“A common misunderstanding would be that it is the same thing as being a patriotic Christian,” said
Philip Gorski, chair of the Department of Sociology at Yale. “Patriotism is an adherence to the ideals of the United States, and nationalism is loyalty to your tribe and not the country.”
Christian nationalism is a form of
religious nationalism that focuses on promoting the
Christian views of its followers, in order to achieve prominence or
dominance in political, cultural, and social life. Christian nationalism overlaps with
white supremacy.
Christian nationalism asserts that the United States is a country founded by and for Christians. Christian nationalists in the United States advocate "a fusion of identitarian Christian identity and
cultural conservatism with American civic belonging".
It has been noted to bear overlap with Christian fundamentalism, white supremacy, the Seven Mountain Mandate movement, and dominionism.. Most researchers have described Christian nationalism as "authoritarian" and "boundary-enforcing" but recent research has focused on how
libertarian, small-government ideology and
neoliberal political economics have become part of the American Christian political identity. Christian nationalism also overlaps with but is distinct from
theonomy, with it being more populist in character. Theocratic Christians seek to have the Bible inform national laws and have religious leaders in positions of government; while in America, Christian nationalists view the country's founding documents as "divinely inspired" and supernaturally revealed to Christian men to preference Christianity, and are willing to elect impious heads of state if they support right-wing causes.
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