Nov. 1, 2025

MM#443--Christian Nationalism? No, Christian Patriotism!

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message Debates over “Christian nationalism” are loud, confusing, and often heated. We cut through the noise by defining the term, tracing its historical footprints, and then asking a better question: what kind of political love do Christians owe their country? From Constantine’s Roman empire to Spain after the Reconquista to the paradoxes of American civic religion, we map how faith has shaped law, identity, and public symbols—and where t...

FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message

Debates over “Christian nationalism” are loud, confusing, and often heated. We cut through the noise by defining the term, tracing its historical footprints, and then asking a better question: what kind of political love do Christians owe their country? From Constantine’s Roman empire to Spain after the Reconquista to the paradoxes of American civic religion, we map how faith has shaped law, identity, and public symbols—and where that fusion has harmed religious liberty and the common good.

We then turn to the modern surge of interest, from the Moral Majority to Stephen Wolfe’s call for a Christian nation state, and weigh it against Taylor Marshall’s counterpoint: nationalism is the wrong frame. Patriotism, grounded in the virtue of piety, is the older, wiser path. Drawing on Aquinas, we explore the ordo amoris—God, parents, family, neighbor, fatherland—as a safeguard against idolatry of nation and against indifference to civic life. Your homeland deserves love and service, not worship; your neighbor deserves charity, not coercion.

What does that look like in practice? We outline a posture that favors persuasion over compulsion, subsidiarity over sweeping control, and laws that protect life, family, and human dignity while guarding conscience and pluralism. Public symbols can unify when tied to shared goods, but they cannot replace the slow work of formation in homes and churches. If you’ve felt torn between withdrawal and culture war, this conversation offers a third way: confident, ordered love of country that remains accountable to God and oriented to the common good.

Key Points from the Episode:

• definition of Christian nationalism and its claims
• case studies in Rome, Spain, and the United States
• symbols, laws, and the limits of state power
• Moral Majority to Stephen Wolfe: modern currents
• Taylor Marshall’s critique of nationalism’s roots
• patriotism as a virtue in Aquinas’s piety
• the ordo amoris guiding civic love
• practical guardrails for public faith

Other resources:

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00:00 - Framing The Question

00:31 - Defining Christian Nationalism

01:44 - Historical Models: Rome

03:11 - Spain And The Reconquista

04:36 - American Currents And Controversies

06:09 - Book Quote: Falwell To Wolfe

07:51 - Marshall’s Case Against Nationalism

10:09 - Patriotism As Christian Virtue

12:17 - Ordo Amoris And Civic Love

18:10 - Closing And Resources

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Welcome to the Theory to Action Podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.

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Now, here's your host, David Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David, and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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Recently, there has been some talk in our culture of needing a new Christian nationalism.

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What exactly is that and where is that going?

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So, first let's define what is Christian nationalism.

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Based on my cursory research on the interwebs, Christian nationalism is an ideology that seeks to align a nation's identity, laws, and cultures, culture with Christian values, often prioritizing a specific Christian framework as central to the nation's character.

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It can manifest as a cultural promotion of Christian symbols and traditions, political efforts to enact laws based on Christian principles, or the belief that the nation has a divine mandate tied to Christianity.

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While supporters view it as preserving moral or historical foundations, critics argue it risks marginalizing non-Christians and undermining religious pluralism.

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Okay, so we have a better understanding of what is Christian nationalism, and let's just dig into some history.

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What are the best examples of this?

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Well, going all the way back to the Roman Empire, we can see after Constantine's conversion and the Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity became integral to the Roman Empire's identity.

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The Codex of Justinius blended Christian morality.

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This is in 529 to 534 A.D.

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This codex blended Christian morality with Roman law, and it regulated issues like heresy and marriage.

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Now keep in mind this is all after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

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So the emperor, his position seen as God's representative, was enforced by Orthodox Christianity, mainly the Eastern Roman Empire.

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And certainly during that time they marginalized pagans and non-orthodox groups.

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This created a model of Christian governance with state-backed churches that shaped the empire's culture and politics.

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So there's one example of what Christian nationalism has looked like over the years.

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And then we certainly have to go to Spain after the Reconquista in the 15th century onward.

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Now you'll remember from your history books that following the fall of Granada in 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Queen Isabella unified Spain under Catholicism.

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This is when they kicked the Muslims out of Europe.

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And at this time, you also have the Spanish Inquisition and the this is where they expelled Jews and forced Muslim conversions and that all framed Spain as a Catholic nation.

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Now we need to talk more about the Spanish Inquisition because our modern culture and the historical writing on this subject has been terrible.

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It's not close to the truth, but that is a different episode for a different time.

