The Issues of Christian Nationalism and Potential Solutions to Strengthen It
When someone often mentions the term
'Christian Nationalism', images of patriotic Americans with their Bibles and crucifixes often come to mind. In certain areas of the world where the Catholic faith is strong, it often conjures the legacy of the Crusades and the Reconquista period where the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal had reconquered their lost lands that were held by the Islamic Emirate of Grenada. In nations that are predominantly Orthodox,
'Christian Nationalism' is often associated with the ethnic churches that serve the territory they are in, in most cases for example, like the Serbian and Russian Orthodox Churches serving their respective countries. However, I will not talk about Christian Nationalism as a criticizing point. This passage is more about the significant weaknesses surrounding it, and what would be the most sensible and bold solution to solve it.
The first issue that should be addressed facing Christian Nationalism is the very nature of Christianity itself. Originally considered another sect of Judaism, it gradually evolved in its own direction to become a powerful faith in its own right. Before the Council of Nicaea had happened, there were early split and 'heresies' that occurred, most notably the controversial legacy of Saint Marcion of Sinope, who made a rather bold, though shocking, claim, that Jesus was sent by God to combat an evil God he called the Demiurge. Though his legacy eventually died out, it was one of those Gnostic movements that led to its condemnation as a heresy. Additionally, the preaching of the Apostle Paul and his connections to various parts of the Roman Empire had played a role in Christianity's growth, and as they say, the rest is history. However, there's also the episode surrounding Nestorius and the Nestorian heresy, and so on. While Christianity gained converts from both Jewish and Gentile communities, its rather internationalist approach is ironically enough, both its greatest strength and weakness at the same time. It was a great source of strength in that it can unite different tribes together and form new identities, as demonstrated by the conversion of Bulgaria to Orthodox Christianity and the spiritual unification between the Bulgars, Slavs, and Thracians. Conversely, it was also a source of weakness in that it can be subverted, corrupted, and degraded. Even the much vaunted Catholic Church was not immune to infiltration and subversion, as evident by the shrouded mystery of whether the accusation levied against Pope XXIII of being a Freemason was true or not. However, the proof that the Catholic Church has indeed been infiltrated was presented by Pope Paul VI in his letter, quote:
"… We would say that, through some mysterious crack—no, it's not mysterious; through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God. There is doubt, uncertainty, problems, unrest, dissatisfaction, confrontation.
"The Church is no longer trusted. We trust the first pagan prophet we see who speaks to us in some newspaper, and we run behind him and ask him if he has the formula for true life. I repeat, doubt has entered our conscience. And it entered through the windows that should have been open to the light: science." (aleteia.org)
What did Paul VI mean by saying “the smoke of Satan has entered the Church”?
Other Christian denominations however, are just as, if not, more vulnerable to infiltration and subversion than the Catholic Church. The existence of Churches that cater to the LGBT community can be an example of such subversion, as well as the existence of "woke" sects of Christian churches. Evangelical Churches are also vulnerable to infiltration and subversion, as evident by the introduction of modern musical instruments and the light hearted way that signifies the loss of spirit within those denominations. While many Protestant and Evangelical Church leaders wanted to bring their congregations into the modern period, this kind of modernization only allowed them to lose their original purpose as a congregation. Going back to the Catholic Church, there's also one glaring example of a clear evidence of subversion and corrosion of its original purpose, and it is summed up by three words: Novus Ordo Missae. It is as if the congregations that adopted this kind of cringe worthy practices had turned their own churches into a circus. Such infiltration and subversion has actually done wonders for both Catholicism, Protestantism, and Evangelicalism, in that their spiritual value has been lost. Even the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches are not immune to subversion however, though in their case, Ecumenism is the main threat to keeping their ecclesiastical independence. Orthodox-Catholic inter-faith dialogues since the mending of the Schism had been a prime example of such attempted 'healing', though in reality, it is nothing more than a more sinister attempt at subjugating the other Four Patriarchates to the authority of the so-called "Vicar of Christ", or the power hungry Pope that has disgraced the title, 'Patriarch of the West'.
