Don’t Let The ‘Christian Nationalist’ Slur Shame You Into Hiding Your Faith

A concerted effort is underway among leftist and self-styled progressive Christians to take faithful believers out of the game culturally and politically.

Politico came out swinging on Tuesday with the tired “Christian nationalist” slur in an article about a second Donald Trump term. It intended to shame conservatives who “believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life” — in other words, mainstream Christians.

The Politico article closely followed last week’s release of the Rob Reiner-backed “God and Country” documentary, which also uses the “Christian nationalist” moniker and B-roll of so-called “ultra-MAGA Republicans” to scare viewers away from basic Christian beliefs.

Just before that came the “He Gets Us” Super Bowl foot-washing ad, which twisted Jesus’ teaching on the cleansing of sin to paint politically engaged conservative Christians, such as vocal pro-lifers, as hateful. As The Daily Wire’s Megan Basham wrote on X, “[E]very foot washer in the scenes where a political subtext was present was someone who would be perceived as conservative (including the one that differentiated the foot washer from prolife protestors outside an abortion clinic). And this was juxtaposed against the message ‘Jesus Didn’t Teach Hate.’ So the inference seems to be that the stereotypical conservative Christian in those scenarios practices hate, unlike Jesus.”

These aren’t the first three examples, and they won’t be the last. For much more tangible attacks, look at how Joe Biden’s Justice Department has gone after Christians as “domestic terrorists” and targeted pro-life parents like this father of 11, who was recently convicted for praying outside an abortion facility and now faces up to 11 years behind bars and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

The goal of all these assaults, whether verbal or legal, is the same. It’s to bully faithful Christians out of participation in public life.

If you defend traditional marriage, unborn human life, national sovereignty, the immutability of the sexes, the importance of virtue in self-government, the risks of oral contraception, or the divine origins of life and liberty — Politico attacks all of these — you’re a “Christian nationalist.” Don’t oppose pro-abortion Democrats or protest Planned Parenthood’s profit- and eugenics-motivated killings, or you could be ripped from your newly impoverished family for a decade. If you take your faith seriously, you’re on par with bombers and mass shooters.

The aim is to threaten and harass and shame — so that when you count the cost of faithfulness, you conclude it’s too high.

I’m not talking about necessarily a formal and total renunciation of the faith. Those hurling the “Christian nationalist” insult aim not immediately to apostatize but first to neuter you, to make you think twice before you protest pornography in your library, run for school board, post about border security on Facebook, or vote for Republicans. The amount of embarrassment you feel about your religious beliefs shares an inverse relationship with your ability to convert those beliefs into political realities.

So how are Christians to react to these attacks? First, if it’s not clear already, reject your ideological opponents’ mischaracterization of you. Frankly, the “Christian nationalism” label is lazy and meaningless.

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