Christian Nationalism is a Threat to Democracy

Media Clip (Jeffress): The nation that reverences God will be blessed by God. The nation that rejects God will be rejected by God.

Media Clip (Boebert): The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.

Media Clip (Mohler): And we have the left routinely speaking of me and of others as Christian nationalists, as if we're supposed to be running from that.

Media Clip (Greene): We need to be the party of nationalism. And I'm a Christian, and I say it proudly. We should be Christian nationalist.

Media Clip (Trump): And by the way, Christianity will have power without having to form, because if I'm there, you're gonna have plenty of power. You don't need anybody else. You're gonna have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.

Media Clip: Be advised. There's probably about 300 proud boys. They're marching eastbound in this 400 block of, um, kind of, Independence, actually, on the Mall towards the United States Capitol.

Media Clip: I am not allowed to say what's going to happen today, because everyone's just going to have to watch for themselves. But it's going to happen. Something's going to happen.

Jared Stacy: We're going to walk down to the Capitol and we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women. And we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them. Because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong.

Andrew Whitehead: Those in the crowd took Trump's words seriously. Soon after he finished speaking, they began marching. And in mere minutes, throngs of rioters began attempting to enter the Capitol Building where Congress was certifying the 2020 presidential election. You might have watched some of these events unfold live. Officer Daniel Hodges is one of the Capitol police on duty to protect the Capitol. Early that afternoon he first encountered the rioters. As the minutes and then hours passed, he and his fellow police officers were attacked and in some cases overrun by the thousands of protesters attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. A couple hundred days later, on July 27, 2021, Officer Hodges sits before a congressional committee investigating the January 6th insurrection. He recalled how the crowd massing on the building's West Terrace waved banners steeped in Christian symbolism, along with those bearing the name of Trump. Many of us remember those images. Hodges was giving his testimony alongside three other officers who defended the Capitol that day from Trump supporters who aimed to stop the certification of the 2020 election results.

Media Clip (Hodges): It was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians. I saw the Christian flag directly to my front. Another read, 'Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my president.' Another, 'Jesus is King.' One flag read, 'Don't give up the ship.' Another had crossed rifles beneath a skull emblazoned with the pattern of the American flag.

Andrew: Hodges described one insurrectionist who wore a shirt that bore the slogan, 'God, Guns and Trump.' Hodges not only witnessed the Christian symbolism of the rioters that day, he endured their violence. Footage from January 6th showed him being crushed by a door while a rioter forcibly removed his gas mask. The video shows Hodges bleeding out of his mouth and screaming in agony. He recalled how the rioters carried the Thin Blue Line flag, but ignored our commands and continued to assault us. Inter-mingled with the Christian symbolism were explicit symbols of White supremacy and the conspiracy theory, QAnon. The Confederate battle flag flew in the Capitol building that day, something the Confederate army was never able to accomplish. The insurrectionists themselves highlighted the role their Christian faith played in why they were at the Capitol. They were seeking to ensure their country abided by what they believed the Christian God wanted: for Trump to remain president. One rioter who prayed on the floor of the Senate said, 'I just wanted to get inside the building so I could plead the blood of Jesus over it. That was my goal.' And Jacob Chansley, better known as the QAnon Shaman, entered the Senate chamber and prayed to God, thanking him for allowing him and others to breach the Capitol to send a message that this nation is theirs.

Media Clip (Chansley): Amen. For this opportunity to stand up for our God-given unalienable rights. Thank You, Heavenly Father, for paying the inspiration needed to these police officers to allow us in this building to allow us to send a message to the communists and the globalists that this is our nation, not theirs. That we will not allow the America, the American-way in the United States of America, to go down. Thank You, divine, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Creator God, for filling this chamber with Your white light of love, with Your white light of harmony. Thank You for filling this chamber with patriots that bless you and that love Christ. Thank You, divine, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent Creator God, for blessing each and every one of us here and now. Thank You, Divine Creator God, for surrounding us with the divine omnipresent white light of love, protection, peace and harmony. Thank You for allowing the United States of America to be reborn. Thank You for allowing us to get rid of the communists, the globalists and the traitors within our government. We love You and we thank You in Christ's holy name. Amen.

