End Christian Normativity
Christian nationalists claim that their religion is the very definition of normality. Step back and take a look at Christianity, though, and you’ll see that it’s so weird, it’s bordering on insanity.
Christian nationalists are fond of excusing their extreme plans to overthrow American democracy by claiming that they’re only engaging in treason because they have no other choice. They claim that, by golly, they simply have no other alternative but to institute a religious dictatorship, because it’s the only way good old-fashioned wholesome traditional Christian values.
Careful listeners pick up on the creepy undertone of these arguments right away. They’ll ask themselves: In what world is destroying democracy and replacing it with a totalitarian regime run by religious leaders wholesome?
For the most part, though, people take it for granted that right-wing Christianity represents simple, old-fashioned, traditional normal moral values, the kind of ideas that make everybody feel comfortable and safe. They’re supposed to come from an American past when everybody was just plain nice to each other.
This mythology of a golden past of sweet and gentle traditional Christian America is depicted with a kind of misty nostalgia. That mist is strategic. It’s there in order to obscure an unnerving truth. Look past the veneer of normality, and you’ll discover that the traditions of Christianity in America are often weird, and not at all kind and gentle.
I want to make it clear that I don’t see anything inherently wrong with people being weird. Being weird is just fine with me, so long as it doesn’t involve hurting other people.
So, I’m not opposed to Christian nationalism because it’s weird. I’m opposed to Christian nationalism because it’s a sadistic ideology.
If Christian nationalists were merelybizarre, and didn’t seek to attack American freedoms or control other people’s lives, I wouldn’t have a problem with them. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Christian nationalists claim that their religion is the very definition of morality, and use that claim to justify horrible acts of brutal domination.
Ironically, Christian nationalists’ blind faith in the normality of their Christianity leads them to engage in flamboyantly bizarre behavior. That’s what happened, for example, when David Duke began his campaign to defend American Christianity by proclaiming himself to be “The Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
This “grand wizard” who put himself into an order of “knights” in bizarre costumes has the audacity to call LGBTQ parents weird. That’s rich.
Literalist Christians Are Weird
We’ve got to be the ones to say it, because no one else will.
Journalists don’t have the institutional bandwidth that they used to. Newspapers have shrunk down to nearly nothing or outright disappeared.
We can’t count on reporters to find and share stories about Christian nationalism.
That doesn’t mean the stories aren’t out there.
It’s up to us to do the legwork.
Christian nationalists are becoming more and more bold. They’re saying terrible things out loud, things that they’ve been whispering about for years. They believe that they’re untouchable.
That makes now an especially important time to document what Christian nationalists are up to.
Christian nationalist politicians are seeking to make expressions of Christian nationalism so pervasive that they begin to seem like a normal part of how things work in the American political system. They’re purposefully working to bolster a key element of Christian nationalist power, something called Christian normativity.
Christian normativity is the perception that Christianity is the default for all judgments of what is and what is not culturally normal. It’s not necessary for something to be based in objective reality or rational thought to be perceived as normal. Instead, normativity is a subjective judgment that typical people in a culture do or believe a particular thing.
Christian nationalism is centered around belief in Christian normativity. When Christian nationalists proclaim that the United States is a Christian nation, they’re speaking at two levels. On one level, they’re asserting a legal claim: That Christian power is the primary legal principle in the United States, taking precedent over all secular laws, including the Constitution. At another level, they’re making a separate claim: That practicing the religion of Christianity is the normal way of being an American, to the extent that anyone who is not a Christian can be judged as abnormal.
The argument for Christian normativity is based upon the false belief that, once upon a time, everybody in the United States was Christian. This has never been true. There have always been significant non-Christian elements in American society, though they’ve always been marginalized and oppressed by Christians.
Christian nationalists want to people to believe that the current state of cultural pluralism in the United States, with Christianity just being one of many religions, and existing alongside a substantial number of nonreligious citizens, is a historical anomaly. They want people to believe that Real Americans are by definition Christian Americans, and that non-Christians are by definition weird.
