All too often, we are not who we say we are. But getting us to be honest with ourselves often involves a conflict of interest. That is because we want to think about ourselves as being better than we really are.
The Scriptures contain some passages that can perhaps help us see ourselves for who we are. The parable of the 2 men praying in Luke 18:9-14 is such a passage. When we see that we are acting more like the Pharisee in the parable, then we are tending to believe about ourselves what he believed about himself--that he was righteous and spiritually superior to others. Here we should remember that it was the worst person in society, not the most religious person, who was saved because that person begged for mercy so much that he didn't have time to compare himself with the Pharisee.
Ben Sebrell (no bio material was available) has written an article for The Witness: A Black Christian Collective which informs us that we might be [American] Christian Nationalists (click here for the article). Sebrell's article doesn't include the word 'American' with Christian Nationalism, but he does imply it. BTW, while Sebrell is focusing on American Christian Nationalism, we should note that Christian Nationalism was once the rage in Europe as evidenced by its religious wars and even in WW I when soldiers from many European armies were taught that God was on their side.
What is interesting in Sebrell's take on the subject is that he defines Christian Nationalism as the combination of Western Christianity and American white supremacy. While some might object, we should note that racism was, according to my memory in reading about the subject, not an issue during the Roman Empire. And yet, once Christianity had spread throughout Europe, Christian Nationalism appeared and racism emerged in the West. So Christian Nationalism appeared in Europe before America became a nation. European forms of Christian Nationalism were racist as evident in Europe's colonization and imperialism. And so when America emerged through the emigration of its white, Christian settlers, we saw the continuation of a racist Christian Nationalism.
So now we arrive at Sebrell's article. His article is simply a collection of statements stating what Christian Nationalism looks like. Below are some of those statements:
- It looks like people who claim to be pro-life
saying, “If he had just listened to the police…,” whenever a Black
image-bearer is needlessly gunned down in the streets.
- It
looks like preachers standing in pulpits and all but deifying our
founding fathers and the congregation saying, “Amen.” I wonder how those
people will feel when this life is over and they find out that many of
those hallowed founders died and split hell wide open while the slaves
they owned traded in scrap wood shacks on dirt roads for mansions on
streets of gold.
- It looks like
Christians who will spend thousands of dollars to fly across the world
to take photos with poor kids in Africa while ignoring the Black and
Brown kids down the street.
- It looks like saying Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization after having remained conspicuously silent when it comes to white supremacy, the KKK, the Capitol Insurrection, etc.
There are other statements in the article which indicate whether one is an American Christian Nationalist. Again, many of these statements give us reason for pause since they could very well apply to us white Christians.
Sebrell tells us that Christian Nationalism is is a form of idolatry. And what Sebrell doesn't mention but Chris Hedges does is that idolatry eventually involves self-worship.
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