Andrew: Jenny Cudd, who owns a florist shop in Midland, Texas, and who, in October of 2021 pleaded guilty to her Capitol riot charge and was ultimately fined and put on probation, posted a video during the attack. After railing against Republicans, the left, Mike Pence, and claiming she and all the other patriots at the Capitol were only doing what was necessary. Near the end of her 25 minute video she makes her motivations explicit.

Media Clip (Cudd): So to me, God and country are tied. To me, they're one and the same. We were founded as Christian country, and we see how far we have come from that when they make an absolute mockery of us. We are a godly country. We are founded on godly principles. And if we do not have our country, nothing else matters. Nothing. So, I highly suggest you get ready and you get involved. Love you.

Andrew: The testimony of those who participated in the events of January 6th underscore that when it comes down to choosing democracy or power, Christian nationalism chooses power every time.

Bradley Onishi: Welcome to American Idols, a podcast series produced by Axis Mundi Media. Sound production and design by Scott Okamoto, who also provided the series original music. American Idols was written and created by Dr. Andrew Whitehead and produced by me, Bradley Onishi.

Andrew: While what happened at the Capitol was shocking, for those of us studying Christian nationalism across the US population over the last decade, it wasn't surprising. In fact, if you understand the prevalence of Christian nationalism in the United States, the insurrection starts to make a kind of tragic sense. It also reveals how the threat of more attacks on our democracy remains ever present.

Andrew: One of the major issues is not just what happened on that day, but how it is remembered by Americans who embrace Christian nationalism as the beginning of a new American conflict. White Christian nationalism is a cultural framework that idealizes and advocates for a fusion of a particular expression of Christianity with American civic life. So, it holds that this version of Christianity should be the principal and undisputed cultural framework in the United States, and that the government should vigorously preserve that cultural framework. Now, Christian nationalism is not a binary either/or situation. Rather, it's a spectrum where some Americans strongly embrace it-- I call them ambassadors. Other Americans generally lean toward supporting Christian nationalism-- I call them accommodators. While some lean toward opposition-- we could call them resistors. And finally, those Americans who strongly oppose Christian nationalism-- I call them rejectors. And as we discussed in the previous episode, White Christian nationalism combines a number of elements. So the first element is a strong moral traditionalism based on creating and sustaining social hierarchies, oftentimes revolving around gender and sexuality. There's a clear view of who should be at the top, who is at the middle and who is at the bottom of our society. The second element is a comfort with authoritarian social control. So the world is viewed as a chaotic place, and at times, society needs strong rules and rulers to make use of violence, or at least the threat of violence, to maintain order. The third element is a desire for strict boundaries around national identity, civic participation, and social belonging that often fall along ethno-racial lines. So a Christian nation is generally understood to be one where White, natural-born citizens are held up as the ideal, with everyone else coming after. And finally, it includes a populist impulse that inclines Americans towards feelings of victimization and persecution, which makes them more susceptible to conspiratorial thinking and suspicion towards elites and leaders and institutions like academics or mainstream media or universities. Many of these elements played a role in the January 6th insurrection and the ongoing threat of Christian nationalism to democracy in the United States. It's important to note that Christian nationalism is not the only explanation of what happened on January 6th. However, it is impossible to make sense of January 6th if we fail to grapple with Christian nationalism.

Andrew: So, how is Christian nationalism related to the insurrection? First, and perhaps most importantly, it provides theological cover. While not every American who embraces Christian nationalism would go so far as to attack the Capitol, the cultural framework provides the fertile ground within which much more extreme attitudes and ideas can take root, grow, and one day bloom. Here's how Andrew Seidel, a constitutional lawyer and legal expert who has written two excellent books on Christian nationalism, describes it.

