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This statement was developed by the leadership team of the Christian Nationalism Series hosted by the Seekers Class of the Missouri United Methodist Church, Columbia, Missouri. It is offered in the form of a Credo, affirmations which stand in contrast to the ideology and theology of Christian Nationalists. I hope that it serves as a reflection piece and provides a clear statement for uncertain times.

Addressing Christian Nationalism: A Different Christian Perspective

Theological Vision

We believe that God is the creator of the whole cosmos and that love of God requires us to respect, preserve, and protect all Creation.

We believe that God is the creator of all humanity and that we should strive to welcome, understand, and empathize with all people.

We believe that God loves and is at work among the people of our nation just as God loves and is at work among the people of other nations. God does not extend preferential or superior status to our nation among the many nations.

The Moral Center

We believe there is a moral center, one which we find in our Christian faith and others find in different religions or no religion.

We believe that the life and teachings of Jesus should be the standard by which we evaluate the narratives and practices of all movements that claim to be Christian.

We believe that our Christian calling is to love not hatred, kindness not cruelty, mercy not judgement, and equality not domination.

We believe that we are all parts of the same body and that seeking the common good is a virtuous goal in life. The true test of a Christian moral ethic is the way that resources are distributed not only to the powerful, but to the vulnerable in society.

We believe that fear, anger, and harsh partisanship should not be seen as inevitable and that the best way forward involves listening, compromise, and making decisions with integrity.

Relationship between Church and State

We believe in the separation of church and state. The founders framed the Constitution in such a way that freedom of religious practice and non-establishment of any one religion were protected; the separation of church and state insures the freedom of all citizens, religious or not.

We believe that Christian faith and citizenship are not the same thing, but that they both provide freedom and require responsibility, each in their own way.

We choose to be American Christians rather than Christian Americans. We do not live in a Christian Nation. We live in a nation where we are free to be Christians and free to decide what that looks like.

We believe in the value of a multicultural democracy where we are free to practice our faith and our neighbors are free to practice theirs in their own way.

We believe that loyalty to one’s nation and devotion to one’s God may coexist, but because they are distinct, they should not be conflated. When they do come into conflict, our loyalty to God must be first and patriotism to nation second.

We believe that integrity of belief can only flourish with intellectual freedom and that no one can be forced into an authentic faith. That freedom is protected by open education, a free press, avoidance of censorship, and the absence of religious coercion.  

We believe that theocracy is antithetical to a pluralistic democracy in which citizens make their own moral decisions based on their own values. We should avoid the establishment of a one-party system that codifies one religion’s doctrine in civil law and policy.

The Just Society

We believe that fostering a good and just public life requires respect of fellow citizens, upholding the ideals of democracy, welcoming the stranger and the immigrant, and living peacefully.

We believe that the ideals of a democratic society are protected when all people are free to participate in the discourse of shared governance and where all citizens can vote without interference or intimidation.

We believe that a democratic society is more effective, more responsive, and more inclusive when all social institutions are based upon honest, transparent, and factual discourse.

We believe that our social institutions should provide opportunity, safety, freedom, equity, and justice to all people.

We believe that government is necessary to legislate laws to govern human interaction, to build a stable and unified community with people from different cultural traditions, and to address problems that a market economy fails to solve. 

We believe that our founding documents were remarkable yet imperfect and they must be continually reformed. We are called to engage in that ongoing work.

We believe that freedom of speech is a right and a gift, something that must be used with passion and also responsible care, to expand love and call out hate, to bring together and not divide.

We believe that movements that rely on violence to secure their ideological goals are anti-Christian. We denounce theologies and ideologies that claim God-directed violence and justify those claims with apocalyptic end-time scenarios.