How to be a Christian Nationalist

Christian Nationalism is nothing more than what it sounds like. It’s Christian, which means belief and trust in Jesus Christ, and it’s Nationalist, which means it’s not globalist but rather focuses around patriotism for one’s own country, localism, and traditional Christian values. Under Catholicism, this is called Integralism, which is the official Catholic teaching that the state should be subordinate to the Church, and that the Church should inform the state as to the morality of certain laws and governing principles. In truth, all Catholics should be Integralists, and by extension that means all Catholics should be Christian Nationalists. Catholics have an advantage over Evangelicals and other Protestants on this topic, because our beliefs on this are well defined, and officially codified into Church teaching. Evangelicals, and other Protestants, generally don’t have this luxury, and then have to work this out on their own.

So, how does one actually be a Christian Nationalist? Well, based on the principles of Catholic Integralism, which can be universally applied to all Christians, it’s probably not what you think. Before we begin with the checklist, let’s clearly define what Christian Nationalism is not.

Christian Nationalism is not…

• forcing people to be Christians,
• making people join a certain church,
• coercing people to do Christian things,
• turning the state into a theocracy, or…
• turning some politician into a messianic figure.

The last point is fascism by the way, not nationalism, as these are two different things. Once we understand what Christian Nationalism is not, it’s time to define what Christian Nationalism is, and while this is primarily how a Catholic would define it, the definition rings true among Christians of many different denominations.

In order to be a Christian Nationalist, you would need to do some or most of the following…

• Be involved in your church, and work toward building it up and making it as strong as it can be. You should definitely be supporting your church financially too. Put your money where your mouth is.
• Share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people who don’t go to church, and try to get them to go to your church if you can.
• Help Christian businesses within your church, and outside of it, by using their services before anyone else.
• Work together with other Christians to create cooperatively-owned businesses that can competitively take on non-Christian businesses in your area.
• Always try to support small and local businesses whenever you can, while avoiding the “big-box” Walmart-type stores.
• Put your money into a credit union to keep it local.
• Homeschool your kids, or support Christian and/or cooperative schools.
• Get directly involved in your school board, especially if you have to use the public schools. Only vote for practicing Christians to serve on the school board. You should know where they go to church and how active they are there.
• Get to know your candidates for mayor and city council. Find out where they go to church and how involved they are there. Only vote for practicing Christians.
• Focus on local and state politics almost exclusively. Federal politics should be the least interesting to you.
• Only vote for practicing Christians for your state government. Never vote for non-Christians, and don’t vote for candidates who are CINO “Christians In Name Only.” You should never be afraid to ask a candidate about his church affiliation and how active he/she is there. Then seek confirmation from other sources.
• Communicate with your state representatives and senators (assemblymen), and try to work toward concentrating more power to state government, while pulling it away from the federal government. The more political power is decentralized, the more Christian it is. This follows the Catholic social teaching called “subsidiarity.”
• Support any law, or constitutional amendment, that would bring power back to the states, decentralizing the federal government.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that would further decentralize power from the state down to the local level. Again, subsidiarity is the Christian principle behind this.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that protects the rights of parents in raising their children.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that allows husbands and fathers to adequately protect their homes and families from danger.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that protects the unborn.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that protects the sanctity of marriage and family.
• Support any law, amendment or ordinance that keeps the churches tax-free and relatively unregulated.
• Work toward getting your state to enshrine as much Christian values into state law as possible, without creating a police state. On the one hand, we don’t want a state with loose morals. On the other hand, police states are immoral themselves. Try to strike a balance between freedom and responsibility.
• Work toward getting your state to eventually declare Jesus as King, while retaining its republican form of government.

This is what Christian Nationalism looks like.