FAN MAIL--We would love YOUR feedback--Send us a Text Message
Debates over “Christian nationalism” are loud, confusing, and often heated. We cut through the noise by defining the term, tracing its historical footprints, and then asking a better question: what kind of political love do Christians owe their country? From Constantine’s Roman empire to Spain after the Reconquista to the paradoxes of American civic religion, we map how faith has shaped law, identity, and public symbols—and where that fusion has harmed religious liberty and the common good.
We then turn to the modern surge of interest, from the Moral Majority to Stephen Wolfe’s call for a Christian nation state, and weigh it against Taylor Marshall’s counterpoint: nationalism is the wrong frame. Patriotism, grounded in the virtue of piety, is the older, wiser path. Drawing on Aquinas, we explore the ordo amoris—God, parents, family, neighbor, fatherland—as a safeguard against idolatry of nation and against indifference to civic life. Your homeland deserves love and service, not worship; your neighbor deserves charity, not coercion.
What does that look like in practice? We outline a posture that favors persuasion over compulsion, subsidiarity over sweeping control, and laws that protect life, family, and human dignity while guarding conscience and pluralism. Public symbols can unify when tied to shared goods, but they cannot replace the slow work of formation in homes and churches. If you’ve felt torn between withdrawal and culture war, this conversation offers a third way: confident, ordered love of country that remains accountable to God and oriented to the common good.
Key Points from the Episode:
• definition of Christian nationalism and its claims
• case studies in Rome, Spain, and the United States
• symbols, laws, and the limits of state power
• Moral Majority to Stephen Wolfe: modern currents
• Taylor Marshall’s critique of nationalism’s roots
• patriotism as a virtue in Aquinas’s piety
• the ordo amoris guiding civic love
• practical guardrails for public faith
Other resources:
Want to leave a review? Click here, and if we earned a five-star review from you **high five and knuckle bumps**, we appreciate it greatly!
