Peter Mommsen writes the following in an article in Plough (“Can Violence Be Good?” Summer 2021): “ ‘Christian nationalism’ is a conspicuous player in the political violence of the past few months, not least in the attack on the US Capitol. This movement combines exhibitionist public prayer and Jesus 2020 banners with strong elements of White supremacism and a readiness for lethal violence. . . . All this, it should go without saying, is not Christian . . ”

Plough is published by members of the Bruderhof community, self-identified as “an intentional Christian community . . a fellowship of families and singles, practicing radical discipleship in the spirit of the first church in Jerusalem. We gladly renounce private property and share everything in common.”

Similar views of white evangelicalism in American churches are expressed in sojo.net, a publication of a different kind of Christian organization. Sojourners identifies as an American Christian social justice organization. Here, Gina Cilberto writes of churches struggling against Christian nationalists: “Pastors across the country see them raging within congregations: beliefs that powerful, hidden, evil forces control human destinies.” (June 2021, “Can White Evangelicals Be Deprogramed from Trumpism?”)

Thus, the anger and hatred that produced the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are being condemned by concerned Christians of vastly different theological views and practices.

Their concern is justified. One sometimes gets the idea that Christian nationalists revere the United States as the new Jesus, to be worshiped as God himself. Criticism is blasphemy.

But nations, like humans, are sinners. To serve one as a god is to forget the Jesus who refused to worship “the kingdoms of the world.”