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The Reconquista policies aimed to ensure religious conformity during this time, and it tied it to the national identity of Spain and especially to Catholicism.

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There were times where there was suppression of religious diversity, and that also had lasting impacts on Spain's cultural and political landscape.

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Okay, so we got two good brief descriptions.

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And here's our last example, because we're all familiar with it.

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It's the United States.

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Despite constitutional separation of church and state, Christian nationalist ideas have influenced the United States and its history, particularly through the notion of America as a Christian nation.

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You will remember the Second Great Awakening early in the 19th century, spurred evangelical movements pushing for laws reflecting Christian values, with some credit to the Prohibition time being tied to Christian nationalism.

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This is from 1919 to 1933.

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Not sure all about that, but because I've never dug into prohibition in depth, but we will go with it for now.

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In the 20th century, there were efforts like adding In God We Trust to the currency, which happened in 1956.

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Certainly advocating for school prayer and the Ten Commandments displays in public places reflect attempts to emphasize a Christian national identity.

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And that certainly sparked debates over religious freedom.

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So with these three examples, we seek to highlight how Christian nationalism has shaped governance and culture by fusing Christian principles with national identity, often at the expense of religious minorities or secular principles.

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So now we know what is Christian nationalism, and we've had some examples.

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Let's turn to our book of the day for our quote of the day.

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Go into the book.

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The moral majority, founded in 1979, led by Jerry Falwell, politicized evangelicals giving rise to the religious right.

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And Falwell's rhetoric that America is God's instrument still resonates today.

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In 2022, Stephen Wolfe's The Case for Christian Nationalism challenged the status quo of Christian conservatism and became the manifesto for one strand of Christian nationalism.

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Woof, a political theorist from the Reformed Calvinist tradition, argued that nations thrive when rooted in Christian principles, drawing from scripture and influential Christian thinkers to propose that a Christian nation state is both natural and desirable.

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He critiqued secularism as a destabilizing force and envisioned a government that reflects Christian values as a means to love one's neighbor and country.

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And that quote comes to us from a great book by a great Catholic author, Taylor Marshall.

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And this is coming from Taylor Marshall's latest grook latest book, rather, Christian Patriot.

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It is a great book.

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Meaning, is nationalism the wrong word?

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After all, Taylor is a Christian, he's a Catholic.

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So let's hear his argument why nationalism is the wrong word, going back to the book.

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The liberal opponents of Christian nationalism naturally want to associate Christian nationalism with the Nazis.

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Nationalism was part of the German word for Nazi.

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Nationalism need not be Nazism.

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But the current rhetorical strategy is to associate all quote right wing movements as being like literally Hitler, fascist and Nazi.

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The problem here is the term nationalism.

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And I have to agree with Taylor on this.

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Nationalism is a recent term, but it goes back much further than the 1930s Germany.

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So it's incredible how the left wing opponents tag everything to Nazi just with a hint of nationalism in it.

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But let's keep going.

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Nationalism is a relatively recent post-Enlightenment term lacking traditional precedent in the Christian tradition.

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The concept of nationalism emerged from the French Revolution of 1789.

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It entered the English language around 1798, but it did not gain significant recognition until the nineteenth century.

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Since World War II, nationalism has become a common term in political discourse, often evoking feelings of ethnic superiority.

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The origins of nationalism lie in the French Revolution, and its associations have been marred since then.

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For Christians, the term patriotism, not nationalism, signifies the proper relationship between Christians and the government.

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The word patriotism derives from the Latin patria, meaning fatherland or homeland, which in turn derives from pater, meaning father.

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The root word connects patriotism to fatherhood and family, fundamental elements of culture and society.

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The suffixism denotes a practice.

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So patriotism essentially means the practice of loving one's father and fatherland.

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Ah, now we're getting somewhere.

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So Christian patriotism versus nationalism seems to be a much better word because it's more exact in its meaning.

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But let's keep going because we're finding some good nuggets of wisdom here.

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The word nationalism derives from the Latin word natius, the past participle of nacia, meaning to be born.

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The term nationalism leans towards the passive association of being born, whereas the term patriotism leans toward the active association of loving a fatherland.

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Patriotism invokes the inheritance of a father to the child, and thereby establishes the foundation for the traditional family and society, and plus the feminists hate it.

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Oh, that's so good.

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I love the feminist hate it dig at the end of that quote.

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There are a bunch of wackos from the 1960s and 70s, radicals, who you want to talk about a modern movement that really turned against the very people it was supposed to help.

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I know of zero women who have ever found that the feminist movement ever helped them in their career, in their roles as mothers or in their families.

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It was just another deceitful power grab by a bunch of radical leftists in the crazy 60s and 70s, and that by the 1980s and 90s, most intelligent women were looking at that group thinking, you folks are off your rockers.

