What is the church’s role in a political crisis?

Several writers for Christian Courier have contributed insightful and helpful pieces on the dangers of Christian nationalism in the United States (An Overview of a Worrying Development; An Examination of Recent Religious Thought; A Careful Critique). Since American Christian nationalism is so captivating, however, less attention is often given to Christian nationalism outside the United States and the broader phenomena of populism that penetrated Western politics in recent years. 

Tobias Cremer, a research fellow from Oxford University, turns our heads to two other cases of Christian nationalist populism in his recent book The Godless Crusade: Religion, Populism and Right-Wing Identity Politics in the West. Cremer compares the rise of populism in three Western countries (USA, Germany, and France), each with a unique historical background and various levels of religious engagement with the state. 

Insiders vs. outsiders

One of the few common denominators between these countries, explains Cremer, is their internal clash of two groups holding different views on identity: (1) “Those who favour clearly defined collective identities . . . such as ethnicity, culture, history, institutions and language” and (2) those who favour a “globalist vision of universalism, multiculturalism and diversity.” 

Cremer notes that populism is an approach to politics that defends the interests of the first group against the interests of the second group. They see the first group as “the pure people” and the second group as “the external other,” who, with the helping hand of “the corrupted elite,” threaten the pure people’s homogeneity. These divisions are evidently non-religious. So how, he wonders, does religion fit into the populist approach?

The abuse of Christian symbols

According to Cremer, populist politicians use Christianity only as a “secularized cultural identity marker,” meaning that they mobilize the pure people based on their racial, ethnic, national, and civilizational identity by using Christian symbols and language without ever using Christian ethics or doctrine. One example Cremer uses in the book is when Donald Trump stood in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church on June 1, 2020, showing off a Bible after he ordered police officers to use tear gas on Black Lives Matter protestors. Yes, religion plays a role in Trump’s politics but only to justify a policy that defends one secularized identity against another. The same goes for the Rassemblement National in France and the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, two right-wing populist parties that defended Christianity but only in protest to rising rates of Muslim immigration. 

Cremer’s research also shows that when politicians use Christian symbols, as Trump did in 2020, they appeal more to irreligious or nominal Christians than practicing Christians, who often see right through the illusory veneer of religion in populist campaigns. In each three cases, prominent religious actors have shown strength in slowing down the momentum of populist movements. If there is ever a call to action in this book, it is that leaders of the church must speak out against leaders of the state who abuse Christianity to stay in power. Cremer warns that: “Their actions will shape whether, in our increasingly diverse and polarized democracies, religion will become a source of unity or division, of tolerance or exclusion, of faith or identity politics.”

A call to action

With a potential comeback from Trump in 2024 and a new wave of populism in Europe, the problems of nationalist populism are not going away. If we take Cremer’s suggestion seriously, the challenge for Christians is to encourage our pastors to condemn any form of politicization of Christianity in the ways that right-wing populism does, both in and outside Canada. 

For Canadians, the task at hand is to see if these populist uprisings are comparable to our own political climate. Reading Cremer’s analysis compels us to ask if the anti-government spirit of the Freedom Convoy in 2022 represents Canada’s delayed leap onto the bandwagon of the godless crusade. These protests were supported by Canada’s right-wing populist parties, infused with Christian messages and symbolism, but neglected basic Christian virtues of patience and respect for God-given institutions. 

There are many Christian organizations in North America that devote their work to calling out the misapplication of religious faith in government. I myself have interned for a non-partisan think tank in D.C. called the Center for Public Justice, which uses the Christian faith not to divide but to unite and pursue public justice for the common good. Other examples include the Acton Institute, the AND Campaign, and the Institute on Religion and Democracy. 

In The Godless Crusade, Tobias Cremer reminds us Christians that political theology is necessary for surviving the disruptive wave of populism in Western society. Rather than rooting our identity according to our ethnicity or nation, or assuming that the evil manifests itself in the global elite, or putting our trust into a strongman, Christian political theology holds that identity is rooted in Imago Dei, admits the presence of sin in everyone’s heart, and clings to the promises of Jesus Christ, who has the power to restore all broken things in society, including government.