Thursday, November 17, 2022

More Recent Commentary on White Christian Nationalism: "What is different now, is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian"



More recent commentary on white Christian nationalism and its strong (political) appeal to many U.S. Christians: in the BBC documentary "Faith on the Frontlines" above, Robert P. Jones of PRRI tells narrator Barbara Usher:

Christian nationalism is a new term for a very old phenomenon. It privileges a religious identity with citizenship. In its most virulent form, it turns out to also have an ethnic or racial component to it. In the U.S., that component has been around European dissent or whiteness. What is different now, is that the country is no longer majority white and Christian. As recently as 2008 when Barack Obama was first running, the country was actually 54% white and Christian. [...] That number today is 44%. And that threat, of white Christians knowing they are no longer in control, demographically, culturally, politically, is why we are seeing it kind of come to the fore in the current context.

Anthea Butler, "Doug Mastriano's Christian nationalist fantasy clobbered by American reality": 

The troubles some Christian nationalist candidates had this election cycle may hold some clues to the 2024 cycle. The RNC will have to decide if putting up Trump-style candidates who are all bluster but have lackluster messaging and theocratic leanings will be enough to retake the Oval Office, Congress and the Senate. The public is now much more aware of QAnon, and conferences such as ReAwakening that feature religious hucksters. The Republican Party is not the party of conservative values anymore; it is the party of extreme religious views that attract not only conspiracy theorists but violent agitators. Trump continues to be a drain on not only the party but also on the finances and political accomplishments of the party.

And as Anthea Butler also reminds us: "As for Christian nationalism, it is not going away."

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