The second issue that had to be addressed regarding Christian Nationalism is its internationalist character. Christianity in itself, is not only a kind of spiritual internationalism, but a spiritual globalist sect. Think about it: any ethnic or tribal group can convert to Christianity, and become a part of a big, international group. The cost of that would be the abandonment of blood ties to their own tribe, ethnic consciousness, and a sense of pride in their ancient heritage. Additionally, Islam also functions in a similar manner as well, with any ethnic or tribal group being allowed to convert to Islam, and become a part of the ummah. However, the only difference is that Islam's punishment for leaving the religion is death, while there are no such punishments that one can think for leaving Christianity. While both Christianity and Islam can be considered a form of bloodless, spiritual form of globalism, Judaism is an ethno-religion with an extremely difficult criteria for Gentiles to convert to. However, Noahidism serves as a kind of bridge between Judaism and the Gentile world, thus making it essentially a quasi-Jewish religion tailored for Gentiles. Even though the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches are unique in that they are tailored towards the ethnic group and country where that church resides, anyone can convert to Orthodoxy, but with rigorous criteria and study that potential future converts would have to undergo, kind of like a more, strict version of the Roman Catholic Initiation for Adults.
Perhaps the most important and final issue facing Christian Nationalism is the fact that expression of any form of nationalism is considered
pride, which in itself is considered one of the
Seven Deadly Sins. The inability to express one's own pride in his or her own Christian faith usually ends up being downplayed, and it reaches a point where they have to hide their Christian faith in the face of open hostility towards them. To make matters worse, Christian nationalism has recently been smeared with the reactionary brush by those who are pushing progressive agendas that often damage the nations involved. The subverters often use puppet "Christians" as symbols of their progressive stance to attack the reactionaries that have come to dominate the Christian Nationalist movement. Moreover, addressing the internationalist point of Christian Nationalism once more, there was an example by noted Catholic author E. Michael Jones
(the tweet may have already been deleted, or it might have been referenced in a debate against noted white nationalist Richard Spencer), and it went like this: an African migrant moves to Poland, adopts the Catholic faith, learns the Polish language, and embraces Polish customs, and in the end, the African migrant is considered an ethnic Pole. How idiotic does this sound? Does any Pole think that the African migrant would magically become an ethnic Pole? First and foremost, the African migrant to Poland can become a Polish citizen, acquire Polish nationality, but in the end, he is anything but an ethnic Pole. Additionally, when one thinks of what a Polish or say, Hungarian person would look like, one automatically assumes that they are white.
So what should be the solutions for a much, stronger form of Christian Nationalism? I can think of several ones that would be ideal, though not perfect:
1) The reactionary flavor of Christian Nationalism can be maintained, but the Christian Nationalism existent in every Western nation has to be tailored towards a cultural nationalist, or in the cases of heavily Protestant nations like Britain, the Scandinavian nations, and the Netherlands, their brand of Protestant Christian nationalism must take the form of an ethno-nationalist strand. Ethno-nationalist centric Christian Nationalism has already been perfected in Orthodox nations, most notably Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and so on.
2) Christian Nationalist movements first need to form a nucleus of a new, revolutionary elite that can codify their policies in order to make it easier to disseminate to the curious masses.
3) In the case of Europe though, their version of Christian Nationalism can take on a Pan-European cultural nationalist strand that can be both inclusive and exclusive. Inclusive in that they have to accept the possibility of collaboration and cooperation among the three major brands of Christianity, two of the Western branch and one of the Eatern branch. In the case of the Anglophone nations, there should exist two kinds of Christian Nationalism: a Protestant branch and a Catholic branch.
4) If anyone wants to experiment with the idea of developing another new kind of Christian Nationalist ideology, they must be open to the idea of dabbling with certain Gnostic strands, even though it may be deemed heretical. This kind of experimental Gnostic Nationalism, as we can propose to name it, is like thinking outside the box. However, as Gnosticism is a kind of subject that needed thorough examination and explanation, this experiment would have to be placed on stasis until one could address the sensitive issues regarding Gnosticism.
Though these solutions are not perfect and are open to further discussions, it is a possible start.
