A Condensed History of Christian Nationalism and Propaganda

 

By Aubrey Vosburg

Anyone who attended a public school in the United States as a child will remember the watered down, sugar-coated story we were told about the first American settlers: a group of fed-up Europeans immigrants who wished to practice their own religion without consequence. Centuries later, these values were permanently affixed to our country’s constitution; considering the freedom of religion an inalienable right. Although the contributors to the constitution were predominantly Christian, nowhere was it stated that that there is a national religion. In fact, one of Maddison’s proposed amendments stated: “The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed”. For years, this belief system held true and, particularly during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the United States was generally perceived as a land where science and rationality prevailed over religious mandates.

So what happened? As most of us know, current social tensions in the United States are the highest they have been in decades. This tension has no single root cause, but rather is the result of a wide array of vastly different thoughts, beliefs, and opinions amongst the masses. Every individual has a moral compass that drives them to think and behave the way that they do. Often these morals stem from experiences that we have had throughout our lives and, as decades pass, the consensus on what exactly “moral” is changes. In the early 20^th century, a swell of social change began sweeping through the US and, in 1925, the Scopes Monkey Trial had managed to sour the public opinion of evangelical Christianity for the next several years.

It was not until radios became common household items that Christian nationalism as we know it began to gain traction. Extremely charismatic preachers, such as Billy Grahm and Rex Hubard, would travel and broadcast sermons, accruing massive audiences. Eventually, these radio broadcasts would develop into the first televised sermons, known as ‘televangelism’. As televangelism popularized, another movement was also getting some attention: the conservative movement. By the late 70’s, in the wake of the Vietnam War, Watergate, and rising tension with the Soviet Union, many Americans felt as though liberalism had failed them and saw this new ‘neoconservatism’ as an attractive option. Many evangelical Christians were also upset at the way of things, but, rather than blaming Liberalism, they blamed the loss of Christian family values. As a result, the conservatives and Christians began to unify to form the Moral Majority.

Once Reagan took office, Christian Nationalism began to really work its way into politics. Reagan was a religious man who openly endorsed the Christian church; his beliefs influenced many of his decisions, including an attempt to constitutionally outlaw abortions and attempt to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling. The narrow loss of these rulings fanned the Christian nationalist flames, and the movement began to actively target anything that appeared to go against their values.

Today, Christian nationalism is still fiercely prominent in our government, using a variety of scare tactics to remain relevant. Their focus, however, has changed multiple times throughout the years shifting from homosexuals in the military to transgendered people using the bathroom to Muslims and everything in between. Christian nationalism has also staked its claim into a wide array of mass media including television shows, blockbuster movies, and particularly social media. Websites like Facebook and Parlor have greatly increased the area that their messages can reach, while simultaneously making it difficult to check the validity of their statements.

Works Cited:

1.  Nagin, Rick (6 February 2012). "Christian nationalists recruiting "child evangelists" in public schools". People's World. Retrieved 26 June2020.
2. ^ Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L. (2020). Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–10. ISBN 978-0-19-005789-3.
3. ^ Bean, Lydia (2016). The Politics of Evangelical Identity: Local Churches and Partisan Divides in the United States and Canada. Princeton University Press. p. 152. ISBN 978-0-691-17370-2.
4. ^ Greenberg, Udi (22 October 2019). "Can Christian Democracy Save Us?". Boston Review. Retrieved 5 August 2020.