While I never really was religious, there was a point of time in my life when I grew curious about religion, and the mindset of religious people. It seemed important to understand what they saw, what the appeal was to their religions.
And while there are still some religions which I am curious about and would want to explore, at least in an academic sense, it feels different for me these days. That is especially true here in the United States with those who believe in what is often labelled Christian Nationalism. Apparently, they do not particularly like or accept that title or description. Bottom line, however, is that when you want to try and impose your version of Christianity on the rest of the country by making sure that prayers and the Ten Commandments are brought into every classroom, and when they seem to believe that Christianity (again, their version of it) and the Bible are at least as important as the laws of this country, then yes, it sure seems to fit to call them Christian Nationalists.
Frankly, it seems that at least here in the United States, the people who are the loudest and proudest about their Christian faith are, to be quite honest, the least truly spiritual in any meaningful sense. When you see Christian evangelicals who support Trump and the evil bullshit that he brings, the greed, the lust for money and power and sex and pretty much all of the other decadence that Trump and his administration bring, both into the White House and on a personal level, it is hard to reconcile that with the actual teaching of Jesus in, say, the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. When you see them screaming about how gay people will burn in Hell, or applauding when Trump refers to countries with millions of people in Africa and Central American countries as "shithole nations," or applauding when he or other prominent MAGA members say blatantly racist things, or advocating for brutal concentration camps like "Alligator Alcatraz," which has become apparently become quite a tourist site for Trump supporters, many of whom would identify as good Christians, it frankly is disgusting. Is that what they think that it means to treat people as you would be treated yourself? Is that what they believe Jesus meant when he said show love and compassion towards foreigners?
I have known people like that all of my life. And the more I get to know them, and the better I understand their actions, the less impressed I am by them, frankly. On numerous occasions, I have had people who identify as good Christians say things like "Have a blessed day" as if they were hurling a scathing insult, and it felt as if it were delivered in that same hostile spirit. Moe often than not, what they were outraged about was nothing more than a difference of opinion with them, but they showed little in the way of tolerance, let alone a real attempt to understand. Again, that does not feel like what Jesus had in mind when he advocated for his followers to turn the other cheek.
So my curiosity about that particular version of Christianity has, admittedly, largely been extinguished. It's hard to be curious about something which is, truth be told, not really all that impressive to begin with. And again, these are the people who are quite literally trying to take over the country, to disintegrate established institutions and replace them with their own peculiar brand of what passes for Christianity, as they see it.
Below is a video which explores who Christian Nationalists are, and where they originated from, historically. It also explores how they gravitated in their approach and grew more political and influential over time, so that now, they are a dominant force in the politics of the United States, particularly in the South and the massive interior, in most of the rural regions. Take a look at this video by Mr. Beat, because it's pretty good and informative.
The Truth About Christian Nationalism
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