There is nothing in the Bible that supports Christian Nationalism. There is not one verse that states that we should elevate our own ethnicities over anyone else’s. Race, as we understand it today, is not a biblical category. The early church did not begin for the purpose of preserving or elevating a particular nationality. In fact, it grew through inclusivity. Oh, I know some people hate that word, but I don’t care.
The early church begins in the New Testament, but the story that helps us understand its diversity begins much earlier, within the story of Israel. Christianity itself is deeply rooted in the Jewish faith and tradition, and Jesus was Jewish. When we look at the genealogy of Jesus, we also find people from different backgrounds within His family line, including women like Rahab and Ruth. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, we encounter moments when people from outside Israel come alongside the people of Israel, worship the God of Israel, or play important roles in their story. To me, these moments point toward something we will eventually see unfold more fully in the New Testament: God’s desire to draw people from many nations into relationship with Him. This does not diminish the distinct story or covenant of the Jewish people. Rather, it reminds me that Christianity cannot be understood apart from its Jewish roots, while also recognizing that the Gospel would eventually be extended to people from every nation.
As we go into the New Testament, we see Jesus asking all types of people to follow Him. His disciples were a mix of social statuses. He ate with Zacchaeus. He welcomed women into His community. An African carried His cross. He befriended a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He made common fishermen His closest friends. But when He died, rose again, and sent back the Holy Spirit to inspire the beginning of the early church, He opened up the faith to all people.
In fact, He even appointed a former “nationalist” named Paul to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles, anyone who was not Jewish, and chose a man of mixed ethnicity to lead one of those churches. Timothy was Greek and Jewish. Someone tell me how we came up with Christian Nationalism? How? Rufus, Niger, and others were part of the early church and were from Africa. Repeatedly, the Bible moves us away from the elevation of one people over another.
And let us not forget the verse that says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). This verse alone, after the early church had been in existence for a while, is a complete rejection of the notion that our ethnic or national identity should determine our place within the body of Christ.
God also does not elevate those of European descent in the Bible. He did not call them to colonize the world, to save Black people through slavery, or to bring the Gospel to the unreached by erasing their culture. None of that is in the Bible. In fact, Paul rebuked Peter for his hypocrisy in how he related to non-Jews. Galatians 2:11–21 gives the account. Gentile believers did not have to erase who they were or become culturally Jewish in order to belong to Christ. Christianity does not reject the Jewish people. Jesus Himself was Jewish and honored Jewish traditions and festivals, even Hanukkah. Christianity is rooted in the Jewish story. But Christianity rejects the elevation of our culture and heritage over the Gospel of Jesus.
So when I was growing up and White Christian teachers in my school taught us that gospel music was sinful because of the rhythm and how it makes you want to dance, but Psalm 150 tells us to praise Him with dance and all kinds of instruments, I was reminded of how God is open to different forms of praise and expression, as long as we keep Christ at the center.
Even though Black Nationalism may seem justified as a proper response to the constant White supremacy and nationalism that still plague our country, when I read the Word, I still see God calling us to be different. I know this may be hard for some people to receive, especially considering the racism that Black people have endured and continue to endure. I have endured racism myself. But I simply do not see any form of nationalism as the biblical response.
MLK called it the Beloved Community. Many Black people thought he was too weak. Many White people struggled with the notion of integration out of fear of tainting their race. Yet King continued to believe that we could confront racism honestly and still pursue a community where we learned to live together as brothers and sisters. The Bible calls us toward Koinonia…fellowship…community. It calls us to be one in Christ without pretending that our differences do not exist. And if we claim to know Christ and His Word, that should be our goal too.
We can pursue Koinonia while still being honest about racism. We can name White supremacy. We can tell the truth about slavery, segregation, colonization, and injustice. We can confront racism when we see it. Koinonia does not require us to ignore those things. But neither does confronting racism require us to abandon the biblical call to fellowship.
I see that God loves each of us and created us uniquely. I see that God did not ignore differences, but met people within them. Philip was sent to an Ethiopian who was reading a Hebrew scroll, and Philip met him right where he was. When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, He did not tell them to force everyone to learn Hebrew in order to hear the Gospel. He gave them the ability to speak different languages so that people could hear the Gospel in their own tongues. God met them where they were.
When Jesus talked to the woman at the well, He went TO her. He used something she could identify with to connect with her, and He revealed Himself as Living Water. God meets us where we are, and we should meet one another where we are. We should never have to diminish someone else in order to elevate ourselves. And even when someone has hurt us, diminishing them in return will not heal the wounds they caused. Vengeance does not heal us. God’s love and grace do. We are called to see and value one another because that is what God does for us. Even in His suffering, Jesus saw the criminal on the cross beside Him and welcomed him into Paradise. God sees us. We should see one another. No form of nationalism leaves enough room for that kind of grace.
A woman came to me very recently for advice on establishing a Christian school in an African country. The first thing I told her was to incorporate the music of the community she was reaching. She immediately told me that she could not do that because the music was sinful. I showed her Christian music from that country, and she STILL thought it was sinful. She then went on to quote a White theologian who felt that African and Black music was sinful. I asked her to show me a Bible verse that says that, not a theologian. She could not find one. You have to be careful with some of the early theologians because many of them were influenced by a gospel rooted in White supremacy. Anyway, I quoted Psalm 150 to her, and there was nothing else to be said.
Praise the Lord.[a]
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
The Western world, and especially America, has too often rewritten and distorted the Christianity of the Bible to justify slavery, Jim Crow, and the racism that continues to plague our country, including our churches. But the Bible does not support Nationalism. It does support loving who we are and where we come from because God designed each of us to be born into a particular family, culture, and place in this world. We can love our heritage. We can celebrate it. We can be proud of where we come from. But there is no verse that commands us to elevate our heritage over someone else’s or to claim that our nation, ethnicity, or culture has been given a special calling from God to dominate the world.
The Christianity of the Bible welcomes all of us into the loving arms of God, where each of us can discover our unique purpose within God’s plan for the world. Our differences do not have to disappear for us to be one in Christ. God created those differences, sees those differences, and still calls us into fellowship with one another. He died for all of us. He rose again for all of us. He created a Church for all of us. And He loves all of us EQUALLY.
Any school, church, or Christian organization teaching that one race, ethnicity, culture, or nation has been specially ordained by God to stand above another is not teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ that I know. The Gospel I know tells me that Christ came to die for the whole world because we were all sinners, lost in our pride and our desire to build our own towers of Babel in our own strength. The Gospel I know welcomed us “while we were yet sinners” into a community where we are called to reflect God’s grace to one another. The Gospel I know embodies Koinonia, a fellowship where our differences remain, Christ is at the center, and the world can see the love of God reflected through the way we love one another.
Anika Prather 