Rising Christian nationalism: a threat to us all

Toni Morrison called Bill Clinton the first Black president: working-class single-parent upbringing, likes junk food, plays the saxophone...

Not my business to defend Trump, but he's a more complicated case. Many people don't know that when he was young his dad made him go and work on building sites in the school holidays, and I think that stayed with him. Manhattan old money types despised him because he was this vulgar and blingy upstart from Queens, but construction workers liked him because he visited the sites and spoke knowledgeably with them and listened to their feedback.

There's a whole genre of young black men on TikTok who do this humorous thing about Trump as a gangsta rapper - he lives in a gold tower, he fucks porn stars, he's in and out of court all day, he's got a mugshot and a bullet wound - let's face it, he's black. Meanwhile I think cultural elites find hating Trump a socially acceptable way of hating Middle America.

Little to do with Christianity there, except I'm usually sceptical about attempts to claim Jesus for anybody's current year politics. Peter Tatchell sometimes writes articles claiming Jesus believed in the same things that Peter Tatchell does, which I find a bit disturbing.

Trump would have fitted in well in Ancient Rome. What a great image. Is 'gold tower' a euphemism?

The Jesus of the New Testament was the son of a tradie who lived humbly and tried to help lepers and prostitutes. Surely the likes of Trump have more in common with the Roman leaders who crucified him? I can imagine Trump lolling in a toga at a banquet boasting about the size of his gold tower more than I can see him sitting patiently in a crowd of plebs listening to someone else speak.

Christian nationalism is an odd concept in many ways. The life of Jesus as recounted in the gospels paves the way to socialism. Were it not for the perceived and actual threat posed by Islam, would there be such a thing as Christian nationalism?

They are funding for the rights of this man to attempt to defend and fight for the life of an even more vulnerable person than the woman. So much so that the actions of this person had absolutely nothing to do with them being placed in that situation to begin with, unlike the vulnerable woman.

Some people can't understand how women, who are meant to have the loving, nurturing nature when it comes to small infants, can be convinced to commit an act so evil as the taking a life so innocent even though the woman herself is not necessarily evil. This happens over years with propaganda to first convince them it's a 'medical procedure' and 'healthcare' instead of the taking of a young life. People standing outside abortion clinics usually understand the value of human life

I don't quite understand why people can't be banned for their presence. Thats intimidation enough.

ADF are funding the case for this man to have the ability to harass vulnerable women as they attend an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

https://adfinternational.org/fr/news/silent-prayer-trial-begins-for-army-vet

The abortion protests in Scotland were directly organised by US anti abortion groups.

I'd say Islamists are far Right. The only difference between them is skin colour.
The Far Right, fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Islam are ideologically very similar. Especially with regards to their attitudes to gay people, women and the superiority of their own religion/race over others.
Moderate Christians (and cultural Christians/muslims) are very similar to all other moderate religious groups. Especially the Abrahamic religions.

That was more likely a result of it being replaced by the religion of capitalism than immigration tho..

The hard core far right is tiny, barely worth a mention (even if we need to keep an eye on them).

I don't think anyone is claiming that everyone voting reform or following Robinson is going to end up as a regualr churchgoer, far from it. Just that Christianity is seeing a rise, and in the scheme of things the right in the UK has a lot more in common with christians than it does with TQ+ ideologues, Palestine Action supporters and Islamists.

Well yes especially when the church of England is being propped up by African churches abroad and immigrants at home!

I think some people need it more than others. I am lucky in that I don't particularly need a "sense of community"... but I get that we're all different and many many people do.

I think that one could make an argument that the rise of cultural christianity - and any real rise in christian belief that might also be happening - is in opposition to various cultures that oppose cultural christianity also being on the rise (Islamic and woke / CSJ / TQ+ cultures spring to mind in particular). And one might make an argument that TQ+ ideologues on their antifa / transtifa protests, and at their gigs and clubs and exhibitions where sex realists are not tolerated, are often there for the sense of righteous community that in earlier decades they might have got from christianity.

I'm not sure Christian nationalism would appeal to really hard core far right people. The ones I knew way back were either atheist or they adhered to German or Scandinavian religion as practiced by their Anglo Saxon ancestors - iirc.
Hitler was nominally a Christian but really a functioning atheist. He called Christianity ' that old Jew story'. You won't be talking to an NF or BNP head for very long before all the anti semitic stuff comes out , despite all the Israeli flags btw.

Therefore....I predict a split at some point. It's hard to see the Tommy mob fitting into the C of E anyway. Maybe some would go for hellfire Pentecostal stuff. But I'm not really seeing it.

For whatever reason, over the last 500 years or so Christian countries have done much better at scientific and cultural develoment, as well as elevting the living standards of all, compared to muslim one. Over a shorter period we have created liberal democratic countries with lots of women's rights. Meanwhile, as a rough rule of thumb, I would suggest that women's rights in many muslim countries are much worse than they were in the west before liberal democracy

Maybe that is the strength of the particular kind of religion that has been imbedded in the British establishment over the last couple of centuries? Community and custom is more important than belief, which is a more personal matter.

On the other hand America was built on the kind of belief that gets you across oceans and mountains.

"whilst Christian-dominated countries often end up with liberal democracies."

Not really the pattern of Europe until after the Second World War.

I’ve been saying for a while that the country is worse off now that hardly anyone goes to church on a Sunday.

People are lost without that sense of community.

Alphabet people? How rude.

You're not wrong, OP. Religious fundamentalism of any kind is dangerous.

If you are only talking about recent wester culture (post 1990s?) then that is something ephemeral.

I agree. Muslim countries weren't always like this. There seems to have been a concerted effort ( and a lot of money) thrown around by hard-line Islamists ( the equivalent of the Christian fundamentalists) to take over countries and even Mosques in the West, often helped by the Western Left who ignore their close correlation with the Far Right. When I was a child I grew up in a very culturally mixed area. It was unheard of to see a Burkha outside of Kensington where all the Arabs lived. No children wore the Hijab. I dont think Christians are as wedded to that type of influence by small fundamentalist religious groups. The US bible belt is made up of the descendents of the puritan weirdos kicked out of Europe in the first place!

If we were transplanting entire populations then obviously that might happen particularly if there were the same geo political pressures but we aren't. We are talking about the types of numbers that aren’t enough to impact the overall prevailing culture that can be absorbed with time.

Could the resurgence of Christianity in the UK be seen as, in part, a reaction to the increasing visibility and influence of Islam?

I agree. I think atheists dont really understand religion because there is something intangible about it. They go on about ' sky fairies' but dont appreciate that in a way whether God exists is irrelevant and not the most important thing about religious belief. It is the belonging to a community, having somewhere to go in times of trouble, the feel good factor of doing things for others. I suspect this fundamental misunderstanding of people with a faith has led to the rifts in the pro Palestine/trans movements. Atheistic trans rights underestimated the strength of religious belief of Muslims and thought their faith was just a silly backward minor issue that would all be forgotten about if only they were educated into the true religion.