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This is going to be an online meetup using Zoom. If you've never used Zoom before, don't worry — it's easy to use and free to join.

Here's the link to the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85880673020?pwd=yA4UVTpQAXUFKfp20zWo9qatJARNNI.1

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IS "CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM" A REAL THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY?

INTRODUCTION:

In this meetup, we'll discuss the social phenomenon of "Christian nationalism", i.e. a militant mix of Christian & nationalist beliefs, and consider whether it represents a threat to American democracy, particularly the separation of church & state, and whether it acts as a primary driver of conspiracy theories and right-wing extremism. This is an issue I'm guessing some of our members may be familiar with, since the skeptic movement has a fair amount of overlap with the atheist & secular humanist movements, and the latter groups have hosted speakers warning about the threat of Christian Nationalism in the past few years. For example, the Philadelphia Chapter of the Freethought Society hosted the lawyer Andrew Seidel in 2020 to talk about his book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American (2019), and in 2021 they hosted the journalist Katherine Stewart to talk to their group about her book The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (2020).

It's worth pointing out that the skeptic & atheist communities have been through this sort of debate a decade ago, except the focus back then was mostly on Islam and Islamic terrorism. "New Atheist" firebrands like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris would point to violent passages in the Quran and argue that we shouldn't be surprised that anyone who believed this book was the inspired word of God would treat women like second-class citizens, execute gays, and wage a terrorist jihad against the infidels. Harris in particular got a lot of pushback from academics like the anthropologist Scott Atran who said that few Muslims took the Quran literally when it came to jihad & martyrdom. He also faced criticism from progressive journalists like Cenk Uygur & Glenn Greenwald and the activist/scholar Noam Chomsky who argued that Islamic terrorism had more to due with anger over American military interventions in the Middle East rather than a literal interpretation of scripture.

While Sam Harris never reach agreement with these critics, eventually he appears to have had the realization that no amount of "debunking" of religion would covert the majority of religious believers into atheists - at least not in his lifetime - so he should probably try to work with religious moderates to counter the religious extremists. That's essentially the point of his 2015 book, Islam and the Future of Tolerance, co-authored with the Islamic reformer Maajid Nawaz. Even though the U.S. is becoming increasingly secular, with about 29% of Americans currently identifying as "Nones" (i.e. religiously non-affiliated, although only 6% identify as atheist or agnostic), we're essentially in the same situation domestically. While it's understandable that most atheists & skeptics won't even remotely agree with the metaphysical worldview of religious people, our only real choices are to (1) secede and form an atheist breakaway republic (not likely), or (2) figure out a way to try to form coalitions with religious moderates and try to learn to compromise with them and get them to try to keep the extremists in their religious communities in check.

So how can that be done? I think one important contribution the skeptic community can bring to these sorts of topics is a focus on empirical data & the scientific method. When assessing the threat that religious extremists might pose, that means looking at research from psychology, sociology, political science, and criminology. I wasn't able to do a complete survey of the research on Christian Nationalism, so for this meetup I've chosen to focus on the one source I've seen most of these discussions focus on -- that's the book Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States (2020), written by the sociologists Andrew Whitehead & Samuel Perry.

Whitehead & Perry define "Christian nationalism" as "a cultural framework -- a collection of myths, symbols, traditions, narratives, and value systems that idealizes and advocates the fusion of Christianity with American civil life" (p. 10), and they later describe it as "Christianty coopted in the service of ethno-national power and separation" (p. 145). In the United States, they see Christian Nationalism as a fusion of American identity “with Christianity (preferably Protestant), with race (white), nativity (born in the United States)… and political ideology (social and fiscal conservatism)" (p. ix-x). They measure Christian Nationalist sentiment in terms of agreement with the following 6 statements:

  1. The federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation.
  2. The federal government should advocate Christian values.
  3. The federal government should not enforce the strict separation of church and state.
  4. The federal government should allow religious symbols in public spaces.
  5. The success of the United States is part of God's plan.
  6. The federal government should allow prayer in public schools.

