots.<\/p>\n

In our most recent data collection, where we asked congregations if they have flags in their sanctuary, around 60 percent of congregations said, \u201cYes, we have a national flag in our sanctuary space.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of congregations. As I talk with pastors, they tell me that a sure way to anger half their congregation is to move the flag or take it out of the sanctuary. So my question becomes, \u201cWhy would people be angry if the flag gets moved? What does that tell us about what that flag stands for within our main worship space?\u201d<\/p>\n

As you shared, the American flag in a worship space represents something very different for our Christian brothers and sisters in Australia. It wouldn\u2019t fit, because they\u2019re not American. So why is the flag of just one<\/i> nation in the sanctuary if Christianity is a global community that spans all nations and people groups? What purpose does it serve?<\/p>\n

I certainly don\u2019t want to demonize anyone who has a flag in their worship space, but I do want us to at least wrestle with it, and to think through the implications. Elevating one nation, implying that we\u2019re in some way unique, or that God\u2019s plan for the world in some ways depends upon the greatness of the United States\u2014I think those are very dangerous assumptions.<\/p>\n

Krause: One of my favorite metaphors in your book is related to how Christians can confront Christian nationalism in their own lives. You say that it\u2019s not like performing an amputation\u2014simply cutting off a limb. It\u2019s more like flossing. Please explain.<\/p>\n

Whitehead: I heard this metaphor used in relation to how we can respond to racism. It isn\u2019t as though White Americans can simply say, \u201cOh, I am now free of any racist assumptions.\u201d We can\u2019t just \u201camputate\u201d racism from our lives and society, and it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

I think it\u2019s the same for Christian nationalism. It isn\u2019t that one day we see the light, and so now it\u2019s all over. It\u2019s more like flossing, where every day on our journey we need to faithfully take what seem like little steps. Flossing isn\u2019t big, but if you don\u2019t do it for months or even years, then our teeth can start to rot.<\/p>\n

But consistent, faithful work can ensure that we\u2019re moving forward and confronting Christian nationalism in small but important ways.<\/p>\n

Krause: What are some of those little flossing actions you talk about?<\/p>\n

Whitehead: Throughout the book I tried to provide examples of folk who are confronting Christian nationalism in their daily lives. When we talk about religious freedom, for instance, we should talk about religious freedom for everyone. We should say, \u201cAll people of all faiths or no faith at all have an equal right to fully participate in our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or it might be defending the right or access to vote. If there are movements in your county or state, or even nationally, that are trying to limit people\u2019s access to voting, I think that, as Christians invested in the flourishing of all<\/i> society, we could defend that right to vote.<\/p>\n

A friend of mine runs a nonprofit that helps refugees who are relocated to her community. As she interacts with these groups, she\u2019s able to see the barriers they face, such as being able to take a driver\u2019s test in their own language. She found that the manual wasn\u2019t offered in their language, so they couldn\u2019t study for the test. So she partnered with them to make the manual available in their language and some other languages as well.<\/p>\n

These are just small things, but the through line that connects them is this: we need to decenter ourselves and locate ourselves instead with different marginalized groups. We need to listen to these people and try to see the world from their perspective. Ask, \u201cWhat\u2019s creating hardships for them and preventing them from flourishing? How can I partner with them to help overcome that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Krause: You tell the story in your book of watching two students, many years ago, debating whether America\u2019s invasion of Iraq was somehow sanctioned by God\u2014an American student and an Australian student. And you say it was like watching two people talk about the same thing but using completely different dialects.<\/p>\n

How optimistic are you that Christians are going to learn to speak the same \u201clanguage\u201d when it comes to Christian nationalism?<\/p>\n

Whitehead: It\u2019s a fair question, and to be honest, my level of optimism probably depends on the day, or even the time of day. But as a Christian I have to practice hope. If there\u2019s no hope, then the forces of evil and oppression have won. I do have hope, and I believe we can make a difference for the future.<\/p>\n

We can be very patriotic. We can love our country and be proud of our country\u2019s achievements. But at the same time, we can also refuse to shy away from uncomfortable questions, such as \u201cWell, how did that wealth get built?\u201d It didn\u2019t just happen. We can be real about that, and then we can be prepared to do the reparative work going forward. That\u2019s what I hope to be a part of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An interview with sociologist and author Andrew Whitehead. For a book written by a social scientist, Andrew Whitehead\u2019s American Idolatry has surprisingly few statistics in the opening pages (American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and the Church [Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023]). Instead, Whitehead, a nationally known writer and speaker on religion in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[355],"tags":[187],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-september-october-2023","tag-september-october-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}