Andrew Seidel: Christian nationalism created a permission structure that gave the insurrectionists the moral and mental license that they needed to attack our government and attempt to overturn a free and fair election. Right? You don't just commit treason or insurrection on a whim. You need to feel like you are on the side of right or on the side of God, and the evidence here is really overwhelming. It's indisputable. It's clear. The attackers themselves told us loudly and repeatedly what they believed and why it justified the attack. They told us about their Christian nationalism. And we really ought to listen to them, because if we ignore the ideology that justified this attack in their minds, we are inviting future attacks. Because Christian nationalism really is an existential threat to the Republic. The flags, the signs, they were clear. 'Jesus is my Savior. Trump is my president,' 'One nation under God,' 'In God We Trust,' 'Jesus saves,' 'Jesus 2020.' One sign simply said, 'I am on your side. -God.' So there were, of course, other motivations and drivers of this attack. But this Christian nationalist permission structure, 'doing God's will, fighting for God's law, returning the country to its Christian roots,' pervaded all the other drivers of this attack. And this is one of the many points that we made in our January 6th and Christian nationalism report. And when we were doing that, I spoke to Luke Mogelson, who was the war correspondent that shot that viral New Yorker footage, which captured that prayer in the Senate and the Christian nationalism on display. And he explained it to me like this, and you'll find his quote in the report. He said, "The Christianity was one of the surprises to me in covering this stuff, and it has been hugely underestimated. That Christian nationalism you talk about is the driving force and also the unifying force of these disparate players. It's really the Christianity that ties it all together."

Andrew: Consider these next two quotes, one of which was spoken right before the 2020 election. And I quote, "I think God brought him here for a reason. For these four years. I'm just asking that God would spare this country for another four years. To give us a little bit more time to do the work before the storm hits. I believe the storm is coming. You're going to see Christians attacked. You're going to see churches close. You're going to see a real hatred expressed toward people of faith. That's coming. God uses men. He works through men. And I believe Donald Trump is a president for a reason. I think God has put him in this position. Western civilization as we have known it, he is defending that," end quote. Okay, now consider this next quote. And I quote, "Trump will be your president for four more years in Jesus name. We're getting ready to live through something of biblical proportions. Be prayed up and be ready to defend your country and your family," end quote. All right, the first comments are from Franklin Graham, noted son of Billy Graham and president of two influential, global, evangelical organizations. The second quote is from Michael Sparks, one of the insurrectionists and one of the first to be charged. As Andrew Seidel pointed out, the words of the insurrectionists themselves highlight how their vision of returning to a Christian nation motivated their actions. Franklin Graham, in response to the violence of January 6th, the next day called on Christians to pray for President-elect Biden, and he said, quote, "Everyone will stop finger pointing and realize that both parties bear responsibility for the problems we face today," end quote. So, not only is Christian nationalism providing theological cover, it is also strongly associated with several other influential elements, and they are all mutually reinforcing. Element number one is the Big Lie. Element number two is a comfort with political violence. Element number three is conspiratorial thinking, and element number four is a fractured media landscape.

Andrew: Our first element is the Big Lie. Christian nationalism is clearly associated with Americans agreeing that, quote, "The 2020 presidential election was rigged and its outcome did not reflect the will of the people."

Andrew: Two thirds of ambassadors agree with the Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, which, again, there is absolutely no evidence for, and Trump's own lawyers repeatedly disavowed once under oath in court. The second element is a comfort with political violence. Data collected in August 2021 shows that 40% of White ambassadors agree that true American patriots may have to resort to physical violence in order to save our country. Now, when ambassadors believe that their desires for the country are in fact, God's desires for the country, achieving God's vision is of the utmost importance. If it takes violence to achieve this end, then so be it. Former General Michael Flynn was a leader in fomenting the January 6th insurrection and continues to hold rallies on his Reawaken America tour across the country. Here they encourage Americans to embrace Christian nationalism and take back their country, and it appears by any means necessary.

