The Great Christian Nationalism Meltdown

A play-by-play of the last few days of Christian Nationalist Internet Drama.

When I started this Substack, I resolved to stay as far away from internety Christian drama as possible. One reason for this is pretty simple: I’m sick of it! But the other reason is probably more important: Who cares? The internet is very stupid, the drama on it doubly so, and I get the sense that most people who subscribe to this Substack know at least as much as I do about whatever smoke is being shot back and forth on Christian Twitter or Christian Instagram or the Christian Jeremy Renner App or wherever. 

But the past few days of internety Christian drama have been so dishy, so juicy, so gripping that I feel compelled to dig in. I am speaking, of course, of the Christian Nationalism Meltdown. In true evangelical fashion, let’s call it CNM for short.

The whole thing has had more twists and turns than this season of The White Lotus, to the point where keeping track of all the various players has left me, a seasoned veteran of these affairs, a little turned around. But for the sake of my readers, I’ve painstakingly sorted the main plot points of this saga. Be forewarned, this involves all manner of unsavory characters and in true prestige drama fashion there are no heroes here except perhaps the invisible hand of fate itself.

We must start with some background. Christian Nationalism has had a pretty good last few years, as toxic ideologies go. Until recently, conservative Christian leaders were liable to dismiss any concerns about surging Christian Nationalist sentiment as either feebleminded fearmongering or lefty plots to paint Trumpism in a deliberately unfair light. But now, mainstream Evangelical leaders are happily embracing the term “Christian Nationalist.” 

But Christian Nationalists had a problem (and it’s not just the 19th Amendment). Despite growing numbers, they really didn’t have anything approaching a rigorous intellectual defense of their terrible ideas. A movement that gets beclowned at every academic opportunity faces a definite ceiling, and this was a threat to aspirations of mainstream acceptance, to say nothing of coast-to-coast dominion. Enter Stephen Wolfe.