By: Ben Battafarano OMAHA, Neb. — In national political discussions, a new phrase is becoming increasingly common: “Christian nationalism”. Christian nationalists are a small minority of Christians that believe that the U.S. was founded as a Christian country, and advocate that Christians should be privileged over other members of society. This belief exists despite the Constitution’s explicit language that the U.S. is a secular nation.
According to a Pew Research Center survey from March, “13% of U.S. adults say the federal government should declare Christianity the official religion of the U.S.” and “16% of U.S. adults say the government should stop enforcing the separation of church and state.”
To prompt a discussion on the ideology and its effects on elections today, the Creighton University Justice and Peace Studies program recently hosted a screening of the documentary Bad Faith. The film covers the history of Christian nationalism in the U.S., from the Ku Klux Klan to politicians today who identify with the ideology.
The event was commissioned by the director of the program, Dr. Daniel DiLeo. DiLeo says that Christian nationalists exploit Christian teachings to further their political goals.
“There’s this kind of after-the-fact religious appeal to justify what is primarily a partisan position,” DiLeo said.
After the screening, audience members participated in a Q&A with journalist and author Anne Nelson, whose 2019 book on the far-right, Shadow Network, is featured in the film.
Nelson’s book investigates how the Christian far-right has moved from the fringe into the mainstream. The chief organization responsible is called the Council for National Policy, founded in the early 1980’s. Nelson spent years researching for the book, and includes 112 pages of references and notes.
One of Dr. DiLeo’s undergraduate students, Meaghan Hill, attended the screening. She says that the film was eye-opening.
“It was kind of like cool and a little bit disheartening to see how much was actually happening behind the scenes because of these groups,” Hill said.
Prior to the film screening, DiLeo says he received a few emails from members of the community accusing the film as being partisan. He encouraged them to watch the film, do their own research, and to keep an open mind.