Media Clip: [Cheney] General Flynn, do you believe in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America? [Flynn] The Fifth.

Andrew: When asked directly if he believes in the peaceful transition of power, he could only exercise his right to remain silent so as not to incriminate himself. The same August 2021 survey found that close to 50% of White ambassadors agree that quote, "There is a storm coming soon that will sweep away elites in power and restore rightful leaders." Now those of you who have read a bit about QAnon will recognize the language here about a storm and how it will 'sweep away elites' and 'restore rightful leaders.' This prediction is ultimately born of violence. We saw echoes of this at the insurrection with the gallows, the zip ties and other combat paraphernalia. Which leads into another thread related to Christian nationalism, besides the Big Lie and comfort with political violence. And this one is conspiratorial thinking, and in particular, belief in QAnon, both of which played a key role in January 6th.

Andrew: So our third element is conspiratorial thinking, especially belief in QAnon. One 2021 survey shows that 41% of White ambassadors agree with one of the key beliefs of QAnon: that top Democrats are involved in elite child sex trafficking rings. Using data collected in 2019 political scientists, Brooklyn Walker and Abigail Vegter, investigated the link between Christian nationalism and biblical literalism with a general conspiratorial mindset. Here's Dr. Vegter on what they discovered.

Abigail Vegter: What we try to understand is how Christian nationalism and biblical literalism interacted with this conspiracy mindset. And the reason we chose these two belief systems, if you will, is because we were seeing a lot of the people who were likely to adhere to these conspiracy theories of the day (QAnon, vaccine hesitancy, election nihilism) were religious. And we wanted to understand what it was about certain facets of religion that were leading individuals to believe these conspiracies. So, what we found is, actually, that both Christian nationalism and biblical literalism have an impact on an individual's likelihood of adopting a generalized conspiracy mindset. Basically, as people express both higher levels of Christian nationalism and higher levels of biblical literalism, they are more likely to express conspiracy thinking. But we also found that the interaction of these two belief systems is especially powerful. We know that Christian nationalist beliefs have the largest impact on biblical literalists. So, in other words, when an individual who believes that the Bible is literally true also holds views that America is a distinctly Christian nation and ought to remain that way, they are far more likely to believe that the government is hiding something. Whether that be information on 9/11, information on global warming, or even events that never happened-- like this South Dakota crash.

Andrew: And what is the South Dakota crash, you ask? That's one of the most fascinating aspects of Dr. Walker and Vegter's research. Their conspiratorial mindset index included a number of well known conspiracy theories like the JFK assassination or the 9/11 attacks. But it also included a question on whether the government was hiding information about the South Dakota crash. Folks who were more likely to believe in many of the other conspiracy theories were also more likely to believe in a conspiracy theory-- the South Dakota crash-- that doesn't even exist. This suggests that Americans who embrace Christian nationalism and biblical literalism are going to be more likely to embrace future conspiracy theories, whatever they might be.

Andrew: A 2023 survey on Christian nationalism from the Public Religion Research Institute found around 30% of Americans who mostly agree with QAnon strongly embrace Christian nationalism. Another 30% of those same folks are at least sympathetic to Christian nationalism. Here's Jared Stacy, who's a theologian who studies Christian nationalism and conspiratorial thinking, explaining how this intertwining threatens democracy in the US.

Jared Stacy: First thing that I would say is that nothing prevents this necessarily from happening again. The way that conspiracy theories work is they're almost just in the same way that conspiracy theories are really difficult to disprove, they're also endlessly generative. There's always another conspiracy theory to explain the unexplainable. And so when we look at the threats moving forward, and what taking January 6th seriously means, I think a lot of it has to do with how we, as Americans, and particularly in the context that I'm in speaking amongst Christians, to say, what are the ideas that lend themselves to, for example, justifying violence? What are the ideas, for example, that say, 'Hey, if this kind of morality is not reflected in public, then all bets are off, and we can practice any kind of politics that we want?'

