I was recently with a group of pastors and laity from The United Methodist Church (the denomination I’m a part of). There, I lamented the fact that some pastors are afraid of addressing things like Christian nationalism within their congregations. I said something to the effect of, “I wish more pastors would address our current political climate from the pulpit.”
My message didn’t go over very well.
Mara Bim
In the days since, pieces of the conversation that took place after I left the meeting have trickled back to me. “Who does she think she is?” “She doesn’t know anything about my congregation’s context.” “I don’t want to alienate people.” “I’d be crucified if I even hinted at our political climate from the pulpit.”
I should have anticipated these responses. These days, it isn’t just the laity in my beloved United Methodist Church who avoid acknowledging the elephant in the room.
While much has been written about how evangelical churches bear responsibility for the violent stream of Christian nationalism that has swept through our country in recent years, Mainline churches are neither free of blame for past sins nor of responsibility in repairing what is broken. And let’s face it, there is a whole lot that is broken in our body politic today.
In their book Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood address the historical role Mainline denominations have played in creating the fertile soil from which today’s Christian nationalism has sprouted. In 1951, it was Mainline Protestants who originally called for and instituted official prayers in public schools (which was struck down by the Supreme Court 11 years later in Engel v. Vitale).
Kaylor and Underwood also point out that it was Mainline Protestants on the House Select Committee on Christian Nationalism who made the calculated political choice to ignore the pivotal role Christian nationalism played in the 2021 insurrection. While Rep. Liz Cheney (a Methodist) nobly sacrificed her political career to hold the former president accountable for his actions that day, she refused to allow the Committee’s final report to acknowledge the role Christian nationalism played in justifying, igniting and violently fueling the insurrection.
“I, for one, am so very over Christians in positions of power refusing to speak out against Christian nationalism.”
Her rationale? She didn’t want to alienate other Christians.
I, for one, am so very over Christians in positions of power refusing to speak out against Christian nationalism. It is time for those of us still within the Christian tradition to, in the words of Maui from the Disney film Moana, “muscle up, Buttercup.” Now is the time for the prophets among us to stand up and speak out.
When I say “prophets among us” I’m not talking about the weirdo charlatans of the New Apostolic Reformation like Paula White and Lance Wallnau who make crazy claims about some kind of divine anointing of a particular political candidate. I’m talking instead about the old-school prophets in the vein of Amos, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Jesus.
Time and again, the old-school prophets called out the idol-worship in their midst and named the hypocrisy of those who claimed to be godly while acting in ways that were anything but. Some prophets conveyed God’s judgment through their poetry, sermons and other orations, while others channeled the divine’s displeasure through dramatic acts. Remember when Ezekiel lay on his side for more than a year while cooking his food over human dung to just to make his point?
What the prophets did not do — what they could not do — was cede religious moral authority to those wreaking havoc on God’s people by way of false religious teachings. They did not look away from the idolatrous behavior for fear of “alienating” their peers. They did not keep their heads down and just tend to those closest to them. They did not even fear death.
Over the last few years, I’ve followed the lead of many sociologists and Christian leaders who have cautioned against saying aloud that those who fuse their Christian identities with their American identities are not “real Christians.” I get why those of us in Mainline churches — those of us who are committed to both ecumenical Christian unity and interreligious dialogue — steer clear of saying such things. However, that does not give us a pass on naming the idolatrous behavior of those seeking to upend the pluralistic democracy we so love.
“They want Christian (and sometimes Jewish) texts inside the public schools so badly they’re willing to pretend the texts aren’t religious at all in order to get their way.”
Those trying to make the case that the Ten Commandments or Bible lessons should be placed in schools because of their “historical” rather than religious value are not only being dishonest about the many streams of thought that went into the founding of our country, they are also taking what is, for the truly faithful, sacred texts and turning them into pedestrian wall posters. They want Christian (and sometimes Jewish) texts inside the public schools so badly they’re willing to pretend the texts aren’t religious at all in order to get their way. If that isn’t both blasphemous and hypocritical, I’m not sure what is.
I hold dear the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state it enshrines. I value them for the protection they afford religious minorities in this country but also, I selfishly value it for myself as well. I’ve been to seminary, hold a master of divinity degree, have plans for ordination and I know with 100% certainty that I and the Dan Patricks and Ryan Walterses of the world have radically different understandings of what it means to be Christian. There is no way in hell I want them or anyone of their Christian nationalist ilk teaching my elementary-aged daughter anything about the Bible or Jesus or even “the Golden Rule.”
It is time for the leaders of the Mainline denominations and of the individual churches within them to unleash our prophetic voices to both name and condemn, in no uncertain terms, the abuses of Christian rhetoric, symbols and theology perpetrated by the extreme right in the service of one of the most evil idols of all: Power.
I was grateful to see so many of the speakers at the Democratic National Convention reclaiming Christianity from the extremists who have held Jesus hostage for the last 30 years. But that is not enough.
Jesus reminded his disciples time and again, “Do not be afraid.” We must hear his message today and reclaim Jesus from those who blaspheme his name and message by seeking to make him the empire’s political mascot.
Mara Richards Bim is serving as a Clemons Fellow with BNG. She is a recent master of divinity degree graduate from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater practitioner, playwright and director and founder of Cry Havoc Theater Company that operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.