By Lori Lee
NDG Contributing Writer
All too often, Americans find themselves in front of their devices, stressed over what they’re seeing on social media. As the world becomes increasingly complex, it seems many are turning to conspiracy theoaries and radical philosophies to make sense of it all.
Zeroing in on the recent rise in Christian nationalism in the U.S., Heath Druzin, host and creator of the “Extremely American” podcast series, said “there is an alarming number of people who are pretty fond of Hitler at the moment and pretty okay saying it out loud.”
Druzin, who joined a panel discussion on the mainstreaming of White Supremacy at an American Community Media briefing last week, said there are two main reasons for the increase. One is you’ve got political leaders saying things that formerly would have been considered political errors, and people are finding it more comfortable, sheltered by the anonymity of online echo chambers, to say things they wouldn’t normally say in public.
Many people will remember Trump’s early messaging regarding immigrants being rapists and bringing crime with them to this country. It was maybe the first wow moment for a lot of people, said Druzin, some in a bad way, others finding the statement more relatable. That kind of talk was undoubtedly shocking then for many, but it has since become more acceptable and a part of everyday American life, he said.
White nationalism has a long history, added Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Human Rights (IHR). Back in the late 1970s, when the Aryan Nations Compound was publishing pamphlets about the invasion of the U.S. from the South, it gained ground in shifting public policy toward White Nationalist philosophies. It gained greater traction in the 1980s during the Reagan years, added Sanford F. Schram, Political Science Professor at the University of Alabama and Professor Emeritus at Hunter College. This, as Pat Buchanan managed to get through to the Republican Party using a sanitized version of what Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke had been pushing.
Later, the election of the first non-white American president would lead to the emergence of the Tea Party, which helped the GOP take control of the House in 2010, fueled by high levels of racial resentment. Donald Trump would soon follow in 2016 riding a tide of resentment politics all the way to the White House, added Schram.
Now, extremists are going mainstream, as people in the Republican Party and the media play along. Stuart Stevens, the Republican advisor to the Bush Administration, said recently, the Republican Party understood that White Nationalists were part of their coalition, but they thought they were the recessive gene. It turns out they’re the dominant gene now, and that’s how the party has evolved, noted Schram.
“Now, the next generation of young people, most recently on the internet and Twitter, Discord and elsewhere, are trolling neo-Nazi memes as if that’s the cool thing these days,” said Schram.
From the 1970s up to the election of President Obama, the far right was moving a wave of activism into the mainstream, added Burghart. As it quickly expanded over thirty years, with 2.4 million Americans having been exposed to conspiratorial thinking, according to the IHR 2022 survey. The COVID denial, anti-vaccine segment, fueled by conspiratorial thinking and racial resentment, has now breached the mainstream, IHR tracking 875 state legislators having joined far-right groups recently. That’s everything from militia groups to COVID denial and anti-Semitic groups, and QAnon-inspired organizations. By joining these groups, state legislators are giving their stamp of approval, providing a pipeline for ideas once confined to the margins and now in the mainstream as they quickly become public policy, said Burghart.
Formerly, you would just hear about theories brewing at some backwoods militia meetings from people like John Truckman, of harmful plane “chemtrails” once considered laughable, he said. Now, two states have adopted laws against “geo engineering” based on these theories, which scientists and the Environmental Protection Agency have repeatedly disproved. Worse still, the IHR 2024 survey found growing numbers of state legislators are still joining these groups, said Burghart.
White identity politics is relatively new, yet for a long time, White people have been buying into such racist ideas, noted Schram. As Ashley Giardino’s “White Identity Politics” pointed out, more and more Whites are feeling passed over in inclusive politics as they look to the government to protect them. When it doesn’t, government becomes the enemy, noted Schram.
The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is embracing such resentment to gain votes, as theories like the Great Replacement, which claims immigrants are being brought in to replace White Americans, convince some to get on board. These marginal votes matter, said Schram, and the group will likely remain a significant force in politics. Though many may not support the violent crackdown on undocumented immigrants, a number do support government action to defend White Nationalism.