Andrew: Finally our last element, number four, Christian nationalism and a fractured media landscape, which funnels Americans into information silos. So one of the biggest hurdles that historians highlight about our present day is the fracturing of shared sources of information. So today, Americans are spread across numerous news organizations and sites. Americans who embrace Christian nationalism, we find, do tend to use particular outlets and avoid other news organizations. Take, for instance, Robert Jeffress, who is the lead pastor of First Baptist Dallas. This is the congregation who wrote a hymn, Make America Great Again, for their July 4th services in 2017.

Clip of the song: [music plays]

Andrew: Dr. Jeffress is a key figure in supporting and normalizing Christian nationalism in our national discourse. In December 2021, he and his congregation invited Donald Trump to stop by and give a Christmas message. At the beginning of the service, Dr Jeffress welcomed the congregation and their online viewers. He was sure to advertise when and where they would be able to see him on Fox News. This piece of anecdotal evidence demonstrates that those who are fans of Dr. Jeffress or attend congregations like First Baptist Dallas, or who are interested in a Christmas message from Trump will likely also be interested in knowing when exactly to tune in to Fox News. So it's no surprise then that when we gather national survey data, Fox News is the source of choice for ambassadors, and Fox News has consistently promoted the Big Lie, supported the rioters at the Capitol, and entertained aspects of QAnon. So this last element of a fractured media landscape and information silos serves, in some ways, to fortify the other elements. So when making sense of January 6th, the mutually reinforcing relationships between Christian nationalism, The Big Lie, political violence, conspiratorial thinking, and a fractured media landscape tell a lot of this story. These four elements bring with them serious implications, not least of which is how Americans think about the insurrection. So as we continue to try and make sense of January 6th, we can see how Christian nationalism provides theological cover for extremism to flourish and take root. While a small number of Americans who embrace Christian nationalism made their way to the Capitol, they returned to congregations and communities all over the United States where their views were not too far outside the mainstream. What should give us pause is that Christian nationalism and these constitutive elements that played such a strong role in the insurrection are still prevalent throughout US society. Here's Dr. Abigail Vegter again on the continuing threat of conspiratorial thinking and Christian nationalism to American democracy.

Abigail Vegter: ...conspiracy thinking can decrease trust in systems. It can decrease trust in institutions. It can decrease trust in these pillars of our democracy. And we saw this happen with election denialism after the 2020 election, with the January 6th insurrection. When that information, that false information, spread-- and spread widely-- there was a violent attack on our very system. A lot of scholars are saying the greatest attack on American democracy in our history. And so our study kind of points to this fusion of religion and nationalism and conspiracy thinking that frankly, feels like a powder keg to me. It doesn't take much for that fusion to explode and lead to really dangerous and consequential activities like we saw on January 6th.

Andrew: This leads us to two serious implications of what to expect and be ready to confront as January 6th grows more distant in the rear view mirror.

Andrew: First, we're seeing a real time redefinition happening concerning the insurrection. So how we collectively remember January 6th matters. Just look at the lost cause and how damaging it was to how we remember the Civil War. So we can't assume January 6th is some aberration. Second, the political violence that we saw is not the only avenue through which Christian nationalism is playing a critical role in centering political power and privilege in the hands of a few. There are concerted efforts going on to rework our political system so that the desired outcomes of an election are actually never in doubt. So who needs insurrection when an election outcome is already in hand and virtually guaranteed? There's no need to riot at that point. So let's examine the first implication, where we see a redefinition of what happened on January 6th taking place in real time. So using data collected in February 2021, one month after the insurrection, my colleague, Sam Perry, found that greater agreement with Christian nationalism was linked with more support for the insurrection. So, when asking for agreement with the statement, 'protesters should be caught and prosecuted,' 75% of White ambassadors and accommodators agreed. While these are clear majorities for each group, close to 90% of resistors and 96% of rejecters agreed that those rioting at the Capitol should be prosecuted. So, then Sam asked this exact same question to the same group of people six months later, and here's what he found:

