Dear Revealer readers,

According to a Pew Research Center study that came out last month, 45% of Americans believe the United States should be a “Christian nation.” But, as Pew admits, many of the survey respondents differ on what constitutes a “Christian nation.” Even among those who think the country should be Christian, most do not want America to become a theocracy where our laws are established by religious leaders. Rather, most want “Christian values” to drive the nation’s work.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

What are these “Christian values,” you might ask? I do not know (although I have my guesses), but I do know the very idea makes me nervous. While I take some comfort in the fact that the majority of Pew’s respondents (55%) do not believe the U.S. should be a Christian country, the survey’s findings are but one piece in the growing body of evidence that points to rising Christian nationalism.

Christian nationalism is a pan-denominational movement that supports Christian political and cultural dominance and white supremacy, even if not every Christian nationalist is white. Christian nationalism has enabled everything from abortion bans, critical race theory bans, and bans on supporting transgender youth. White Christian nationalism played a role in the violence on January 6, and many worry it will contribute to worse violence in the coming years.

Because of the danger Christian nationalism poses to the United States, the Revealer has run several articles about this growing movement and its insidious manifestations in our politics and culture. But this month, as part of our commitment to help everyone better understand pressing issues of religion in society, we are doing something new. The Revealer is hosting a virtual event on Christian nationalism that I hope you will attend. The event, “Christian Nationalists, The Possibility of War, and the Future of American Democracy” will feature Dr. Bradley Onishi, author of the popular Revealer article “God is Ultimate Masculinity: Evangelical Visions of Manhood in the Wake of the Atlanta Massacre.” His new book, out in January, is called Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—And What Comes Next. Our virtual event will feature a conversation with Onishi about Christian nationalism’s rise, what to do about the threat of more violence like January 6, and what the midterm elections foretell about the 2024 race and the future of democracy in America. An audience Q & A will follow so you can participate in the conversation. I hope you will join us. You can register for this important and free event here.

While our event looks directly at Christian nationalism, the Revealer’s November issue features articles about finding alternatives to Christian dominance. The issue opens with Kaya Oakes’s “The Colonizing Catholic Church, Indigenous Americans, and Problems with Forgiveness,” where she considers why Native Americans might refuse to forgive the church’s role in the torture and death of countless Indigenous people and how that might prevent future abuse in the name of religion. Next, in “Tainted Love: Reckoning with the Damage of Purity Culture,” Ellie Broughton investigates the physiological and psychological problems reported by people who have gone through purity culture, the evangelical Christian system that teaches teenagers that if they do not abstain from sex until marriage, they could ruin their relationships with God and their future spouse. Then, in “Atheists, Social Media, and American Politics,” Donovan Schaefer interviews Chris Stedman about his books Faitheist and IRL, what Stedman makes of both social media and religion in today’s polarized politics, and the place of atheists in the American alt-right.

While still thinking about alternatives to Christian dominance, but with a shift to a somewhat lighter note, our next two articles turn away from Christians and toward American Jews and their relationship to humor. In “The People of the Joke,” Jennifer Caplan explores the reasons why people tend to think of Jews as funny and as the group most likely to dominate the comedy industry. And, in “Jewish Comedy and Jewish Erasure in Amazon Prime’s A League of Their Own,” Sarah Emmanuel reviews the new series about the real-life women’s baseball league and considers why comedy by and about Jews so often relies on stereotypes of Jews as anxious and neurotic.

The November issue also features the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “Atheists in America.” Chris Stedman joins us to discuss the 10^th anniversary of his book Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious. We explore stigmas atheists face, why some have been drawn to right-wing politics, and how atheists can respond to rising Christian nationalism. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As Christian nationalism becomes more prominent throughout the country, from school boards to the Senate, we are committed to providing you with expert information about this movement. I hope you will join us at our virtual event on November 15 to learn more about Christian nationalism, what you can do to prepare for the coming years, and how you can help protect democracy and religious pluralism in the United States.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.