Christian Nationalism is centered around the belief that the Christian god should have sovereign power as the divine king of the United States. It’s a belief that’s completely outside the standards of American law. This belief has now literally infiltrated the halls of power in Washington, D.C., the halls of Congress under the US Capitol Dome. It was expressed this week by none other than Margaret Grun Kibben, the official government Christin chaplain of the United States House of Representatives, who prayed on the floor of the House for the Christian god to persuade members of Congress that he is sovereign in control of the United States.

Her official government prayer to the Christian god:

“Open our hearts that not only would they respond to the grand and glorious evidence of your sovereignty, but that they would yield to the quiet and careful counsel you offer us for the living of our days.”

In this prayer, House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben is saying that she wants god to come down and somehow manipulate the hearts and the minds of members of the United States Congress to get them to recognize the sovereignty of that Christian God.

“Sovereignty” is a word that means something specific It's not a throwaway term. A sovereign is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “one possessing or held to possess supreme political power or sovereignty, or one that exercises supreme authority within a limited sphere.”

Sovereignty is absolute power. It is not democratic power. It is held in the hand of one authority and it is exercised without restraint. Sovereign is like a king or an emperor, and what Margaret Grun Kibben is saying in her prayer is that the American people are not really in charge of the United States. She’s saying that the Christian god really has all the power, and that’s the way it should be.

US House Chaplain Margaret Grun Kibben is a federal government official, with a salary paid by the American people, but in this prayer, she is turned her back on the American people. She asked her Christian god to come to America and manipulate members of Congress so that they would obey the god and recognize him as their ultimate authority instead of representing the people of the United States of America. That's Christian Nationalism.

Of course, it's not just in the halls of Congress that this is going on. A couple of days ago, the Christian Nationalist preacher, Kenneth Copeland. Kenneth Copeland was introducing Donald Trump on the campaign trail, and what he had to say was an echo of the Christian Nationalist prayer of House Chaplain Margaret Grum Kibben said in Congress.

“Hallelujah. So, by covenant this nation belongs to god… What a great rally. What a great nation. Father, in the name of the lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whose we are and whom we serve, in a few days here, people will be going to the polls again to cast vote. Your perfect will will be done, and this nation will begin its change, and it will continue to do so, and it will continue under your leadership and your guidance. It will continue to change and change and change until it is great again, and we thank you, sir. We give you praise and honor tonight, and I bow my knee before the god of heaven and earth.”

It’s significant that Kenneth Copeland describes the power of the Christian god as existing in both “heaven and earth”. You'll hear a lot of apologists for Christian nationalism say that we don’t need to worry, because the totalitarian power of the Christian god is just metaphorical, that the Kingdom of God is just something of the spirit, and not going to be literally here on Earth. Kenneth Copeland’s words show how hollow this justification is.

Kenneth Copeland was giving a talk at a political rally where he was talking about who should be the actual leader of the United States of America, who should actually lead in Congress. This wasn’t a spiritual abstraction. It was about real, earthly political power.

Kenneth Copeland was talking about the Christian god come to Earth and take control and claim actual ownership of the United States of America. There would be real life consequences to this divine ownership of the United States, with matters of life and death at stake, and practical changes to American law.

Kenneth Copeland says by covenant this nation belongs to god, but have you signed this covenant? Did the American people ever agree to any covenant giving ownership of the United States of America to god? No. There is no such covenant. The elected representatives of the people of the United States of America ratified the United States Constitution, but they never ratified any covenant with any god. The Constitution never states that the United States belongs to any god. The Constitution says that the government of the United States of America is established by the people of the United States of America.

The United States does not belong to gods, or preachers, or churches. The USA belongs to the people of the United States of America. This covenant Kenneth Copeland talks about is phony, but Christian Nationalists want to make it real.