{"id":10157,"date":"2024-02-16T23:26:46","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:56:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/god-country-preaches-to-the-choir\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T23:26:46","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T17:56:46","slug":"god-country-preaches-to-the-choir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/god-country-preaches-to-the-choir\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018God &#038; Country\u2019 Preaches to the Choir"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"body\">\n<p class=\"text\"><span class=\"dropcap\">H<\/span>eave an egg out a Pullman window,\u201d social critic H. L. Mencken famously said in 1925, \u201cand you will hit a fundamentalist anywhere in the United States.\u201d I often think about Mencken\u2019s line when I read the coverage of evangelical Christianity at left-leaning websites such as <span class=\"citation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/topic\/christian-nationalism\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"citation\" rel=\"noopener\">Salon<\/a><\/span>, <span class=\"citation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/politics\/politics-features\/christian-nationalists-national-association-christian-lawmakers-1234684542\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"citation\" rel=\"noopener\">Rolling Stone<\/a><\/span>, <span class=\"citation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.motherjones.com\/politics\/2022\/10\/christian-nationalists-are-closer-than-you-think-to-running-america\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"citation\" rel=\"noopener\">Mother Jones<\/a><\/span><em>, <\/em>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/opinion\/msnbc-opinion\/kentucky-anderson-county-school-board-christian-nationalism-rcna127149\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">MSNBC<\/a>\u2014drop an egg out of a Boeing 737 at 30,000 feet above red America, and you will hit a \u201cChristian nationalist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Discussion of Christian nationalism has exploded in the <a href=\"https:\/\/trends.google.com\/trends\/explore?date=2010-01-01%202024-02-12&amp;geo=US&amp;q=Christian%20nationalism&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">last three years<\/a>. The phenomenon has been blamed for the Trump presidency, the January 6th insurrection, the overturning of <em>Roe v. Wade<\/em>, and the possibility of another win for former president Donald Trump on Election Day. The latest offering in this vein is <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span>, a documentary film that arrives in theaters this month.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Directed by Dan Partland and produced by Rob Reiner, <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> astutely includes interviews with high-profile Christian intellectuals, activists, and authors including Jemar Tisby, David French, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Phil Vischer, Skye Jethani, Doug Pagitt, Rob Schenck, and CT editor-in-chief Russell Moore. <em>Yes<\/em>, the selection communicates, <em>even these people think Christian nationalism is dangerous<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n  <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/system\/media\/embed.html?type=youtube&amp;id=-MFQ2uESrjU&amp;width=100%&amp;image=&amp;autoplay=&amp;info=&amp;link=&amp;window=\" height=\"360\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">In one sense, <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> is a brilliant piece of documentary filmmaking. It succeeds in warning against political extremism in the name of Christ and makes a significant and necessary contribution to our understanding of American religion and politics in the Trump era.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Many scenes are hard to forget: There are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2021\/july-august\/trump-prophets-election-jeremiah-johnson-reckoning-charisma.html\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Seven Mountain dominionists<\/a> in a packed arena reciting the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/currentpub.com\/2022\/07\/17\/the-7-mountain-dominionists-converge-on-duluth-georgia\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Watchman\u2019s Decree<\/a>,\u201d a prayer to \u201ctake back and permanently control positions of influence and leadership\u201d in business, entertainment, media, government, family, education, and religion. There are Christian flags and \u201cJesus Saves\u201d signs at the Capitol as rioters smash windows and assault police. And there\u2019s Christian Coalition politico Ralph Reed bragging about how his lobbying group would help turn North Carolina red using an invasive collection of voter data.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">But though the core message of the film is true\u2014this kind of extremism <em>is<\/em> antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ\u2014<span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country <\/span>suffers from a consistent failure to define its terms and distinguish its subjects. In the end, the movie raises more questions than it answers and will be limited in its persuasiveness to viewers who don\u2019t already share its concerns.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Here\u2019s one such question: Is there a difference between American evangelicalism and Christian nationalism? If asked, I\u2019m sure all the evangelicals who speak in the film would answer with a resounding yes, and I suspect the other interviewees as well as Partland and Reiner would too. But the distinction is blurry in <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">For example, a few minutes into the movie there are, by my count, 22 historical images that flash across the screen as the mid-20th-century Pentecostal and prosperity gospel preacher Jack Coe\u2019s rendition of the gospel song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.last.fm\/music\/Jimmy+Swaggart\/_\/Job%27s+God+Is+True\/+lyrics\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Job\u2019s God Is True<\/a>\u201d plays in the background. A few of these images show Christians near an American flag, but most of them portray ordinary believers raising their hands in worship, bowing their heads in prayer, or listening to a sermon. What makes them Christian nationalists? How do they pose a threat to democracy?