I wanted to take a moment to note that the basic message of Christian nationalists is that foreigners' lives don’t matter. "America comes first; my vote is pro-life; I don’t care about Muslims (and I don’t have to)." "All created equal," is for Americans, and increasingly, only some of them, as well.
Meanwhile, in Yemen people starve, the Chinese oppress citizens wanting freedom and put ethnic Muslims in camps, the Russians lock up dissenters and press members, the North Koreans have their own concentration camps, Ukraine is agonizingly invaded by Russia over time: our American foreign policy-or lack thereof- impacts human rights around the world.
Does oppression only matter to you if it's Christians being persecuted? If so, how is that a Christian position?
The only way the attitude towards foreigners makes sense for the pro-life movement in America is if pro-life is code for "American lives über alles."
This is Christian nationalism and not Christian faith, because the Church is a global Body, with no respect for national origins. It doesn’t matter where you are from in God’s kingdom, although you have wonderful and unique things to contribute culturally. The priority is not where you came from, however wonderful, but whose you are. There is no superior race or national heritage.
I think most Christians might agree with me on this, in theory, but I’m less concerned about what people say they believe than what they actually do that proves what they believe. Many of the American Christians I’ve interacted with do not have a clue about life in another country without reference to America as superior. This translates for them into a form of Christianity that is more Americanity than Christlike. When it comes down to it, Americanity believes its ways are better than the locals’ are. When it comes to voting, Americanity adherents will put America first, not human rights, and they will call it pro-life to do so.
I’m planning to talk more about pro-life and pro-choice in a future post, but I mention it here because pro-life has become the rallying cry for American Christian nationalists. It is a single issue that trumps all others, even foreign policy. The attitude is that we can’t do anything about the evils in the world out there, so let’s stop abortion right here. The problem is, the pro-life people tend to also value gun rights more than human lives, the death penalty and support for Israel, despite nationalized abortion. I’ll talk more another time about the inconsistencies and lack of nuance or scientific understanding of the human body of many pro-life advocates. Suffice it to say, they are not as pro-life nor liberty as they claim to be.
There is much to be said about the issues of Christian nationalism in America. What I want to focus on here is how it damages freedoms for others around the world. By focusing in on themselves, the American Christian nationalists remain ignorant of their role in and impact on the wider world. It isn’t just the scientific knowledge or concern for the environment that they lack. They have a genuinely appalling lack of concern for human life outside their borders.
If we turn for a moment to what the Scriptures say about foreigners, we have clear indications that God is on the side of the oppressed and for the foreigner, as general principle. We see a God who cared for Ruth and Psalms which indicate God has compassion of all creation. We come to know a God who is worshiped by people all over the world, even in the Old Testament. The God of the Bible is not limited to the patriarchal faith of the Jews or the Christian understanding of the Apostles. This is a God who creates people and says that it is good, and tells them to spread out all over creation. The racism and xenophobia come later, as groups decide to hate other family groups and various groups behave badly.
It’s clear God does not create people to hate each other, and it grieves God when they do.
I see no indications in Scripture that nationalism is acceptable for the Christian. Usually, it has to be justified today by taking verses out of context, and nationalism does not fit in a good faith reading of the Bible, unless you replace Israel with your own country (and that is not a good faith reading of anything).
Instead, God in Jesus makes it an indicator of faith how people treat foreigners. The problem with nationalism is it does not historically treat foreigners well at all. This leads to an attitude towards foreigners that dehumanizes and diminishes life, creating an us vs them dichotomy and potentially ending in genocide. Certainly, if foreign lives mean little or nothing to you, you will not be concerned what is happening in other countries, regardless of whether it is the Christian thing, to have said concern, or not.
The point of the gospel is that God is building a kingdom that unites people from all nations, and this truth implies that people of all nations matter deeply to God. When American Christians lazily vote pro-life, without researching the impact of what they are also supporting, they contribute negatively to the lives of others around the world. I have included below some videos about the different places our leadership engages with worldwide.
You see, our current administration does what it does based on popularity, not principle. The president is quoted as saying he was fine with concentration camps for Muslims in China, which does fit with his rhetoric towards Muslims in America. Nevertheless, this administration has done the right thing and condemned said concentration camps, more recently. All very good. But what we needed was a heart attitude of outrage at human rights abuses, not a president that does things to pander to a certain base when certain issues finally come to their consciousness.
For example, our president courted Kim Jong Un and normalized him as a leader, and he has tried to do that with several of the world most notorious dictators. This has impact on real human lives, just look at Jamal Khashoggi. State-sanctioned murder, defended by the US president, is not pro-life ethically.
Although to be honest, the evangelical president is only taking a leaf out of the American evangelical playbook.
I wish that American evangelicals were concerned about the diverse and precious lives God has put on this planet, and I wish they had the capacity to discern how their America First mentality is not in keeping with either a pro-life ideal or a Christian perspective. They have sold out many lives for a single issue that is being held above their heads like a carrot on a stick. They are useful tools for a deceptive agenda that benefits few lives.
My plea to those reading is, educate yourselves about your impact on the world. If you are on social media you are part of something far wider than just your own national interests.
We are interconnected and global now; we always were, pandemics make this very clear. It’s time to love our neighbor, whether American, or not.
To this we Christians absolutely were called: love, regardless of nationality.
If we cannot even do this, should we American Christians be sending out missionaries to foreign countries? And ultimately, where does this apathy for human life stop? Will it threaten Americans who object to human rights abuses at home, as well?
Think about it.
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