Growing up inside American evangelicalism, I can see now that there was definitely a taste of Christian nationalism thrown into the cultural mix (though I certainly couldn’t name it at the time). If you grew up culturally Chrisitan in the U.S., the same is probably true for you, too. What Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood point out, though, is that Protestant evangelicalism was not, and is not, the sole source of the problem. Their work, Baptizing America, describes how mainline American Protestantism significantly contributed to what scholars now call Christian Nationalism. But the book, and this conversation with Brian, isn’t just a collection of receipts – though they’re there – it’s also a call to all American Christians to help course correct the situations we now see inside our cultures and churches.
Mentioned in this episode:
Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood
You might also enjoy:
Ep. 151 with Paul D. Miller, professor at Georgetown University
Ep. 204 with Kaitlyn Schiess on The Ballot and the Bible
Ep. 210 with Andrew Whitehead, sociologist who researches Christian nationalism