Recently I was minding my own business reading a Facebook post by someone for whom I have the highest regard. Ally Henny is a magna cum laude graduate with a Masters of Divinity degree from Fuller Christian seminary. Among her many interests and activities is her work with The Witness, a Black Christian Collective, an organization that seeks to build up and center Black men, women, and children by giving their authentic voices a place in the American Christian conversation.
Ally made an entirely reasonable remark a few days ago about Christian nationalism and how it is more of a threat to the church than the bugaboo “Critical Race Theory”:
If white evangelical Christian leaders spent even half the time denouncing Christian Nationalism as they have critical race theory, there might not have been an insurrection at the Capitol in January.
Ally Henny, May 19, 2021
https://www.facebook.com/allyhennypage/posts/331483065003201
Now, her direct statements about the dangers of Christian nationalism generated some lively discussion. But what fascinated me are the white people who came into her timeline to reassure her (and the rest of us, probably) that Christian nationalism not only is not a threat to our democracy and our civil freedoms, it is actually a good thing and we should welcome it.
I may have tangled with a few people more than I should, but ultimately the philosophy of Christian nationalism is a threat to our freedoms, whether we are Americans, Christians, or both—and I want to be absolutely clear about that.
Christian nationalism—the desire to “make” America “Christian”—is against the kin-dom of God as modeled by Jesus and is also 100% unconstitutional. There is no divine right for Christians to control the government. There is no place in the Constitution for Christians to be given charge of the government to rule as “Christians.”
And I, as a Christian of nearly 55 years, do not want the government to be run as some “Christians” want it to be run.
I want the entirely secular United States government to allow people of any, all, and no faiths to express themselves freely in their worship and their meetings. I absolutely do not want a single Christian sect of any kind to enforce their version of Christianity on anyone else. The moment you tell me what Christianity is and that I must follow it is the very moment I will protest and push back with 100% of my being.
I want the wall between church and state to be high and unscaleable so that assemblies of any faith can do their religious services freely and the state can operate with no favoritism given to any religion.
Christians who want to make Christianity the state religion in any way are astonishingly ignorant of the last 2000 years of history.
Every single time Christians attempt to make Christianity into the state religion, or make the state enforce the Christian religion, or make people Christians if they are to be members of the state, that effort always turns into tyranny of a very small sect of Christianity.
I know that many white Evangelicals are steered away from the study of history & instead are told myths and stories about the founding of America and the history of Christianity, but I have to say it, over and over: you who argue for a “Christian” nation or “Christian nationalism” are arguing for tyranny but trying to use shadows and puppets and strings to make your case while hiding your motives.
The road to “Christian nationalism” always ends in tyranny. Full stop.