Christian Nationalists love the conceptual frame of war, because war pushes people into absolutist, binary ways of thinking. In war, it’s kill or be killed. You’re either with us or you’re against us. Which side are you on?

War can also easily be exploited to justify outrageous inhumanity. People engage in widespread theft, killing, torture, campaigns of terror, and create totalitarian governments during wartime, claiming that these actions are necessary in order to defeat The Enemy.

The binary thinking of war leads people to divide the world into good and evil, presuming that anything the other side does is the worst evil, so that defeating the other side becomes the highest form of goodness. Because the other side is wickedness itself, it is said that the destruction of The Enemy must be accomplished whatever it takes.

It’s no mistake that this process of characterizing one’s opponents as absolutely evil is referred to as demonization. The maneuver of accusing other people of being in league with demons is the definitive example of this unscrupulous technique.

To accuse one’s opponents of being demons or being in league with demons is a means of preparing for atrocities against them. When Christian Nationalists leaders refer to us as possessed by the devil, it’s a signal to their followers that violence and other forms of inhumanity against us are not only morally permissible, but morally righteous.

Some people are looking for an excuse to engage in violence. They find it thrilling, even pleasurable, to hurt other people. Most people don’t feel this way, but can be provoked into violence when they feel that they are in danger of become the victims of violence themselves.

For this reason, the efforts of Christian Nationalist leaders to goad their followers into genocidal violence are less likely to succeed if we refuse to provide them reasons to believe that we are the servants of Satan. If we accept the psychological frames of war and demonization, we strengthen the

Therefore, we need to work to stop Christian Nationalism without trying to destroy it. We need to block the plans of Christian Nationalists, but not seek to eliminate their ability to make such plans. Even as Christian Nationalists aim to eradicate us, we must not give in to the temptation to return fire with fire.

Nonviolent democratic activism is not only the most ethical choice. It’s also the kind of activism that’s most likely to be successful. 

Christian Nationalists are their own worst enemies. Even as they become more extreme in their demands for Christian supremacy in a Christian nation that bans and brutalizes everyone who refuses to join their Kingdom of God, they alienate reasonable Americans, and the number of people who identify as Christian shrinks.

People resisting Christian Nationalism shouldn’t repeat this Christian Nationalist mistake. As Michelle Obama once said, when they go low, we’ll go high. As Christian Nationalists seek to force their religion on everyone else, we can proudly stand for freedom of religion. As Christian Nationalists work to use undemocratic and illegal means to control American government, we’ll work through the mechanisms of democracy to push back and reassert separation of church and state.  As Christian Nationalists threaten and violently attack us, we will respond with loud voices but peaceful hands.