Based on the way in which people respond to poll questions about the 6 issues listed above, indicating they either agree (3 pts) or strongly agree (4 pts), are unsure (2 pts), or disagree (1 pt) or strongly disagree (0 its), allows Whitehead & Perry to construct a "Christian Nationalism Scale" (scored 0 to 24) and sort Americans into 4 general categories: (1) "Rejecters", (2) "Resisters", (3) "Accommodators", and (4) "Ambassadors”. “Ambassadors” are full-fledged Christian nationalists who score 18-24 on the scale, and they are estimated to constitute about a fifth (19.8%) of the population. On the other side, about a fifth (20%) of the population are strong “Rejecters” (score 0-5) and another 25% or so are “Resisters” (score 6-10) who hold few or no Christian nationalist beliefs. But a last group—and the largest single group at about third (32%)—is "Accommodators" (score 11-17) who hold some Christian nationalist beliefs and are sympathetic to, if not fully embracing of, Christian Nationalism. As Whitehead & Perry see it, the "Accommodators" are the key, because they provide sympathy and support to the more extreme adherents and can allow them to exercise an electoral majority on some contentious political issues, particularly in red states.

NOTE: If you're familiar with the psychology research on right-wing authoritarianism, Perry & Whitehead's model is similar to Theodor Adorno's famous "F-scale" (fascism scale) personality test, albeit more narrow in its scope because it focuses on a certain type of religiosity.

In the first section of this discussion, we'll explore the psychology and sociology of Christian Nationalism and look more at the difficulties with defining it precisely and empirically measuring it. As we'll see, there's several surprising results from Whitehead & Perry's research, like the fact that most people who score high on the scale don't appear to be particularly devout in terms of things like church attendance, many black & Hispanic Christians score high on the Christian Nationalism scale despite not in any way favoring white supremacy, and a notable fraction (~25%) of the people who score low as “Rejecters” or “Resisters” are evangelical Christians.

In the second section, we'll move on to looking at how Christian Nationalism interacts with distrust of scientists & public officials and may have seriously reduced vaccination rates among America's white Christian population, and we'll compare them to other populations that have had lower vaccination rates like African-Americans and Orthodox Jews. We'll also discuss the factors that may explain the paradox where Christian Nationalists who don't attend church often tend to have fairly high antivax & anti-mask sentiments, whereas Christians who regularly attend church & score low on the Christian Nationalism Scale tend to be more prone to getting vaccinated & wearing a mask.

In the third section, we'll look at why Christian Nationalism tends to strongly predict support for Donal Trump, as well as why it appears to incline people to believe in the QAnon conspiracy theory. We'll consider If & how Christian Nationalism operates as a radicalizing factor that can increase a person's willingness to engage in political violence & domestic terrorism, and we'll look at how this may have played into the storming of the Capitol on 1/6/21.

In the final section, we'll look at how religiosity ties into the debates over abortion, divorce, homosexuality & same-sex marriage. We'll discuss how Whitehead & Perry's research shows that Americans who exhibit higher levels of religious commitment are "less likely to ostracize immigrants, less likely to espouse anti-black prejudice or fear Muslims" are also "more likely to desire more traditional roles in the home, oppose same-sex marriage and transgender rights, and have more negative views of divorce” (p. 142-143). They also found that "religious commitment is more predictive of views [on abortion] than Christian nationalism” (p. 75). Taking this in account, we'll also look at whether progressive fears of America devolving into a Christian fascist dystopia like the one protrayed in Margaret Atwood novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985) and its TV adaptation (2017-present) is more realistic now in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization to overturn the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion across the country, or whether stricter restrictions on abortion would merely make the U.S. laws more similar to Europe.

RELATED MATERIAL FROM PAST MEETUPS:

Back in Jan. 2021, the Freethought Society hosted the journalist Katherine Stewart to talk about her book The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism (2020). She argued America’s religious nationalists aren’t just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy.
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/274471558/

Back in June 2020, the Freethought Society hosted lawyer Andrew Seidel to discuss his book, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American. He argued that not only are we not a Christian nation, but Christian principles are so opposed to America's liberal democratic principles that it’s fair to say, “Christianity is un-American.”
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/270981370/

Back in Dec. 2020, Skeptics in the Pub Online hosted secular activist Noah Lugeons to give a talk entitled "Crisis of Faith: How Religion Ruined America's Pandemic Response".
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/274572920/

Back in Oct. 2020, we had a meetup entitled "Political Pseudoscience & Conservatism" where we assessed whether several common fears progressives have about conservatives & the GOP are valid or a mix of conspiracy theorizing and a moral panic. In the 2nd section, we looked at fears about how fears of "Dominionism" in the 2000s mirror more recent fears of "Christian nationalism" and how this might tie into a "cult of Trump".
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/djzwsrybcnbgb/

