The politicization of Americans’ faith traditions has recently devolved into the newfound leftist phrase “Christian nationalist,” often combined with race as “white Christian nationalism” and then touted as a threat to the nation. But in seemingly racist arrogance, these Christ-haters ignore the history of black Christian nationalism.
In an insightful contemplation of the nascent anti-Christian crusade by god-hating Marxists, Kenneth L. Woodward writes in First Things that “[w]hite Christian nationalism is a social construction the meaning of which depends on who is doing the constructing.” Woodward chronicles the effort by a handful of Christian-hating politicos to portray the dreaded “Christian nationalist” category as “an implicit theocratic threat to the country” but adroitly points out the flaws of this slanderous undertaking:
In sum, “white Christian nationalist” is an inherently political concept. … The relationship between Christianity and American nationalism has a long history, against which any new iteration must be understood. … In the Cold War era, when the spread of Communism was the nation’s main concern, both liberals and conservatives advanced their political agendas by appealing to yet other forms of Christian nationalism. And so, in the biblical idiom of freedom and justice, did Martin Luther King Jr.
Indeed, Joe Biden invokes God routinely to endorse his godless edicts. How does he escape the white Christian nationalist moniker? And what of black Christians who embrace the clear Christian roots of the American experience? Are they not a threat to the nation?
The meaning of words and phrases can be extremely important. “White supremacist” once referred to white people who believe that whites are a superior race to blacks. The term has been perverted to mean “white people” (or even black people who do not agree with Critical Race Theory). The political/secular crusade against Christianity seeks to similarly recast the good traditions of liberty, equality, and unalienable rights that arose from Christianity and led to the abolitionist movement as somehow evil. Many black voices, both current and historical, join Martin Luther King, Jr. in support of precisely the same Christian precepts embraced by so-called white Christian nationalists.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is no longer the darling of the left. He has essentially been canceled: whites who invoke his legacy are knee-jerk slandered as white supremacists. But King was a bold, devout Christian preacher, politician, and activist for whom faith in Christ was the foundation of all that he did, including his martyrdom for the cause of civil rights. His “I Have a Dream” speech still echoes dimly in the minds of Americans trying to fathom how race-based hiring, advancement, and reparations will accomplish anything other than the destruction of everything King invested his career — and life — to accomplish.
King was hardly the sole black American to elevate his faith into the Christian nationalist “biblical idiom of freedom and justice.” Black and white Americans have long found unity in that shared faith that fueled the abolitionist movement and strives even now for aspirational equality, under Marxist attack by those invoking the inequitable, destructive ideologies of race, gender, and queer “theories” that all advance principles antithetical to Christian ideals. These toxic theories create division, emphasize rights (that would not exist but for the Christian contribution) over duties, demand “works” of racial repentance, bizarre pronouns, or trans-groveling, and do not aspire toward freedom, equality, or justice. That is, they are overtly anti-Christian.
Many great black American minds held strongly to the Christian religion and the American creed. Frederick Douglass was outspoken in his passion for the American liberties now under assault:
I am a Republican, a black, dyed in the wool Republican, and I never intend to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress. … There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution. … Education means emancipation. It means light and liberty. It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the light by which men can only be made free.
Walter E. Williams was no less shy in expressing his faith and opposing the ongoing Marxist destruction of the nation:
Democracy and liberty are not the same. Democracy is little more than mob rule, while liberty refers to the sovereignty of the individual. … Income redistribution not only betrays the founders’ vision, it’s a sin in the eyes of God. … It’s morality that is society’s first line of defense against uncivilized behavior. … For those of us who are Christians, I’m very sure that when God gave Moses the commandment Thou Shalt Not Steal, he did not mean … unless you get a majority vote in Congress.
Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman were both ardently devout Christians. While the social justice warrior crowd might falsely claim that these famous ladies were bamboozled into a false faith, their accomplishments would have been impossible without faith. Both women drew their courage from their Christian convictions, with Tubman claiming, “I am at peace with God and all mankind.”
George Washington Carver proclaimed, “Our creator is the same and never changes despite the names given Him by people here and in all parts of the world. Even if we gave Him no name at all, He would still be there, within us, waiting to give us good on this earth.” Booker T. Washington wrote, “If no other consideration had convinced me of the value of the Christian life, the Christlike work which the Church of all denominations in America has done during the last thirty-five years for the elevation of the black man would have made me a Christian.”
Thomas Sowell is a black American who strongly condemns the attack on constitutional rights by those who claim they seek social justice:
Racism is not dead, but it is on life support — kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as “racists.” … If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.
Actor Harry Lennix, a Catholic, has remarked, “The black church is extremely important in black America. I think most Americans themselves believe in a divine power, in a God, and I’m sure that that number increases with black people.” Rosa Parks held that “I believe there is only one race — the human race.” Voddie Baucham, Jr. writes, “Who am I to tell a white brother that he cannot be reconciled to me until he has dredged up all of the racial sins of his and his ancestors’ past and made proper restitution? Christ has atoned for sin!”
Defining “Christian nationalism” is a patently vague political game. In contrast, defining America as founded on Christian ideals of equal rights and fundamental liberties, which gave rise to the abolitionist movement, is a true, non-racist definition of the term, embraced by black and white Americans alike. The battle against slavery and prejudice will always go on, and there will always be brothers and sisters in Christ (of all colors and nationalities) agreeing with Rev. King: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Christianity is the light, and the love, entwined in this American nation. That’s Christian nationalism, in plain black and white.
Attorney-farmer John Klar hosts the Small Farm Republic Substack and podcast from his Vermont farm. His recent book is Small Farm Republic: Why Conservatives Must Embrace Local Agriculture, Reject Climate Alarmism, and Lead an Environmental Revival.
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