North American Unitarian Association

At its core Christian Nationalism is a political-ideological view that a particular nation either is or should be a Christian nation — meaning the identity, culture, laws or governance of that country should reflect a specific form of Christianity. It is distinct from simply “being Christian” or “Christian values influencing society.” Rather, it tends to assert that Christianity (or a particular interpretation of it) should enjoy a privileged or dominant status in national life, and that political/civic institutions should reflect or enforce it. There are growing concerns that Christian Nationalist ideas weaken democratic institutions by reducing the separation between church and state, or privileging a particular religious-civic identity over pluralism. It also poses challenges for religious freedom and minority rights: when one tradition is privileged in law or policy, other faiths or secular citizens may find themselves marginalized. Some countries heavily impacted by this movement include the United States, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Kenya and other sub-Saharan nations.

We began this session by watching a short 20-minute educational video (by James Talarico) on the impact of Christian Nationalism and how we might move beyond it. We then reviewed and discussed the implications of Christian Nationalism for affected nations (with a particular focus on the United States) and for liberal religion as a whole.

We removed the video from our recording for copyright reasons, but you may watch it with this link here.