Is Christian Nationalism “Proto-Fascism?” Research Says Yes.

Sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead compare their data to the traits of fascist movements.

Christian Nationalism is remarkably similar to fascism, but it is just respectable enough to fly under most people’s “fascism radars.”

Which makes Christian Nationalism extremely dangerous.

That’s the argument of sociologists Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead in their 2020 essay, “Christian Nationalism Talks Religion but Walks Fascism.” They compare the beliefs of Christian Nationalism to the beliefs of fascist movements, revealing an eerie resemblance.

Perry and Whitehead define Christian Nationalism as an ideology that “idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with American civic belonging and participation.” Christian Nationalists believe America is a Christian nation. Further, America’s Christian nationhood ought to be defended and preserved.

How Christian Nationalism Leads to Violence

If you ask Christian Nationalists, only “good, patriotic Americans” should have the privilege of belonging, participating, and exerting influence in American democracy, society, and culture. Who are the “good, patriotic Americans”? Only those who identify with and practice Christianity.

Perry and Whitehead explain why this attitude poses a danger:

And as Jason Stanley [author of How Fascism Works] explains, when “us” and “we” become the sole defenders of national heritage and proper social order, the only ones preserving our glorious future and fighting off moral decay, “we” can become more desperate and willing to compromise any remaining moral scruples about means in order to accomplish the necessary ends.

If “they” pose an existential threat to your survival, then what will you not do to stop them?

Using the ends (survival) to justify the means (persecution and violence) does not happen overnight. First, the fascist ideology has to be normalized and legitimated.

To understand how Christian Nationalism has already been normalized in the U.S., we need to compare its characteristics with those of Fascism.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Believe in a Mythic Past

According to Jason Stanley’s How Fascism Works, fascists movements nurture an ideology built on a mythic past. They refer to that mythos to explain and justify the rest of their ideology.

Christian Nationalists believe America was founded as a Christian nation. The Founders explicitly wrote separation of church and state into the Constitution, yet the myth of a Christian founding gets used as support for fusing governmental policy and Christian values. To push back against that fusion is to betray America’s Founders and deny their wisdom.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Like Authoritarians

Fascists support authoritarian, strongman demagogues who will protect “us” from “them” by any means necessary.

Christian Nationalists love Donald Trump. He fulfilled their vision of masculine authority by acting like a swaggering, belligerant authoritarian. This man, they thought, will do whatever it takes. He claimed — literally — that only he could save the country. They fly flags that say, “Only God and Trump Can Save America.”

Now they love Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, who works hard to present himself as an authoritarian. DeSantis has leveraged his power to attack free speech by Disney, ban books from schools, and restrict what teachers can and can’t say. Why? To fight “wokeism.”

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Dislike Intellectuals

Fascists create a culture of anti-intellectualism, including anti-education and anti-science beliefs.

Christitan Nationalists oppose scientific knowledge about evolution, masking, vaccines, etc., but they support teaching creationism as well as the freedom to risk one’s life by refusing expert medical advice.

They complain about “elites” who think they know better but don’t really understand them. If you can reject expert advice “because elites,” then you can push the conversation away from evidence and toward “truthiness” — as long as it feels true, then it is true.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Love Social Hierarchies

Fascists view social hierarchies as normal and necessary — as long as they sit on top.

Christian Nationalists love the current hierarchy because they’re firmly at the top. The emergence of other voices — Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, the trans community — feels like an existential threat to their social status and cultural dominance.

Unsurprisingly, Christian Nationalism correlates with prejudiced views against racial minorities and relative favor toward white racists. Heirarchy, baby.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Are Patriarchial

Fascists idealize patriarchal families as the basis and reflection of state authority. The father/leader knows best. The mother/public doesn’t ask questions. The kids/soldiers/police listen perfectly.

Christian Nationalists hold traditional gender attitudes. Women should stay home, raise the kids, and do the housework. Men should lead at work, in politics, and at church. That is God’s design for families, which scales up to the church and the government. Feminists threaten God’s Will.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Use “Law and Order” Tactics

Fascists maintain social stability through authoritarian “law and order” tactics. They crack down on protests, jail political opponents, suppress the free press, and blame the victims of their tactics for causing trouble.