The implicit argument within Christian normativity is that if most Americans believe in Christianity, then Christianity must not be weird. This kind of logical fallacy is an example of the kind of sloppy thinking that good parents try to teach their children to be aware of at an early age. Parables such as The Emperor’s New Clothes provide cautionary advice to families that value critical thinking: The fact that everybody seems to believe in something that is clearly absurd is not a good excuse to join in that belief. If you notice the Emperor walking around naked, that’s worth paying attention to, even if everyone around you is behaving as if the Emperor is fully clothed
Christian communities tend to teach children to distrust their own perceptions, preaching theological ideas that suppose that the senses are tools of demons that seek to turn people away from the truth. Christian children are taught to embody the ideal of faith, the belief in extraordinary religious ideas despite the lack of evidence for them. Christian churches and Christian schools produce young Americans who believe that there is virtue in believing what the majority of their community members believe, and that to question the beliefs of the majority is morally wicked.
So, Christian normativity isn’t just one of many ideological structures that support Christian power. It’s the central pole that holds up the tent of Christian belief. Christian nationalists are obsessed with the idea that their religion is by definition normal, the standard way of being an American, because literalist belief in Christianity makes no sense otherwise. Christian nationalists can’t abide the idea that Christianity is a system of mere metaphors. They believe that the stories of the Bible are literal historical truths. They believe that things like demons and invisible spirits and magical powers and resurrections from the dead really exist.
The unreality of such supernatural absurdities is clear, except to those people who live in communities where most people are Christian, and most people, including the most trusted adult authorities, regularly profess belief in all manner of absurdity, as if it’s there’s no question that these things are literally true.
The spell is broken when non-Christians show up and point out that nobody ever sees demons or angels, and that prayers appear not to be an effective manner of changing reality. These non-Christians play a role similar to the child in the parable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, observing the clear reality that the Emperor is stark naked, and not in fact wearing the fine suit of clothes that everyone else is busy praising.
Christian nationalists are doing everything they can to undermine America’s system of secular constitutional law because their literalist form of religion cannot withstand skeptical examination. The maintenance of Christian power requires the maintenance of belief in Christian normativity. So, Christian nationalism desperately seeks to use the power of government to force people to participate in prominent displays of Christian worship. As long as they can keep up the appearance that most people believe in the literal reality of Christian mythology, Christian nationalist leaders can maintain their power to distort reality, a power that’s quite appealing to unscrupulous politicians such as Donald Trump.
For those Americans who seek to resist the growing power of Christian nationalism, undermining the central ideological tenet of Christian normativity is essential. We need to be like the child in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Although some people might seek to silence us, in order to avoid the public exposure of a rather embarrassing truth, we need to speak up, say what we see, and do it loudly.
When members of Congress introduce legislation to create a year-long official government Christian ritual of public humiliation, we can’t remain silent about it. When mainstream journalists observe the cultural taboo against pointing out the bizarre nature of Christian nationalist activities, we must not follow their lead. We need to say what they are not willing to say.
It’s obvious, once we point it out. When the Lieutenant Governor of Texas suggests that the Democratic Party is in league with evil spirits, what he’s saying may be normal within Christian nationalist social circles, but in the context of broader American society, he’s being really weird.
Christians have the right to believe weird things if they want to. Nobody should seek to ban beliefs simply because they’re strange, because to do so would be to legislate normality, exactly the kind of authoritarian extremism that Christian nationalism pursues.
The problem comes when Christian nationalists demand that everybody in America follow along with their absurdities. Like the courtiers of the foolish Emperor, they seek to impose their bizarre reality on everyone else, because they don’t want to be laughed at.
Respect for the right of people to hold religious beliefs is not the same thing as the right to never have one’s religious beliefs questioned. Christian nationalists want to be able to walk around loudly casting magical prayer spells, talking about the demons who are out to get them, and forecasting the imminent end of the world, and still be taken seriously.
Our activism therefore needs to begin by being honest. We need to begin to say the uncomfortable truth that believing in invisible spirits, resurrected leaders from thousands of years ago, and powerful people who have wings growing out of their backs, is kind of weird.
It’s not enough to just point this out among friends, in private, where we know that the Christian nationalists aren’t listening, and won’t be offended. Christian nationalism is seeking to use the power of government to warp reality to such an extent that belief in witches and the practice of public humiliation rituals are accepted as normal.
The Christian nationalists are not just minding their own business. They’re trying to control all our lives, and take our liberties away.
So, I know it’s perceived as rude, but this is not the time to politely allow Christian nationalist militias to go marching down Main Street without making an objection.
Write about it in print and online. Put your voice on the record where people can find it.
Christian nationalism is abnormal.