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We're not going to listen to you anymore.

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They certainly didn't deliver on creating more happiness for the majority of women because all of those women who were the diehards in that group in the 60s and 70s, they are completely unhappy in their 70s and 80s nowadays.

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So way to go, ladies, for ruining other people's lives by a bad political ideology, I guess is what you would call feminism.

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So sorry for the rant.

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Let's get back to nationalism versus patriotism.

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So Marshall dials this in for us in his book.

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Let's go back to that book.

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From a Christian perspective, patriotism takes precedence over nationalism because it aligns more closely with the virtues of charity and justice.

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Nationalism is absent in theological content, while patriotism boasts a rich tradition.

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As Saint Thomas Aquinas describes it, patriotism falls under the virtue of piety, a natural extension of honoring one's parents, as outlined in the Ten Commandments.

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It represents a love for the familiar father, land, beliefs, and family, aimed at promoting the common good for all.

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Nationalism, however, often transitions from love to a form of naus birth supremacy, prioritizing nativism.

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Thomas Aquinas conceptualizes patriotism as a virtue with the Ordo Amoris, the order of love, which reflects a hierarchy of loves God first, then parents, then family, neighbors, and finally fatherland.

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Even our current vice president, JD Vance, talked about this ordo amoris, this order of love earlier in this year.

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We covered it in an earlier episode.

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Just as an aside, how about our great and current vice president?

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Have we seen a better vice president in the modern era?

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I'm not sure.

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He's only one year in almost.

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But holy smokes, we have to do an episode on just him, because he is just running circles around the backward and largely irrelevant legacy media week after week.

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And encouraging the troops at every stop as a former Marine and getting real authentic shouts of excitement from those sho soldiers.

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I mean, I just think this guy is knocking it out of the park.

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Not sure that we have seen a better vice president in the modern era, but we should do an episode and do a deep dive into all the vice presidents and their pluses and minuses on in their current administration.

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So we will do an episode for that.

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But more importantly, we'll do an episode because he is my favorite Backeye and he is from the great Backeye state.

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Okay, so another rant.

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Apologize for that.

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But finalizing this notion of Christian nationalism versus patriotism.

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I love the fact that Marshall drives this home so very good, and he does it with very good theology.

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What did he say?

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Let me find it here.

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From a Christian perspective, patriotism takes precedent over nationalism because it aligns more closely with the virtues of charity and justice.

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Goes on to say nationalism is absent in that theological content, while patriotism boasts in a rich 1500-year tradition.

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As St.

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Thomas Aquinas described it, patriotism falls under the virtue of piety, which is the natural extension of honoring one's parents as outlined in the Ten Commandments.

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So he just nails it there.

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Linking patriotism as a virtue under the virtues of charity and justice is very good theology.

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You should care about your country.

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That's a good thing.

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And why?

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Marshall goes on.

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Because it represents a love for the familiar, for your father, for the land that you have grown up around, for the the beliefs that your family has enculturated to you, and for your family itself.

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They are the first church, as we know, aimed at promoting the common good for all, all in the family, and then all in the civil society of which you are born into.

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Nationalism often transitions from love to a form of nanatius or birth supremacy, and it particularly prioritizes nativism over authentic love for country.

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So that all sounds good and proper, too.

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But when you put the cherry on top, with Marshall quoting from St.

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Thomas Aquinas, the greatest theologian the world ever saw, well, then that's just putting the exclamation point on everything.

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And how does he do that?

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Thomas Aquinas says patriotism as a virtue in the order of love, which reflects that hierarchy of loves that we've already quoted, but we'll quote it again God first, then parents, then family, then neighbors, and finally the fatherland.

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So that's all good, right, and proper.

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And when things are in the proper order with the right priorities, then love is very, very good, and happiness exists.

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Again, God first, then parents, then family, then neighbors, then those around you.

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Love your neighbor and then love your country or your fatherland.

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Within the word father meaning your father in heaven.

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So again, in today's mojo minute, I have to agree with Taylor Marshall, and I'm down for his Christian patriotism over Christian nationalism.

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Patriotism is a virtue, and we are meant to be living the virtuous life.

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Marshall also gives us the proper order drawn from the great theologian, namely in all of history and Christianity, especially, from St.

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Thomas Aquinas and then before him to St.

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Augustine.

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So check out this wonderful book, The Christian Patriot: 12 Ways to Create One Nation Under God by Taylor Marshall.

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It was a quick and easy read.

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And as always, let's keep fighting the good fight.

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Thank you for joining us.

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We hope you enjoyed this theory to action podcast.

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Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademy.com, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast as well as other great resources.

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Until next time, keep getting your mojo up.