“Christianism”
“Christianism”: a term used by David Brooks in his column in today’s NY Times. The column is a consideration of how authoritarian leaders around the world have “found God” and have gained political power by claiming to fight for some version of Christian (often Christian National) identity.
Christianism is less about self-sacrificial love embodied by Jesus Christ and more about the trumpeting of so-called Christian symbols, values and identity. Christianism points its followers to threats more than it points its followers to Jesus. At its worst it tries to enlist Jesus in political battles and culture wars. Christianism activates patriotism, militarism, nationalism and tribalism among its followers; all things that find no place in the actual way of Jesus Christ.
A quote from Brooks’ column:
But over the last several years something interesting happened: Authoritarians found God. They used religious symbols as nationalist identity markers and rallying cries. They unified the masses behind them by whipping up perpetual culture wars. They reframed the global debate: It was no longer between democracy and dictatorship; it was between the moral decadence of Western elites and traditional values and superior spirituality of the good normal people in their own homelands.
Brooks moves the reader to see that such distortions of Christian identity (such as Vladimir Putin claiming to protect “Christian Russia” by way of harsh anti-LGBTQ law and policy) actually contribute to a rise in secularism as the distortion of faith presses some people to move away from inclination to actual faith.
Authoritarians in global political leadership and authoritarians in the local church often wield Christianism to stir up participation and enthusiasm among their followers. FOX News in the United States, owned by Rupert Murdoch and family, has long been the favourite news outlet of Christian conservatives in the United States. Watch it for a bit and you will see Christianism on full display. You will even see advertisements for evangelical crusades and for Bible Studies and books about life and faith. Christianism always wants to present itself as actual Christian faith, and it seeks to win the loyalty of many actual Christians. It’s not an altogether bad business plan (if money is your goal). Murdoch, like the authoritarian political leaders, knows that Christian faith with direction to love your enemy and give to the poor is hard to turn into a money making machine. Jesus’ warnings against loving money don’t work well in such a context. However, Christianism’s call to hate and destroy your enemy, to find enemies among the poor and vulnerable, to constantly fear that your identity is being threatened, and treat everyone who believes differently than you as morally decadent and dangerous, THAT can be used to make a lot of money. As we have seen in these COVID days, Christianism can even present fighting for individual rights (over the common good) as a religious virtue. Jesus said that if we are to follow him we must deny self. Christianism, in its COVID expression, sees self-denial as a failure, not a virtue.
On the local congregational level you can spot Christianism when sermons and studies are full of reminders of the threats around us. If leaders can get you to see other religions, secularism, and liberalism as threats to Christian faith then they can ignite your religious enthusiasm in the same manner that FOX News holds on to its loyal audience. Jesus did not build a television empire, or a multi-campus branded church. Jesus did not spend an inordinate amount of time warning his followers about the threats that other people posed. Jesus did not major in moral stances on issues of the day. Jesus called us to love. Christianism, in a congregation or in a political party calls us to fear.
Is it possible that the rise in secularism is, to some degree, a pushing away from Christianism more than it is a pushing away from Jesus? Could it be possible that Jesus might be found amidst the secular more often than among the Christianists? This would mean that the rise in secularism might actually open space for what Brooks calls, “the living, vibrant, universal and increasingly diverse faith in Jesus Christ”.
Here’s to hoping.