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Likewise, images of evangelist (and CT cofounder) Billy Graham appear in the film. Is the argument that he was a Christian nationalist, as the larger context and historical arc of the movie suggests? Or, in another scene, we see churchgoers singing the popular hymn \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hymnal.net\/en\/hymn\/h\/830\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">Faith of Our Fathers<\/a>,\u201d which celebrates Catholic martyrs in Reformation-era England. Does singing this song make one a Christian nationalist?<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Also unanswered is whether evangelicals who want to bring our faith to bear on public life are <em>necessarily<\/em> Christian nationalists. Again, I have no doubt that the film\u2019s makers and participants would answer in the negative. But there are multiple places in <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span>\u2014footage of Jerry Falwell Sr. preaching against abortion and George H. W. Bush proclaiming he is pro-life and opposed to partial-birth abortion, to name just two\u2014where the storytelling conflates politically active evangelicalism with Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">I\u2019m guessing other experts drew this distinction in their interviews, but only Moore\u2019s definitive statement distinguishing defenders of the traditional family and the unborn from Christian nationalists survived Partland\u2019s cutting room.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Likewise, what\u2019s the difference between Christian nationalism and symbols of American civil religion? <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> leaves viewers with the impression that the slogan \u201cIn God We Trust\u201d on our currency or \u201cunder God\u201d in the Pledge of Allegiance are somehow connected to what happened on January 6th. It\u2019s true that the differences between such vestiges of civil religion and the dominionism undergirding actual Christian nationalism are not easily parsed. But Partland and Reiner seem uninterested in trying to make a nuanced distinction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">That kind of loose history and language are regrettable and will limit <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span>\u2019s reach. This is a film for people who read those articles in <span class=\"citation\">Salon<\/span> and <span class=\"citation\">Rolling Stone<\/span>. For those already inclined to believe that conservative evangelicals are plotting to create a theocracy in the United States, <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> will confirm their fears about politically active born-again Christians and maybe motivate them to vote in November. It will give the left side of the culture war plenty of additional ammunition and perhaps some new insight into\u2014but little sympathy for\u2014the motivations of Trumpist evangelicals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">It probably won\u2019t shift those motivations, though. Christians who supported the insurrection at the Capitol or attend MAGA rallies, if they watch <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> at all, are unlikely to come away with changed hearts and minds. If you liked French before seeing the movie, you might like him even more when you\u2019re leaving the theater. But if you think he\u2019s selling out to secularists, <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> will only confirm that feeling of betrayal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Some interviewees in <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> call for a different kind of \u201cChristian nationalism,\u201d one that cares for the sick, welcomes the stranger, and tends to the hungry. \u201cIf we do this right,\u201d says Poor People\u2019s Campaign co-chair William Barber in the final scene, \u201cwhat a country we will be!\u201d I hope this message will get through to some evangelicals. Yet as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Believe-Me-Evangelical-Donald-Trump\/dp\/0802876412\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\" rel=\"noopener\">veteran of the battle<\/a> against the kind of extremism depicted in the film, I am not optimistic that it will, given the tone of the rest of the movie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">We need a deeper and more complex conversation about evangelicals and politics. For all its cinematic brilliance, <span class=\"citation\">God &amp; Country<\/span> just preaches to the choir.<\/p>\n<p class=\"bio\">John Fea is distinguished professor of history at Messiah University and executive editor of <span class=\"citation\"><a href=\"https:\/\/currentpub.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"citation\" rel=\"noopener\">Current<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"js-countPages\" data-pages=\"1\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1800576576821396');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  fbq('track', 'ViewContent');\n  <\/script><script src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2024\/february-web-only\/god-country-documentary-review-christian-nationalism-reiner.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Heave an egg out a Pullman window,\u201d social critic H. L. Mencken famously said in 1925, \u201cand you will hit a fundamentalist anywhere in the United States.\u201d I often think about Mencken\u2019s line when I read the coverage of evangelical Christianity at left-leaning websites such as Salon, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, and MSNBC\u2014drop an egg [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}