As he races to clinch the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, Donald Trump is intensifying the outreach to America’s Christian nationalists. At a speech last week to the Christian Broadcasters Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, Trump promised to protect and defend Christian values against the onslaught of the liberal left that wants “to tear down crosses”. Quoting repeatedly from the Bible and invoking God, Trump promised to use the full power of the White House to end the “persecution” of Christians and put Christian values at the centre of American political life. “With your help and God’s grace, the great revival of America begins on November 5th,” he said.
Christian conservatives and radicals of different kinds have long been part of US electoral politics. This election season, they are melding into a powerful political stream that seeks to make America a Christian nation. Although there is no single platform and agreed agenda, several demands stand out. Christian nationalists would like to end the separation of Church and state, push back against LGBTQ rights, abolish abortion rights, counter what they see as ultra-liberal hegemony over educational institutions, and reverse the rising tide of immigration into the US.
The rise of “Christian nationalism” in the US and its growing resonance across the Western world is likely to open some interesting intersections with the BJP and the Indian government in the widely expected third term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Traditionally, India has had little engagement with the Christian political formations in the US and the West. That has begun to change in the last few years, as many of these conservative forces reach out to the BJP.
But first, to four paradoxes of Christian nationalism in the US.
One is the unlikely warmth between Trump and the Christian nationalists. Trump certainly does not come across as a “man of piety”. In 2016, Trump was not the preferred candidate among Republicans. It is a relationship that has grown big since then. Trump has rightly claimed credit for his administration’s record in appointing conservative judges to the US Supreme Court and challenging liberals on a range of issues. Today, many Christian nationalists fervently believe that Trump is the “chosen one” on a “divine mission” to deliver America back to Christ. Christian nationalists hope to “make America pray again”, which works well with Trump’s promise to “make America great again”.
Second is the tensions between the formal secularism of the US constitution and the traditional centrality of religion in the fabric of American polity. The US constitution does not establish a state religion but Christianity has remained an important factor throughout its history. Going back to the early 17th century, John Winthrop, the founder of the Massachusetts colony, invoked the Bible to describe it as a “city on a hill” in “covenant with God”. The first settlers were eventually described as “pilgrim fathers”. In the mid-1950s, the US added “under god” to the loyalty oath and made “In God, we trust” the country’s official motto. In the 2000s, George W Bush promoted “faith-based initiatives” to complement social welfare programmes. The last few years have seen a steady spread of Christian nationalist ideology among the lower courts, state legislatures, and local governments.
Third, liberal critics tend to dismiss Christian nationalism as part of the hopeless agenda to “make America white again”. To be sure, the Caucasian fears of marginalisation lend an ethnic and exclusivist dimension to Christian nationalism. However, sections of Christian nationalists are inclusivist and reach out to African-American and Hispanic Christian communities that are socially conservative and reject the liberal secularising agenda.
Fourth, America’s Christian “nationalism” is going “international”. In Europe, variants of Christian nationalism are on the rise and are boosting far-right political parties. The European agenda is similar to the American one — opposition to immigration, especially Muslims, the protection of traditional European culture, rejection of gender rights, and promotion of family values under threat from the liberal hegemony over social life. Connections are being forged between the Christian nationalists across the Atlantic. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other European leaders who support traditional values have been lionised by Christian nationalists in the US. A surprising figure on that list is Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who has put religion and ethno-nationalism at the top of his political agenda. The Christian nationalist enthusiasm for Putin is one factor behind the current deep American divisions on Ukraine.
The rise of religious nationalism in Christendom, in parallel with the consolidation of the BJP as the dominant force in the Indian polity, could mark a major break in the evolution of India’s internationalism. Over the last century, India’s global political connections were shaped by India’s communist, socialist and Congress parties that built ties with the left and centre-left forces in Europe.
The decline of the communist parties in the West has been matched by the marginalisation of the Indian communists. Although the social democratic parties in Europe remain a force to be reckoned with, the Indian socialists have fragmented into family-dominated fiefdoms with little interest in global affairs and no capability to engage with their historical counterparts in the West. The Congress has long ceased engaging its centre-left counterparts in the West.
Unlike Congress and the Left, the RSS and the BJP have less of an internationalist history. This is unsurprising given their nativist roots. This could change as the nativists around the world go global. Over the last few decades, the BJP has begun to connect, if tentatively, with political parties in other countries.
As it expanded at home in the last decade, the BJP has enhanced its outreach to the diplomatic missions in Delhi as well as foreign political parties under the “Get to know the BJP” initiative. Christian Democrats and other conservative parties in Europe, too, have been knocking at the BJP’s door.
It is not clear if Christian nationalists can overturn liberal hegemony in the US and Europe, but they are bound to make some difference to Western polities, domestically and internationally. This could open up new international possibilities for both the BJP and the Modi government, which have often locked horns with the Western liberal establishments in recent years.
The writer is a contributing editor on international affairs for The Indian Express
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