What most critics of Christian nationalism, do not understand is that ChristNats believe in the spirituality of the church. Listen to George Sayour’s interview with Timon Cline and hear the younger interlocutor say that no ChristNat wants the church to become involved in law or public policy. Cline says it as if it’s a no-brainer. The church should, according to this view, stay in its lane, conduct the work of gospel ministry, and leave politics to the politicians.

This aspect of Christian nationalism makes it exceptional in the history of American Protestantism. Prior to our contemporary period, if if Christians wanted a righteous or holy society, they threw all the resources at their disposal at the problem. The Social Gospel, for instance, drew upon the Protestant denominations themselves, gained support from ecumenical bodies like the Evangelical Alliance and the Federal Council of Churches, and relied upon Christian government officials to do the i’s and cross the t’s of Progressive policy.

Social Gospelers had no trouble conceiving of the church the way Ryan Burge apparently does in his recent book, The Vanishing Church. In a review at First Things, Brad East sees in Burge a nostalgia for the mainline Protestantism that threw the spirituality of the church to the curb.

“According to Burge, “the American church can (and should) be one of the primary drivers of depolarization in the United States.” Indeed, “the fate and future of American democracy may be at stake.”

This is pure, uncut civil religion. In Burge’s hands, the Church is not a biblical or theological entity; it is a voluntary association that exists to improve society, care for the disadvantaged, and forge bonds across differences. It is a spiritual NGO. It leavens democratic life with prayer and song and moral uplift. It offers a place for people to seek edification, whatever doubts may fester in their hearts.

In the words of Freddie deBoer, this is not worship of God. It is “worship of the God-shaped hole.” It lauds faith because it is “prosocial” and “builds capital.” DeBoer, to his credit as an atheist, calls it what it is: “Idolatry.”

The Church does not exist to grease the wheels of democracy. Paul did not found churches in Corinth and Ephesus to build up the civic health of the Roman Empire. The faithfulness of the Coptic Church is not measured by Egypt’s ranking in the social progress index. The Church is the body of Christ, called forth by the gospel into fellowship with the living God and sent by his Spirit to witness in the world to the good news of salvation. If, in the fulfillment of this mission, the measurable effects are hailed by social and political scientists, that is a happy by-product. If they are not, believers shouldn’t lose any sleep. With apologies to E. M. Forster: If I had to choose between betraying my democracy and betraying my church, I hope I should have the guts to betray my democracy.

There is a name for Burge’s preferred cocktail of religion and civics, Church and state. It’s Christendom. Burge’s book is one long lament for the passing of mainline Christendom in America. You might even say it is both a paean and a dirge for a certain style of Christian nationalism—liberal Christian nationalism. Make the mainline great again!

East has a point. This is Christian nationalism 1.0, the form it took among mainline Protestants. But don’t let the occasional remark by ChristNats that the mainline is “based” fool you. They do not want churches to do what the mainline Protestants used to do.

What East criticizes is not Christian nationalism of the 2020s variety. The bulk of ChristNats do not want either the PCA or the OPC (or any NAPARC communion) to perform the sort of political advocacy that mainline Protestants did one hundred years ago. They simply want Christian government to promote and advance Christianity in American society (they don’t talk much about the rest of the world).

This is as remarkable as it is exception if only because it means you do not need the church to have a Christian nation. All you need is a Christian prince (Wolfe) or Christian laws (Baird). Government, not the church, will make a nation Christian.

Churchless Christianity used to be the product of the world of evangelical parachurch networks. Go to a local Bible study led by Christian neighbors, or go to summer Bible camp, or download the songs of your favorite Christian pop song performer, and be sure to have a quiet time, preferably early in the morning, and you have a full Christian diet for the energetic life of holiness. The church is simply background noise. It only meets on Sunday and only has a handful of people speak. The real work of the real church, the grassroots one, is the daily pursuit of piety that the ordinary faithful conduct 24/6.

But now comes another version of churchless Christianity – namely, Christian nationalism. The making of a Christian society is going to come, supposedly, without the work of the one institution that God ordained, in the words of the Confession of Faith, to minister the “oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world.”

Of course, ChristNats will likely deny that they do not need the church to construct a Christian nation. But so far, they have not explained what kind of authority the Christian prince’s church will have over his conduct and profession. Nor have the commented on the effects of an increasingly Christian nation upon that nation’s churches: will some communions be government approved as superior places for Christian citizens? Will churches that Christian citizens avoid be able to register complaints with the Christian government? Will Christian governments support the construction of new church buildings? Will that Christian government institute an open application process or will it “pick winner” denominations or congregations? Will the Christian government even produce a confession of faith that explains the terms of its Christian profession?

You get the point. A Christianity without institutions (don’t the ChristNats read Aaron Renn?) is almost impossible. Even the most popular Christian musical entertainers need recording studios and distributors (Youtube is an institution, you know). How a Christian nation exists and keeps the church merely a spiritual institution is anyone’s guess.