How Big is Christian Nationalism

Whether Christian nationalism is just a fringe thing or part of an important political movement that could take over the entire U.S. is debated somewhere every day. No one can predict the future. But as one of my professors said decades ago, "Never underestimate the ability of the public to latch on to a bad idea." Doing away with elections or ignoring the results is now popular with a big percentage of the public. It's not the majority, but who can say where this is going?

To me, the alarming thing is a change from the losing side saying, "Those other jerks had too much money" or "The public is going to be sorry they voted in the other jerk" or "The other jerk lied and that's why he/she won" to "We should not allow these elections to be decided by vote counts." Logic would tell one that if he claims fraud and the results should be ignored it gives the other side a license to do the same. History is filled a country's military deciding who will run the country.

There are people today we can paraphrase who are saying, "My interests are better served by Trump taking over the Presidency through non-democratic means than by the results of an election." Their interests will only be served until the other side does the same thing. This makes sense only if one believes the other side will never have the upper hand. 

Christian nationalism certainly has support and enthusiasm. The only question is whether it can be held in check.

We all know the issues that fuel it. Those are abortion, gay marriage and recently trans children. Leaders know these hot button issues raise the money they need to keep their political enterprises going. Churches feed these political enterprises by linking these issues with religion. The latter even though it is not clear Christianity condemns abortion, gay marriage or sexual transition. This raises again the question asked here often, is religion on balance a force for good or bad in U.S. society? 

The success or failure of Christian nationalism will answer that question. 

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