In Sept. 2020, we had a meetup entitled "Has Christianity Made America Dysfunctional?" where we looked at some ways in which certain denominations & trends within Christianity may have had some dysfunctional effects on American culture. Specifically, we looked at whether the South's status as the "Bible Belt" is linked to the legacy of slavery & Jim Crow, whether the modern progressive left is descended from New England Puritanism and shares some of its authoritarian moralism, whether traditionalist Catholicism is incompatible with democracy, and whether Mormons have erected a de facto theocracy in Utah.
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/djzwsrybcmbjb/

In Aug. 2020, we had a meetup entitled "Did Protestantism Make America Great?" where we discussed several theories about how the Protestant Reformation may have led to the Scientific Revolution, industrial capitalism, and liberal democracy, and secularization.
https://www.meetup.com/Philly-Skeptics/events/djzwsrybclbfc/

In Feb. 2021, Skeptical Inquirer hosted Stephanie Kemmerer to give a talk entitled "QAnon: Blood Libel for the Digital Age" where she argued that the ultimate origin of the QAnon conspiracy theories is the medieval Christian myth of the "blood libel" used against Europe's Jews. She argued that QAnon is dangerous and destructive and that it must not be taken lightly or ignored.
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/275971689/

In May 2021, Skeptics in the Pub Online hosted psychology professor Chris French to give a talk entitled "The Truth About The Satanic Panic... and how it could happen again." French argued that QAnon's obsession with child sex trafficking is a reemergence of ideas we saw before during the "Satanic panic" on the 1980s.
https://www.meetup.com/philly-skeptics/events/278407971/

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DIRECTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR OUR DISCUSSION:

The videos & articles you see linked below are intended to give you a basic overview of some of the major debates over "Christian Nationalism" in America. As usual, I certainly don't expect you to read all the articles prior to attending our discussion. The easiest way to prepare for our discussion is to just watch the numbered videos linked under each section - the videos come to about about 57 minutes total. The articles marked with asterisks are just there to supply additional details. You can browse and look at whichever ones you want, but don't worry - we'll cover the stuff you missed in our discussion.

In terms of the discussion format, my general idea is that we'll address the topics in the order presented here. I've listed some question under each section to stimulate discussion. We'll do our best to address most of them, as well as whatever other questions our members raise. I figure we'll spend about 30 minutes on each section.

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I. THE PSYCHOLOGY & SOCIOLOGY OF "CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM": DEFINING & MEASURING IT

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1a) WGN News w/ Andrew Whitehead, "Academic talks Christian Nationalism in US" (video - 5:26 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p52A0VJtuSw

1b) Alisa Childers w/ Neil Shenvi, "Is Christian Nationalism a Real Problem or an Overblown Strawman?" (video - 54:08 min, listen from 11:53 to 23:42)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OblfMVGvzjM&t=11m53s
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II. CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS, ANTIVAXXERS & THE COVID RESPONSE:

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2a) Andrew L. Seidel w/ Samuel Perry, "Christian Nationalism and COVID" (video - 59:53 min, listen from 41:58 to 48:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnzDCj3PKNY&t=41m58s

2b) BBC News, "The danger of religious misinformation around Covid vaccines" (video - 4:58 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY1Q-xwJ5so
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III. CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS AS TRUMP SUPPORTERS, QANON BELIEVERS & RIGHT-WING TERRORISTS:

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3a) CBS News, "A look at the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack" (video - 6:49 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIwzyMBq-xs

3b) Inspiring Philosophy, "Does Christianity cause Christian Nationalism?" (video - 20:54 min, listen to 10:30)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dITX1HYWWwQ
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IV. CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM, ABORTION LAW & PROGRESSIVE FEARS OF AN AMERICAN THEOCRACY LIKE "THE HANDMAID'S TALE"

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4a) The Infographics Show, "Could The Handmaid's Tale Really Happen?" (video - 7:22 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fFeSUv8eEg

4b) Bill Maher, "European countries have far more restrictive abortion laws than we do in America and women report being pro-life more often than men." (video - 1:07 min.)
https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1523376552620089344?

4c) Politifact, "Does most of Europe have tougher abortion laws than Mississippi?" (video - 3:49 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmPEMfNRs6A
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