Christian Nationalism

My sister forwarded me a latter referencing Gab.com and Christian Nationalism. I emailed her, of which the following contains most of my response to her.

For anyone just coming to this blog, I joined the Greek orthodox Church while in prison. I belonged to an American Baptist Church in Anderson until I was 19.

The Orthodox Church does not hold with Christian Nationalism. Since 385 the Church has held it is catholic, which means it is universal. Christ and his Church belong to no one group, ethnicity, and/or nation. Christian Nationalism is an actual heresy in the Orthodox Church.

This article from an Orthodox priest explains better than I can the Orthodox position on what is wrong with Christian Nationalism: Nationalism is Not Christian, but for those not reading the full argument:

 Thus those who blend together Christianity and nationalism are denying Christ and the Gospel. We Christians are not trying to escape the earth and save our souls. Rather we are trying to establish the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts while we still live on earth. We are in the world but not of it. We have to figure out how to live the values of the Kingdom while still in this world to which we do not belong. We are to be lights to the world – we Christians are to reveal the Gospel to the world, to reveal Christ, to reveal God love, to reveal God’s kingdom to rest of the world.

Other churches also condemn Christian Nationalism: Theologians condemn Christian nationalism and 'Russian world' :

They affirm that Christian identity “is not singularly, exclusively, or supremely held by a nation or a race or a civilisation” and that “the Christian witness is distorted where it is used to create separation”.

They specifically condemn Christian nationalism and the “Russian world” ideology, and praise the Orthodox theologians who have rebutted it as non-Orthodox and “the repetition of the sin of Cain”.

From what I can tell, Christian Nationalism attracts conservatives. My sister has said repeatedly she is a conservative. Sticking with a creed 1,637 years old is the conservative position.

Personally, I never held with the idea. History shows every time the church took over the political, the church became political, and people died. See Münster rebellion; Cathars, Catholics and Waldensians; and The Elizabethan Religious Settlement.

The Baptists always held to a strict separation of church and state because the church that becomes a political power always persecutes those who do not belong to that church. Politics is about power and the political church wants worldly power and the Christian part of its name fades away. We must not give these people credence, let alone support. 

For my other posts on Orthodox Christianity, click the Religion link below.

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