The Theological Danger of Christian Nationalism
In the November 2025 newsletter, Pr. Alex wrote about the theological peril of Christian Nationalism. This page was created to supplement that article, and to help you to continue your own journey in faith and civic life. Below you will find Article 38 of the ELCA Social Statement on Faith and Civic Life. This article directly discusses the danger of Christian Nationalism. As well as the text of Article 38 below, here are some further links for your use:
Article 38 of the ELCA Social Statement: Faith and Civic Life: Seeking the Well-being of All
Article 38 The ELCA understanding of civic life and faith affirms healthy forms of patriotism. Patriotism is to love one’s country, to pray for its well-being, to be committed to its success, to have a sense of pride in it, to criticize it, and to work for its reform when necessary. All of these can be elements of how Christians and their communities live out discipleship as individuals and in corporate bodies.
There are also unhealthy expressions of patriotism. They actually are distortions of true patriotism and can be dangerous for the country and for vulnerable populations within it. Such forms of unhealthy patriotism attribute to the country, to a political party, to certain individuals, or even to a racial or ethnic group a veneration, worship, loyalty, or trust owed to God alone (Mark 12:17). Christ’s church cannot condone elevating a country or anything else to the place that belongs only to God, because this is succumbing to idolatry. This statement rejects unhealthy forms of patriotism, including those related to any form of religious nationalism.
At the time of this writing, there is a peculiar form of unhealthy patriotism gaining traction in the United States—Christian nationalism. Christian nationalist belief seeks to fuse selected Christian ideas about what should be the national way of life with a comprehensive cultural framework. That framework incorporates highly selective narratives, practices, symbols, and value systems. For example: “In a Christian nation, social power is placed in the service of the Christian religion.” Christian nationalism explicitly seeks to implement such a legislative framework. Yet, this “turns God into a mascot for the state.”
In hardline strains of Christian nationalism, only white, U.S.-born, Christian believers are considered genuine U.S. citizens. This privileging of white, U.S.-born Christians is connected to our country’s violent practices of white supremacy, such as Jim Crow laws or the hundreds of years of Black African slavery.
Such belief in an intrinsic moral and intellectual superiority of white European Christian civilization has been used to justify as natural and right that white Christians, especially males, should be in power. Such views about race, ethnicity, sex, social/economic class, and religion deny that one’s birth in the nation or one’s great contributions and service to the country are enough for a resident to be considered a “true American.” It distorts who is considered to be a true citizen of the nation.
A comparison of any strain of religious nationalism, including Christian nationalism, with the actual teachings of Jesus and of the Holy Scriptures reveals that these values are not Christlike. Christian nationalism, in particular, perverts the Christian message by cherry-picking texts that interpret the Scriptures in ways that connect religion to domination.
Christian nationalism fuses an imagined conception of a Christian nation with a false vision of God’s ultimate will. It confuses the kingdom of God with a particular government. Jesus rejects identification of earthly structures with God’s kingdom or will: “My kingdom does not belong to this world” (John 18:36). Lutherans teach that the kingdom of God is not a nation, not a particular culture, not a racial grouping, not a form of government, and not even a denomination or a religion.
For theological reasons, the ELCA repudiates Christian nationalism as a distortion of the Christian faith that crosses the line into idolatry. This church also realizes that Christian nationalism contradicts the U.S. motto, e pluribus unum (out of many, one). It effectively substitutes “we the (self-declared) true American-Christians” for “we the people.” It is an unhealthy form of patriotism that harms this country, divides it, and especially endangers the well-being of vulnerable members of our society.