Michael Flynn, Trump and America's Christian nationalism threat
As Donald Trump rallies Republican voters for 2024, loyalists like retired general Michael Flynn are leading America's Christian nationalism MAGA crusade.
In September, The Associated Press and PBS Frontline released the first part of an in-depth reporting project that looked at how retired lieutenant Army general Michael Flynn, former President Donald Trump's national security adviser who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, has been relentlessly stumping for Trump while warning his audiences that the U.S. is in the midst of spiritual warfare. Flynn “has drawn together election deniers, mask and vaccine opponents, insurrectionists, Proud Boys and elected officials and leaders in state and local Republican parties,” writes Michelle R. Smith. In sum, the report details how Flynn has become a central figure in a network of extremists, conspiracy theorists and election deniers held together by the integrating mechanism of Christian nationalism.
Christian nationalism is becoming a bigger factor among Republican voters, with 61% of Republican respondents saying they supported declaring the United States a Christian nation.
Also last month, a new University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll was released suggesting Christian nationalism was becoming a bigger factor among Republican voters, with 61% of Republican respondents saying they supported declaring the United States a Christian nation.
These two things are not unconnected.
As the scholars Samuel Perry and Philip Gorski show in their recent work “The Flag and the Cross,” white Christian nationalism especially is not about orthodox Christian belief or even Christian practice. The “Christian” in Christian nationalism is really a cultural identity that uses Christian symbols and myths to bind together American nationalism to white ethnicity. In other words, it provides a transcendent authority to a movement that seeks to consolidate political power and, often, maintain white ethno-cultural standards.
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