Daily Wire host: “I support Christian nationalism”
Published
Citation From the December 11, 2023, edition of The Daily Wire's The Michael Knowles Show
MICHAEL KNOWLES (HOST): Christian nationalism is a fundamentally Protestant movement. Now, in practice, I support Christian nationalism. And, in practice, I guess David French and those -- those evangelicals in this movie oppose Christian nationalism. The reason that I support Christian nationalism, practically, is because we have a nation. I respect our nation. I'm a patriot, love my country. It's an extension of filial piety. And the soul of our nation is Christian. It was founded explicitly as a Christian nation in 1620 by the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock who sailed here on the Mayflower, which is the name of an excellent brand of cigars. And the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony called this a model of Christian charity, a shining city on a hill. Our Founding Fathers spoke in broadly Christian terms. John Adams said that our morality in America would have to be a Christian morality. John Jay said exactly the same thing. George Washington gave thanks to God. Abraham Lincoln never wrote or spoke without, in some way, channeling the King James Bible. We've got "In God We Trust" on our money. It's a Christian country. Most people are Christian. It's just a Christian country. There's no other way to put it.
So, if we're a nation and we're gonna be Christian, well, I guess that's Christian nationalism, right? But the liberals don't like that because the liberals don't like Christianity, and they don't like nation states. What they want is liberal globalism. Now, the reason I say Christian nationalism is fundamentally Protestant is because nationalism is fundamentally Protestant. Nationalism is a product of the Westphalian system, the Treaty of Augsburg and the Peace of Westphalia, which put an end to the religious wars, which came about as a result of the cracking up of the unity of Christendom. So, before all of that happened, Europe, Christendom broadly was united in one faith with lots of different political entities, but there was a connection between the unified faith and all of the different political entities, notably the Holy Roman Empire, but even other little political entities. And, therefore, the civilization had a unity. We all had the same faith and that faith was expressed visibly in political life because our faith is an incarnational faith, because our lord is incarnate. He's not just floating in the sky. He enters into history in time and space. He picks specific apostles. He gives them the keys to the kingdom of heaven. He says go forth and make disciples of all nations. He says, go feed my sheep. He says on this rock, I will build my church, Simon Peter. You're now Peter, which means rock. He says these things, and then there's a visible expression. And the apostles go off to all the corners of the world. And Saint Thomas makes it all the way to India, and Peter and Paul go to Rome. And it's -- what separates Christianity from other religious traditions is that you can trace it through journalism. You can trace it not just through philosophy or abstract theology, but with real people in real time and space. There's an apostolic succession going all the way back to our Lord. Which means that if you are Christian, you must believe that the faith has some kind of physical expression and a community expression.