Sam Perry: Later, we asked the same question, and I need to stress this is not just the same question with a whole new sample of people. These are the exact same people, the only thing that changed was time, right? So, six months later we asked the same group of people, and we found that the more you subscribe to Christian nationalism, the more likely you were to change your views on that. And specifically, you are far less likely, something like 20 percentage points, less likely, to believe that we ought to prosecute the people who were at the Capitol riots. We also found that as Christian nationalism increased, you were considerably more likely, almost twice as likely, to say that you stand with the rioters now-- that you were on their side. In other words, there seemed to be this really clear reinterpretation of events that was going on, that not only was it not a bad thing, but it was something that you can see yourself aligning with, that you were actually in support of them. That you reinterpreted the event as not as something that was horrible, if not embarrassing. But you actually thought it was like, 'No, this is a freedom rally. This is something that you were aligned with.' And that was all connected to your views on Christian nationalism.

Andrew: In just six months, there was a 20% decline in White ambassadors and accommodators who still agreed that those attacking the Capitol should be caught and prosecuted. So don't miss this, the influence of Christian nationalism and the four elements we just discussed continue to reshape, in real time, how Americans are thinking about the insurrection. This has serious implications for democracy in the US,

Andrew: Not to put too fine a point on it, but if we are able to excuse the use of violence in the past, we'll be much more likely to make a case for using it in the future when things don't go our way. But now let's turn to the second implication going forward. One focused on making political violence unnecessary through ensuring the outcomes of future elections. So there is a long history in the US of tying together views of a White Christian nation and limiting who has access to the democratic process. There is an implicit logic at work here. So God has a particular vision for this country, and we must be a part of ensuring it comes to pass. One of the pillars of our pluralistic democratic system is the freedom of religion. Now, when freedom of religion meant freedom to be the same variation of Christian, there was no real issue. So to the extent that democracy returns results that allow us to move toward a vision that coincides with a White Christian nation than great. But when it does not, which will increasingly be the case as our country becomes more demographically and religiously diverse, should we let anything, even democracy, stand in our way? To limit what God has commanded? No, even democracy, in this logic, can be set aside. Christian nationalism isn't focused on creating a government for and by the people. It desires a government for a particular people, by a particular people. It is focused on power and power in the right hands. Consider these words from the late Reverend Jerry Falwell concerning getting the right men in power. Speaking to fellow pastors, he said, "We have a three fold primary responsibility. Number one, get people saved. Number two, get them baptized. Number three, get them registered to vote." But it isn't just about increasing the ranks of the right voters. The following quote from Paul Weyrich to a group of evangelical pastors and leaders in Dallas in 1980 is instructive, and you should note Ronald Reagan, he also addressed this crowd.

Paul Weyrich: How many of our Christians have what I call the 'goo goo syndrome?' Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections, quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.

Andrew: Paul Weyrich played a key role in the formation of the Moral Majority, along with Jerry Falwell and also co-founded the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. And this is the source of voter ID laws and other legislation aimed at restricting the vote. So, the political violence we saw on January 6th was real, but that isn't the only way Christian nationalism threatens our democracy. And voter suppression is likely more destructive because it is subtle and has a larger reach. In their 2022 book, The Flag and the Cross, sociologists Sam Perry and Phil Gorski show how Christian nationalism is the strongest predictor of White Americans agreeing with the following statements, 'we make it too easy to vote,' 'voter fraud is getting rampant,' 'I would support a law requiring Americans to pass a basic civics test to vote.' Which certainly echoes Jim Crow America. And they also are more likely to support a law revoking the right to vote for certain criminal offenders for life. And White Americans who embrace Christian nationalism are also much less likely to agree that voter suppression is a serious problem or that we should address gerrymandering. Gorski and Perry are blunt in their assessment. They write, "White Christian nationalism is fundamentally undemocratic for others, that is those who are unworthy of participation." Or as I write in my recent book, "When it comes down to democracy or power, White Christian nationalism will choose power. Every time.