Christian Nationalists justify police violence against unarmed African-Americans and Black Lives Matter protesters. They agreed when Trump called the press an “enemy,” and they wanted to “lock [Hillary Clinton] up.”

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Are Nativist

Fascists are strongly pro-nativist and anti-pluralism. They push for homogeneity and suppress diversitiy.

Survey data show that Christian Nationalists are deeply suspicious of immigrants. They’re becoming equally antagonistic toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, from fear-mongering about Critical Race Theory to passing laws restricting discussions of sexuality and DEI.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Target Sexual Difference

Fascists foment cultural anxiety about sexual deviance. They raise fears about LGBTQ people and turn them into targets.

Christian Nationalists are obsessed with limiting the rights, visibility, and existence of LGBTQ and trans people.

They keep suing for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ couples, and they want to ban gender-affirming care despite the American Academy of Pediatrics endorsing it as the best care for gender dysphoria. And they whip up baseless fears of trans men dominating women’s athletics, the “grooming” of children, and sexual assaults in public bathrooms.

Fascists and Christian Nationalists Play the Victim Card

Fascists have a pervasive victim mentality. They are always being attacked by someone, whom they must defend against.

Christian Nationalists cast themselves and their movement as victims. They claim to be persecuted, and they want their beliefs and opinions (no matter how toxic) to be exempt from any criticism, especially from “elites” and “woke liberals” who love to “cancel” people.

That’s why they must fight back so hard. That’s why they need someone like Trump or DeSantis on their side.

“Christian” Comes with an Asterisk

According to Perry and Whitehead’s survey data, people who practice Christianity are less likely to hold Christian Nationalist beliefs.

Perry and Whitehead suggest that “Christian” has become a code-word for “good and decent (white, native-born) citizens.” Christian Nationalists, then, are not necessarily Christian but definitely are Nationalist.

“Christian” has also come to label the “us” who must defend their country from “them.” From the threats that would-be strongmen like Trump and DeSantis promise to protect “us” from. The threats that constantly victimize “us,” according to the Christian Nationalist thought-leaders.

The Normalization of Proto-Fascist Christian Nationalism

Each of the ideological beliefs of Christian Nationalism has been either instilled as a “Christian” virtue or whipped into fear of an existential threat. This framing normalizes and legitimates the beliefs.

It’s a virtue to subscribe to the mythos of America as a Christian nation. Why wouldn’t you want America to be a Christian nation?

Virtuous leadership looks like an authoritarian strongman who will do whatever it takes to defend “us” from “them.” That’s what we need; we’re in an existential battle.

Challenges to the social order — the Civil Rights Movement, Feminism, Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, Social Justice — should be suppressed in order to preserve law, order, and (whispers) our preferred hierarchy.

Christian values and virtues were passed down by our white European ancestors. Immigrants from non-European countries don’t look and act like us. Their presence could threaten white Christian culture — which is the best culture, of course.

It’s Biblical for men to lead and women to serve, and because it’s Biblical, it’s also virtuous and ideal. Feminism is a dangerous threat.

LGBTQ people are not only a threat; they violate God’s design for sex and marriage. And they’ll turn our kids gay!

And the scientists, journalists, mainstream media, and “elites” who suggest that we might be mistaken about some things are snobby, biased, know-it-all secularists who persecute us for our religious beliefs and patriotism.

Coherence is the Strength and Threat of Christian Nationalism

Christian Nationalism is an incorrect worldview, but it’s internally coherent and cohesive. The beliefs make sense together for those inclined toward such views, and they also mutually reinforce each other.

Challenges to the beliefs can be explained away as more evidence of the threats victimizing the faith. Strong adherents to Christian Nationalism, then, will not be easily persuaded to stop believing in the ideology.

Sympathizers, however, may be more open to arguments and evidence against Christian Nationalism. They may recognize the flaws in the beliefs and the danger of normalizing ideas that can so easily justify and promote violence.

If we speak out against Christian Nationalism, then we can stem its growth and de-normalize it for the majority of Christians.

The less respectable Christian Nationalism becomes, the fewer people will subscribe to its fascist tendencies.

Who knows? The more they pretend to not be fascist, the less fascist they may become.

Further Reading:

Samuel Perry and Andrew Whitehead wrote Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Perry followed up that book with The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy, co-authored with Philip Gorski.

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