What’s This “White Christian Nationalism” Thing?

An all out push is being made by certain factions to paint Christian evangelicals as racist bigots. The terminology being used to make that case is “White Christian Nationalists.” To these detractors, anyone who believes in traditional Christian values falls into this category – whether they are white and Christian or not.

But the purpose of this attempt is purely political. These are people who hold a naturalistic worldview, and particularly have a desire to implement Marxist policies (Note: Marxism is one expression of Naturalism.). They view Christian evangelicals as a voting block, not as a religious group, and are looking for ways to discredit Christian beliefs as a means of gaining some kind of political advantage.

It is interesting to read articles by people who hold this belief. Virtually all of their writing paints evangelicals as:

• Islamophobes (People who hate Muslims)
• Racists (People who hate non-whites)
• White supremacists (People trying to maintain their white privilege)
• Homophobes (People who hate homosexuals)
• Domestic terrorists (People who are willing to foment violence to keep power)

Of course, that kind of characterization is completely foreign to the beliefs of evangelical Christianity. It is certainly true that Christian beliefs have definite moral standards and religious doctrines that are contrary to the beliefs of those who hold naturalistic beliefs. But the beliefs they accuse Christians of holding are completely contrary to the faith’s actual beliefs.

What is not expressed in their articles, however, are the reasons they view evangelicals the way they do. They write based on an underlying assumption that their own beliefs are true, yet they never give a reason why their point of view should be considered right. What they are really expressing is their displeasure that someone would hold beliefs and values that are contrary to their own.

But in almost every case, that is the way worldview beliefs are expressed. Very few people are even consciously aware of their worldview beliefs to the point that they could articulate them to someone else – yet they hold them as bedrock reality. They assume that their beliefs are right and put down other people’s beliefs without having any conscious sense as to why they are right. (Note: Sadly, this phenomenon also exists among most Christians. Even though we do have the truth about the nature of reality, most Christians could never tell you why that is the case.)

So what, exactly, is the essential foundation of the people who call evangelical Christians “White Nationalists? The people who primarily put forth the above stereotypes are:

• Naturalists (Atheists)
• Marxists (Collectivists)
• Moral relativists (People who hold no objective moral beliefs)
• Sexual relativists (People who don’t believe in objective sexual morality)
• Political relativists (People who are willing to lie, engage in terror [Antifa, BLM], or use any other tactic that advances their political agenda)
• Classist (People who evaluate the nation’s population based on class or demographics)
• Totalitarian (People who want to have total political control)

In one way, these two opposing points of view do represent a political division. Evangelical Christians and Naturalists (of whatever stripe) have entirely different ways that they view reality, and the different views do get expressed in differing political preferences. However, the essential core of this division is not political, it is religious.

First of all, the stereotypes that Naturalists place on evangelical Christians are based on false beliefs – beliefs that actually do not represent reality. And just what are those beliefs?

• They don’t believe in God (who actually exists),
• They believe human beings are nothing more than natural animals (which doesn’t recognize the spiritual essence of human beings), and
• They see the ultimate in life to relate only to temporal reality. They do not even acknowledge the eternal reality that exists beyond the temporal (which is why they view everything through a political lens).

Second, they totally mischaracterize the beliefs of evangelical Christians. There are, no doubt, people who claim to be Christian who actually are Islamophobes, racists, white supremacists, homophobes, and domestic terrorists. However, those beliefs do not represent the beliefs found in the Bible, and are not the beliefs held by genuine evangelical Christians – which are the vast majority of those being slandered by the term “White Nationalists.”

As was mentioned before, the essence of this dispute is religious, not political. However, Naturalists don’t have a category for spiritual. They believe that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. Thus, everything related to the topic of morals and values (which is where this argument lies) has to be dealt with in the arena of the temporal. And the only category that they have to talk about these kinds of temporal matters is politics.

So how can Christians deal with this discussion if we can’t even agree on the lens through which to view the dispute? There is a way, but it requires a process of education. So here’s how that works.

Step 1 – We have to help Naturalists see that their beliefs are religious beliefs.
Naturalists are Atheists. They believe that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. That belief eliminates the possibility of the existence of God. And since they acknowledge no reality beyond the natural universe, it follows that ultimately (when knowledge and technology advance far enough) humans will be able to understand everything in every part of reality.

But that underlying assumption is just not true. There are matters that science simply has no access to. Science cannot answer questions related to:

• the origin of the material that makes up the natural universe,
• the origin of life,
• the means by which the variety of life forms on earth came to exist, or
• the origin of consciousness.

As Naturalists, they believe it must be possible to ultimately learn these things using empirical science, and they insist that in due time we will discover the answers, But they have no idea how any of that will come about. They don’t hold their view based on science, they believe it by faith.

Step 2 – We have to share with Naturalists the actual beliefs of Christianity, and compare those beliefs to their wrong stereotypes.
As noted above, Naturalists tend to ascribe certain beliefs to evangelical Christians that are actually not true. They do this because they are trying to evaluate our beliefs based on the presuppositions of their own beliefs. In doing that, they completely misunderstand (and misrepresent) Christian beliefs.

Thus, if we wish to deal with them in an intelligent manner, it becomes necessary to correct their incorrect beliefs. They honestly believe they know what Christians believe and the motivations Christians have for believing and acting the way they do. But they obviously don’t know these things. To help them understand, it is actually necessary to not only tell them what we believe, but also to compare our beliefs to theirs – side by side. That is the only way to help them see the nature of the differences between our beliefs and theirs. Until this is done, they will continue to evaluate our beliefs and values based on their own belief paradigm.

Step 3 – We have to help Naturalists come to know a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The final step in dealing with this kind of dispute with Naturalists is to lead them to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The problem is ultimately a spiritual problem, not a material/political one. Thus, it can only be overcome by a spiritual fix – a transformed life. And the only one capable of creating that transformation is God Himself. So our part in the process is to share with them how they can come to know Christ, and offer them the opportunity to receive Him.

It’s Going to Happen
It is a fact that there is increasing pressure being put on the part of the American population that holds biblical beliefs and values – and this can be expected to continue until there is a literal spiritual transformation in the culture. Dealing with that requires a different kind of thinking than what has traditionally been used. We have to approach this discussion in a way that Naturalists understand – which means acknowledging the political dispute, then turning it in a spiritual direction. We can do this by educating them about the true differences between their naturalistic beliefs and our Christian beliefs. Believe me, it is a daunting task. But it is doable when we approach it in a way that allows us to correct their false beliefs.

© 2021 Freddy Davis