As religion and race are embedded in American history, the tendency toward Christian Nationalism emerges with the blending of Christianity and national political identity, added Taylor. White people have used Christianity against even Christians of color, adding markers like Anglo-Protestant or European Protestant to exclude while blending whiteness with Christianity as definitional to being American.
Christian Nationalists want a theocracy, or laws based on Christianity, explained Taylor, and there are at least three major strands of the movement. The Far-right Catholic strand favors Catholic traditionalism and deeply opposes the Second Vatican Council of the sixties, while White Christian supremacy, derived from Calvinism, is formal and theological using patriarchal messaging that men should be in charge.
Doug Wilson, who leads Christ Church in Idaho, is famous for his views on Christian Supremacy, leading a kind of quasi-sect called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, explained Druzin. Wilson has built a Christian industrial complex of fundamentalist schools and churches, while establishing a streaming service and turning out educational material through the Canon Press. He’s trying to recreate society in a fundamentalist Christian image, said Druzin, and he’s been very successful and influential in providing social and entertainment through a fundamentalist lens.
Pete Hegseth praises Wilson’s writings and has attended his church in DC several times. Because the sect is patriarchal, Wilson doesn’t believe women should vote. He also believes the LGBTQ community should be outlawed.
The third version of Christian Nationalism is the Independent Charismatic strand, which is more supernaturalist and accelerationist in its orientation to politics, added Taylor. This form predominates in Trump’s advisory circles, tied to the belief that God will intervene in American politics as people reign in a new divine order. This sect is more open to women in leadership and part of why prosperity gospel televangelist Paula White came to be director of the White House Faith Office. With Trump’s win, these ideas are getting mainstreamed, as his people get into places of influence, said Taylor.
The Christian Nationslist realm is much more multi-ethnic and why Trump manages to enlist some Christians of color. Tied in with theological and media strands of charismatic spirituality, some are buying into the messaging surrounding Trump as this kind of prophesied figure, therefore overlooking some things they don’t agree with. This messaging serves as a universal adapter, said Taylor, allowing QAnon, the anti-Semites, the Philo-Semites, and Christian Zionists to plug in.
They’ve managed to paper over some of the contradictions, added Burghart. “I would argue those contradictions are becoming much more evident, especially in this blow up around anti-Semitism that we’re seeing right now”. The Epstein case may bring yet more contradictions to light between Christianity and what this government is doing, he said.
As the movement grows, it broadens the network diversifying from anti-Black sentiment to opposing people of diverse gender identities. This, as more mainstream whites re-sort themselves into the Republican Party, going along with them due to the opportunities of power they present. This is also a reason people in the Trump Administration, on the Supreme Court, and in Congress stay on board, Schram said.
Until about 1990, around 90% of Americans identified as Christian. This is why the religious right in the 1980s and 1990s said they could take over American politics if they could just get Christians to vote the way they wanted them to. Yet, as these movements grow in power, Church attendance is going down, noted Taylor, this as rapid secularization occurs. We’re down to around 62-63% of the population identifying as Christian, with church attendance dropping under 50% in 2022, he said. The people who are still identifying as Christian, especially the ones who want to hold on to notions of Christian nationalism, are feeling more and more like a minority. This is why we’re seeing more extreme ideas populating as these routes to dominating American politics end. What’s going on from the top down, said Schram, is a lot of people who are not necessarily white nationalists are willing to play along because it enables them to further their agenda.
Where far-right populist movements have blended with religious nationalist movements, democracies have been overturned, warned Taylor. The U.S. is just one outpost of a broader global trend, as we’re seeing this in India, in Turkey, and in Poland. IHR research shows people who have higher hostility about diversity are less likely to support democracy and are more willing to tolerate an authoritarian leader—that being their road to power, Schram added.
Yet, one must remember that Christian nationalism is at odds with the vast majority of Christians in America. As Druzin explained, Christian nationalism arguments are really loud and successful right now. Yet, most Americans are not on board with their ideas. This may be why Christian Nationalists don’t like democracy — because they’re not very good at winning broad general elections, Druzin noted.
