Tuesday, May 10, 2022

WE BELIEVE THAT CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM THREATENS OUR FAITH AND COUNTRY

 


As Christians, our faith teaches us everyone is created in God’s image and commands us to love one another. As Americans, we value our system of government and the good that can be accomplished in our constitutional democracy. Today, we are concerned about a persistent threat to both our religious communities and our democracy — Christian nationalism.

Christian nationalism seeks to merge Christian and American identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism demands Christianity be privileged by the State and implies that to be a good American, one must be Christian. It often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation. We reject this damaging political ideology and invite our Christian brothers and sisters to join us in opposing this threat to our faith and to our nation.

 As Christians, we are bound to Christ, not by citizenship, but by faith. We believe that:

  • People of all faiths and none have the right and responsibility to engage constructively in the public square.

  • Patriotism does not require us to minimize our religious convictions.

  • One’s religious affiliation, or lack thereof, should be irrelevant to one’s standing in the civic community.

  • Government should not prefer one religion over another or religion over nonreligion.

  • Religious instruction is best left to our houses of worship, other religious institutions and families.

  • America’s historic commitment to religious pluralism enables faith communities to live in civic harmony with one another without sacrificing our theological convictions.

  • Conflating religious authority with political authority is idolatrous and often leads to oppression of minority and other marginalized groups as well as the spiritual impoverishment of religion.

  • We must stand up to and speak out against Christian nationalism, especially when it inspires acts of violence and intimidation—including vandalism, bomb threats, arson, hate crimes, and attacks on houses of worship—against religious communities at home and abroad.

Whether we worship at a church, mosque, synagogue, or temple, America has no second-class faiths. All are equal under the U.S. Constitution. As Christians, we must speak in one voice condemning Christian nationalism as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy.

https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/statement


Meet some of the endorsers

Christian leaders are standing up to the threat of Christian nationalism. Click on the link:


“Christian nationalism perverts the gospel and the Constitution."

“Christian nationalism is a threat to the United States' wellbeing, the world, and the Christian faith. To be clear, there is nothing Christian about ‘Christian nationalism.’ "

“The merging of faith and politics into a single ideology is idolatrous and dangerous."

“‘Christian nationalism’ is an oxymoron and a dangerous movement rooted in supremacy and hate."

“As followers of Jesus, his command to love our neighbors means neighbors of every type, of every faith, not just our own."






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