Andrew: So for Americans who embrace White Christian nationalism, setting aside democracy in order to save the nation from itself is a worthy sacrifice. If the God of the universe commanded it, who are we to stand in the way? Why would we let democracy and power sharing undermine our covenant with God? Americans who embrace Christian nationalism will no longer necessarily need demagogues like Trump, or even to mobilize violence after an electoral loss once they've ensured they'll never lose in the first place. For instance, the Brennan Center for Justice reported in February, 2023, that, thus far, lawmakers have pre-filed or introduced at least 150 restrictive voting bills in 32 states. During the same time frame, pro-voter legislators have pushed back seeking to expand access to the vote. At least 274 expansive voting bills have been pre-filed or introduced in 34 states. The Brennan Center reports that in 2022, 12 states enacted restrictive or election interference legislation, and that was the same number that enacted expansive legislation. For the most part, these were in different states, with some making it easier to vote, while others made it harder to vote and easier to interfere in elections. So mobilization at the state level is happening both toward wire extreme, which involves reducing the proportion of the US population who votes, and toward expanding the right to vote. The question for all of us becomes, do we want to allow all Americans to participate in democracy or not? What we find over and over, though, is that Christian nationalism is suspicious of the opportunity democracy creates for power sharing. And not only that, it sees a world where only true Americans have a say, and being their particular type of Christian is central to being a true American.

Andrew: So when I'm asked to share my research with various groups, the question always comes up: What do we do about this? When thinking about how Christian nationalism poses such a real threat to democracy. I describe the situation in this way, our democracy is suffering from a mortal wound and is in an ambulance on the way to the emergency room. About one third of Americans still question the legitimacy of the 2020 election, with that number rising among self-described Republicans, and this even though there is no evidence of any sort supporting election fraud. And as we just discussed, the elements leading Americans to embrace political violence, the Big Lie, and voter suppression are still coursing through our body politic. So, in the short term, we have to respond to a mortal wound just like emergency medical technicians. How do we defend access to the democratic process and ensure everyone can have a say in our elections? Track what is happening in your state. Oppose voter suppression efforts. Give money to groups focused on ensuring marginalized populations can have a say. The long game, which encompasses changing hearts and minds around Christian nationalism, is important, but the threat is less acute right now. It's kind of like high blood pressure or heart disease. It's a problem and certainly deadly and should be dealt with. But the destruction of our American experiment in a pluralistic, democratic society will come and go, if we only focus on the slow but incredibly important work of highlighting the folly of Christian nationalism. We need to be focused on the acute threats and how to respond to them in the here and now without losing sight of the long term threats and how to confront them. I know we can do both, and I hope we do. Remember our democracy is actually quite young, with the Civil Rights Act of the 1960s finally extending the right to participate to all. So combating Christian nationalism is a matter of fighting for democracy by understanding and actively countering American Christian nationalism, all Americans, including American Christians, can continue to move ever toward the vision of a country of liberty and justice for all, and not just the chosen few. In the next episode, we will turn to the threat that White Christian nationalism poses to the American church, and why all people of faith, but especially Christians, must do everything possible to combat it.

Bradley Onishi: Thanks for listening to American Idols. American Idols was created and written by Dr. Andrew Whitehead. It was produced by me, Brad Onishi. Our sound engineer, Scott Okamoto, who also provided original music. If you haven't already, hit subscribe in order to follow along with this series and all the other great content we're producing at Axis Mundi. We tell the stories at the center of our world so that we can all envision a better one. Until next time, keep your eyes open and feet on the ground.