I don’t know any British churches who are engaging well with these questions. I’m not. We aren’t used to talking about politics. We are probably going to need to learn. This will likely involve offending some people. We might stick our foot in it. My only advice is to stick close to the Bible.

This felt like a largely American discourse until fairly recently, but the term is increasingly being used here in the UK as well. The problem is, it’s a big broad sloppy term that means as much or as little as those employing it intend it to. It was originally a pejorative against a certain sort of political theology that has become louder in the US in the last five years or so, which was then claimed by many of those it was aimed against as a badge of honour.

I don’t agree with the political theology of, e.g., Stephen Wolff, so obviously I’m not a Christian nationalist. However, it gets rather more complex. The definition of some of the media in the UK, especially more left leaning media, would make me one: I’m in their terms a ‘fundamentalist Christian’ (a fairly run of the mill evangelical who believes the Bible is true and we should do what it says) who thinks that society would be better if we followed the Bible and that our faith should affect the ‘public square.’ That, in the sloppiest definitions, makes me a Christian nationalist. I have no desire to claim that label.

My fear is that this sort of labelling itself drives people to the extremes. Either we find ourselves wanting to run away from the label and so some more left-leaning evangelicals start to reject the idea that our faith should affect society; the result being that Christianity becomes pietistic and has nothing to say to anyone. A more right-leaning evangelical sees themselves called that and so runs towards the extremes, often right past brothers whose political theology I might simply disagree with into the arms of antisemitic racists at the fringe.

The problem with terms like ‘Christian nationalist’ is that they can be claimed by people with views as diverse as:

1. Theonomists, who think a nation’s laws should look like the Bible’s law code
2. Nationalists, in the broad sense of ‘anti-empire,’ who are Christians
3. Nationalists in the much tighter, protectionist sense, who are Christians
4. Those who want a ‘Christian nation’ to be formed
5. Those who want Christendom back
6. Those who think it’s appropriate to consider what the political theology of a Christian nation would look like, though they might expect this to be brought into being through conversion or revival
7. Those who are democratic post-liberals (or ecclesiocentric ones)
8. Those who are anti-democratic post-liberals
9. Those who are patriotic and love their nation and are Christians
10. Christians who think that God’s word contains wisdom for running a nation
11. Christians who think that churches should be able to preach God’s wisdom for the nation to the nation
12. People who think a Christian nation means a white nation of ‘Anglo-Saxons.’
13. People who think we should re-enact 17^th century political theology
14. People who like political theology
15. People who are concerned about immigration

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