What Christian Nationalists Envision for Democracy
An MSNBC shout-out and Voddie Baucham is dead
“There’s Christianity and then there’s Christian Nationalism, and white Christian Nationalism,” she said. “And there have been a number of ex Christian Nationalists, including women like Tia Levings, who have warned America that the vision of Christian Nationalism is incompatible with democracy. I’m wondering what the vision is that Christian Nationalists have for America, and how you square that with the Christian faith?”
The interviewer was Mara Gay on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program, in a segment promoting the paperback release of The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy by Jim Wallis.
I was surprised by the clip today because it’s the result of the volume of content I’ve put out in the universe, warning about the dangers of Christian Nationalism for years. It was an organic mention; the result of Mara Gay’s research on the topic.
Fun fact: a high school friend tagged me on Facebook to say she’d heard my name on her morning commute. My publicist knew of Jim Wallace’s interview today and sent me the clip. That’s how we connected the dots. A less fun fact: I’d just woken up from a night of bad dreams about warnings that have come true, and how terrifying it is to understand a threat that’s manifesting into reality without the power to stop it. Gay’s mention validated that my efforts are reaching those with the ability to inform broader audiences. In this small way at least, the daily grind is working.
Christian Nationalism isn’t the Christianity you think you know. And it’s incompatible with democracy because patriarchy doesn’t believe in democracy. They want dominion. White Christian Nationalism believes in white dominion.
In response to Jim Wallis’s point, I agree that this is an opportunity for people of faith to take a stand and protect democracy, as well as redefine the language used to identify their faith groups. Christian Nationalists and patriarchy co-opted mainstream evangelicalism in their quest for the populism that would take them closer to achieving dominion. It’s not really the job of secular society to police “real” Christians from false, especially when the only criterion to be any Christian is professed belief. America needs the “not all Christians” and “real Christians” to take a stand against the evils that seek to dominate and destroy.
The New Republic posted today that the U.S is no longer a democracy. I know this is news to a lot of people, particularly secular, educated readers outside of the American South. It’s not news to those familiar with Christian Patriarchy.
To Christian Nationalists rooted in evangelical patriarchy, we were never a democracy. They’ve tossed the terms into a word-splitting salad for decades, arguing we’re a constitutional republic instead. Unsurprisingly, the truth is more complex than the either/or they wanted to paint, and this point garnered some attention around the time of the election. We’re a democratic republic. The people decide our laws through elected representatives. We’re a both/and. From the NPR article linked above:
Thomas says the American experiment has been about harmonizing democratic and republican models, two “popular forms of government,” each of which “drew its legitimacy from the people and depended on rule by the people.”
The essential difference was the role of representatives to substitute for the gathering of all the people at one point in time and space.
“To take this as a rejection of democracy misses how the idea of government by the people, including both a democracy and a republic, was understood when the Constitution was drafted and ratified,” Thomas said. “It misses, too, how we understand the idea of democracy today.”
One way to understand that idea was articulated by Jefferson himself way back in 1816, when he wrote: “We may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition.”
MEANWHILE….the Christian Patriarchy ultimately doesn’t care about the semantics of what we call our government. They’re happy to let us fight and dicker it out, too. Democracy, republic, or a merger and mixture of both; none of that matters to them. Their vision for the country is an authoritarian model with a vertical power structure from the top to the bottom. It’s the model you’ve seen in every fundamentalist family, church, cult group, and now our government: white Daddy on top, smiling silent mother beneath him, minions doing the work below. When Daddy needs more hands, he lets other white men help (elders, governors, fathers).
While the rest of the country debates how to govern our democracy, the patriarchs in power have been on a different path this whole time. Not only do they not believe in democracy in general, but they don’t think this nation is one. Dominion is led by an executive authoritarian, informed by an ancient religion, applied to modern times. It’s called theonomy: the application of Old Testament customs and laws to modern society, and it’s sans Jesus.
Last night, Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought tried to jam the Democrats into passing the Republicans’ continuing resolution to fund the government. Officials leaked a memo to Politico, Punchbowl News, and Axios—publications that focus on events concerning Capitol Hill—saying that if the Democrats refuse to pass the Republicans’ measure, the administration will try to fire, rather than furlough, large numbers of federal employees.
Such a move would be challenged in the courts, and the government has been forced to rehire many of the people it forced out earlier this year after those firings left agencies badly understaffed. But the threat is not idle; Vought is a Christian nationalist who has called for a “radical Constitutionalism” that demolishes the modern American state and replaces it with a powerful executive.
—Heather Cox Richardson, September 25, 2025 (emphasis mine)
There’s a reason Christian Patriarchy quotes Old Testament verses, and often only Paul when they dip into the New Testament. Before you feel like arguing that point, remember that America offers religious freedom to all, including the freedom from religion, and what one faith group believes was never meant to be the basis of government for our entire country. Christian Nationalists are free to believe what they want regarding their ideal for America; they are not free to hold the rest of us captive to their ideology.
The way Christian Patriarchs govern their homes is the way they want to govern the country. White Christian Nationalism is not a democracy because patriarchal families are not a democracy. Any semblance of a republic is a facade. The closer we allow Trump and his Project 2025 GOP to move us towards authoritarian rule, the closer to white Christian Nationalism we are. That’s why, to Jim Wallace’s point, it’s more vital than ever that people of faith, who share the “Christian” label, clean house.
Christians who care have a chance right now. And I hope it matters to them because that dominionism begins under their umbrella. Christianity that embraces Jesus, and the Samaritan story Wallace shared in this interview, is still discernible from white Christian Nationalism, but less and less to outsiders, and of less and less interest to exiles. We’ve lost too much while evangelicals valued comfort, reputation, and systemic protection over our humanity. As Christian Nationalism exists unchecked in churches, we know we’re continuing to lose more.
In other news…
Voddie Baucham is dead. This is relieving to religious trauma survivors who experienced his influence. Christian Patriarch and vocal proponent of the Stay-at-Home Daughter movement (which acronym spells SAHD and produces very sad young women), Baucham was rising in the Baptist ranks and reach. To my fellow survivors, solidarity as we integrate the knowledge we’ve outlived another villain.
Baucham was a Christian Nationalist and often stood out for it as a token Black man in an otherwise sea of white theologians, pastors, and politicians. Whatever his reasons for overlooking or denying the white supremacy in his theological dominionism, self-betrayal is not uncommon in Christian fundamentalism. He, too, did not believe in democracy. He, too, wanted a theocracy so that when families obeyed the government, they were also obeying God.
Comment section notes:
I recently opened my Substack and removed the paywall from ongoing posts, as well as the comment section. The shift is bringing in new readers, and I’d love it if you said hello.
For those new here: this column is primarily written to those who have left high-control religion and/or are seeking a translation of evangelical influences in our culture, news, politics, and headlines. I maintain my social media spaces to foster healthy conversation on those topics in support of survivors of religious trauma. It is not a space for debate or Christian apologetics. If you have a different viewpoint, your curiosity and questions are welcome.
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I left ordained ministry a decade and a half ago. I'm currently in the process of being reinstated so I can be called to pastor another church. I've had trouble articulating my reasons why when people have asked. Now I think I'll just direct them to this post. Thank you for your words.
I've read your book, and much of your substacks having experienced a similar background. Im glad you are being recognized.