American White Jesus and the Drums of War

Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag + the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

When insurgents swarmed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021, they carried nooses and swastikas, but also crosses and “Jesus Saves” banners. This particularly violent manifestation of American religion will probably outlive the politicians and candidates who continue arguing about that day. But how did we reach this impasse, where a mostly White, Christian subculture attempts to literally overthrow the government? Many pundits have speculated, but few experts have researched.

Sociologists Philip Gorski, at Yale, and Samuel Perry, at the University of Oklahoma, were already investigating this question before the 2020 election. Not content opinionating from their ivory tower, they performed actual original research into public sentiments and their political manifestations. The results are often chilling. They present difficult insights into how we reached this moment, and the likely grim trajectory if something doesn’t stop these groups from growing.

First, though our authors use the term “white Christian nationalism” generously, this phrase isn’t necessarily religious, racial, or political. Rather, it’s all three melded together, a mulligan stew of racial grievance, Apocalyptic gloom, and dominion. White Christian nationalists see race, religion, and national origin as identity markers. Then, based on that, they divide the world into feuding “us-and-them” camps, and man the ramparts to keep “them” safely outside.

White Christian nationalists, in this figuration, don’t do things that Christians do: attend church, pray regularly, or feed the hungry. Rather, they’re defined by in-group status badges. They’re more likely to believe God divinely inspired America’s founding documents, that America has an anointed mission in the world, and that the federal government should explicitly declare America a Christian nation. Christianity isn’t something they believe or do; it’s a government platform.

Importantly, Americans of many political stripes might believe these precepts. But race changes how Americans behave politically. Black Americans who believe America has a holy mission, don’t necessarily believe it’s okay to violently overturn elections, but White Americans do. This unique admixture of race, religiosity, and politics creates an unparalleled paranoia. Gorski and Perry back this with copious data and histograms to demonstrate how they reached this controversial conclusion.

This position isn’t historically fixed. Our authors outline American history, demonstrating that we’ve had multiple opportunities—King Philipp’s War, the Revolution, Reconstruction—when Americans could’ve abandoned nationalist sentiments, but didn’t. And they assert that today, following the 2020 BLM protests and the January 6th insurgency, we have such an opportunity again. We’d better take it, too, because history records grim outcomes for states that don’t resist nationalist aggression.

Philip S. Gorski (left) and Samuel L. Perry

Reading their exposition, I recalled Émile Durkheim’s hypothesis of “savage” religion. Durkheim believed that humankind’s earliest religions involved tribes speaking their beliefs liturgically, then creating totem spirits to embody those beliefs. In essence, Durkheim believed pre-literate tribal religions worshiped their tribes, inventing gods to verify their beliefs. White Christian nationalists, in this description, do something remarkably similar, with matching pre-modern outcomes.

Throughout, the narrative remains anchored to Donald Trump and the January 6th insurgency. How, our authors wonder, did Trump accomplish a form of undisguised race-baiting that previous conservatives, like Reagan and George W., avoid? And why, following the ugly revelations of the Capitol insurgency, did the movement become more, not less, energized? The answers aren’t simple, and they’re also frightening, if the history of previous nationalist democracies holds true.

I appreciate an important balancing act our authors accomplish. Their analysis is data-driven, but they place that data into a narrative context, so we understand the real-world meaning. It would’ve been easy to deluge readers with numbers and charts, losing sight of the historical narrative that makes the information comprehensible. Or it would’ve been easy to craft a narrative that, like the nationalists, prioritizes the writers’ opinions, facts be damned.

Instead, Gorski and Perry thread the needle between dense information and comprehensible narrative. This book is remarkably slim, barely 140 pages plus back matter, and dedicated readers could finish it in one energetic weekend. But it contains enough information, organized in smoothly readable chunks, to sustain a closer reading. The source notes cite authors like Kristen Du Mez and Kevin Kruse, building upon an already robust body of research.

Multiple audiences should read this book. Secular progressives, Christians who believe America isn’t necessarily God’s kingdom, and anybody who believes small-d democracy is a moral good, will learn much here. Gorski and Perry make the book informative but readable, and hold a mirror to us readers who aren’t White Christian nationalists.. Because like all the best literature, this book, with all its chilling broadsides, is ultimately about us.