The second reason why making this distinction is important is the rhetoric often tied to the discussion of Christian nationalism. Nationalism is often used as an ugly word denoting a type of bigotry. Is that not what we often mean when talking about white nationalism? To this end, Christian nationalism produces an image of religious bigotry that resides within conservative Christians. But if loyalty to Christianity is not being adequately measured by the Christian nationalism index, then we are falsely making moral attributions unsupported by the labeling of this scale as Christian Nationalism.…
……But seen in the light of measuring adherence to the political interest of a special interest group, is the Christian nationalism scale capturing a phenomenon unique to Christians? Just about all special interest groups engage in political activism to promote their social values. African-Americans, Muslims, feminists, sexual minorities, businesspeople, social workers, farmers and just about any other vested interest group do this. With a little work a competent academic can create a scale that measures a respondents’ willingness to support the values in any of these groups and how beneficial it is for them to engage in political activism. One can then name that scale Muslim nationalism, feminist nationalism, businessperson nationalism and so on. But of course that would not be what they are measuring. They are measuring the propensity of individuals to support the political activism of members of that group according to their stated political concerns.…..
……..We can see the conceptual difference between calling Christian political activity “nationalism” and calling it Christian political activity. The former is a stigmatized term and the latter is a general expectation we have for special interest groups. The mislabeling of this scale as Christian nationalism is unnecessarily stigmatizing and distracting from real issues of concern. Christian political activism may be tied to some of the negative outcomes linked to the Christian nationalism scale. It is unclear to me whether these outcomes are tied to unique elements within Christianity or whether the activism itself is the problem, regardless of which group is engaging in the activism. There seems to be a lack of a conversation about whether Christian political activism is significantly different than activism from other vested interest groups with methodological tools designed to detect such differences. That is the sort of analysis that can inform us whether Christians produce unique challenges to our political culture or if they are basically doing what everyone else is doing.
The Mismeasurements of Christian Nationalism.
……But seen in the light of measuring adherence to the political interest of a special interest group, is the Christian nationalism scale capturing a phenomenon unique to Christians? Just about all special interest groups engage in political activism to promote their social values. African-Americans, Muslims, feminists, sexual minorities, businesspeople, social workers, farmers and just about any other vested interest group do this. With a little work a competent academic can create a scale that measures a respondents’ willingness to support the values in any of these groups and how beneficial it is for them to engage in political activism. One can then name that scale Muslim nationalism, feminist nationalism, businessperson nationalism and so on. But of course that would not be what they are measuring. They are measuring the propensity of individuals to support the political activism of members of that group according to their stated political concerns.…..
……..We can see the conceptual difference between calling Christian political activity “nationalism” and calling it Christian political activity. The former is a stigmatized term and the latter is a general expectation we have for special interest groups. The mislabeling of this scale as Christian nationalism is unnecessarily stigmatizing and distracting from real issues of concern. Christian political activism may be tied to some of the negative outcomes linked to the Christian nationalism scale. It is unclear to me whether these outcomes are tied to unique elements within Christianity or whether the activism itself is the problem, regardless of which group is engaging in the activism. There seems to be a lack of a conversation about whether Christian political activism is significantly different than activism from other vested interest groups with methodological tools designed to detect such differences. That is the sort of analysis that can inform us whether Christians produce unique challenges to our political culture or if they are basically doing what everyone else is doing.
The Mismeasurements of Christian Nationalism.
