These resources rest on a biblical theology of Israel as a “chosen people” chosen for the sake of self-critique, serving Jesus, and reaching the world. It was the furthest thing from triumphalistic in a tribal sense, because the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures predicted Israel’s failure. However, the “chosen people” motif was exploited by the human tendency to elevate one’s “tribe” over others, to claim land, and exclude others. In the realm of theology it was expressed by the dismissal of the apostolic vision of a church community that is anchored and rooted in messianic Judaism and inclusive of the gentiles. And in countries in which Christian faith has declined, the resurgence of tribalism is notable. More resources on race and racism in the U.S. context are available here.

Does the Bible Have Evidence of God's Design? A Sociological Glance

This series of case studies explores the relationship between the biblical material and the prevailing cultures around them, or similar cultural situations from other time periods, to show they were not easily bullied by their cultural context. Most of the examples draw from the Pentateuch, or Torah. These case studies invite you to see if the human authors of the biblical text would have invented these ideas. One of the case studies is the story of a chosen people that fails. This is radically different than how other “chosen people” stories and myths were formulated — into a triumphalist narrative.

The Chiastic Structure of the Pentateuch

Notes on how the Pentateuch possesses a chiastic literary structure. This structure is vital to observe when studying and teaching the Pentateuch. The center of the Pentateuch is the story of Moses ascending Mount Sinai, stabilizing the covenant, and returning with his face shining with divine light. Moses stabilized the Sinai covenant. Yet the Pentateuch already saw the need for a "new Moses" who would not simply stabilize the Sinai covenant, but circumcise the human heart, and invest God's glory into the human face -- in fact, all of human nature. Thus, Israel as the chosen people can rise to the level of being God’s medical focus group, diagnosing the sin-sickness common to all, but still falling victim to it and needing to hope for God’s cure in Jesus.

White American Evangelical Political Attitudes and Behavior: Explanation and Correctives

White American evangelical political attitudes can be characterized by the debate between John Winthrop and Roger Williams, and their respective attitudes towards Native Americans, slavery, fairness, and faith in the civic space.  This is a presentation also explores Scripture and church history to argue that Roger Williams was correct.  Given to the staff of Emmanuel Gospel Center, Apr 18, 2018, as a follow-up to how Christian restorative justice impacts ministry; audio file here. 

Christian Faith, Not Secularism, as the Basis for Political Pluralism and Economic Progressivism

A brief outline explaining from both biblical texts and early church precedent why Christian faith leads to a political posture of human rights without theocracy. There is a vision for relational obligations, and principled respect for other religions.

Overview

Audrey Sheehy, The Rise of the Far Right. Harvard Political Review, Feb 11, 2017.  Pinkaj Mishra, Welcome to the Age of Anger. The Guardian, Dec 8, 2016.  Liberal democracies trending towards authoritarianism; yet liberal rationalism has difficulties explaining this.  Patrick J. Buchanan, Why the Authoritarian Right Is On the Rise. The American Conservative, Apr 20, 2018.  Andrés Miguel Rondón, How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps.  Caracas Chronicles, Jan 20, 2017.  Rondon offers a Venezuelan perspective on Hugo Chavez's rise to power.  Tim Gosling, The Nationalist Internationale Is Crumbling.  Foreign Policy, Jul 20, 2018.  Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism. Basic Books | Amazon page, Sep 4, 2018.  Hazony praises the heretical appropriation of the Old Testament national freedom motif by the English, Dutch, and Americans, without acknowledging how those empires violated biblical ethics from Mosaic Israel – which included welcoming of foreigners, fairly egalitarian distribution of land, restorative justice, and empowerment of women – from Jesus' mission – anti-territorialism, expansion of communal identity, principled multi-culturalism – and ethics of repentance – restitution in both Moses and Jesus – which would normally be applied to colonialist injustice.  See review by Friedrich Hansen, Reflections on the Renaissance of Nationalism. Geopolitica, Sep 4, 2018.  Hansen gives a Russian-Eurasian geopolitical posture, which many Eastern Europeans support, and regular support for Hazony from The American Conservative.  Chico Harlan, With Support From Steve Bannon, a Medieval Monastery Could Become a Populist Training Ground. Washington Post, Dec 25, 2018.  Bannon is using Trisulti monastery in Collepardo, Italy.  David Koyzis, Clash of Idols. Mere Orthodoxy, April 27, 2020.  See his subtopic, “The Idol of the Nationalists.”  Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present. W.W. Norton & Company | Amazon page, Nov 2020.  Ben-Ghiat notes, among other things, how strongmen make overtures to religious conservatives and alliances with them, as well as the business class because of their need for capital and media control. See interview with Ruth Ben-Ghiat by Sam Seder, Trump Following Mussolini's Playbook. The Majority Report, Nov 28, 2020.

NAZI GERMANY

The Church and the Shoah is our page that lists resources on how Christian leaders sided both for and against the Germany Nazi party at various stages of their political development. This topic is very important because German Christianity had to be deformed at the popular level: It had to reject actual Jews and take the place of Israel but as a triumphalist chosen people.

Political Psychology

Scott Atran and Pam Weintrab, Alt-Right or Jihad? Aeon, Nov 6, 2017. “Unleashed by globalisation’s dark side and the collapse of communities, radical Islam and the alt-Right share a common cause”. Atran is an anthropologist who studies how youth are drawn to far-right movements. See also Hammad Sheikh, Ángel Gómez, and Scott Atran, Empirical Evidence for the Devoted Actor Model. Current Anthropology, Jun 2016.  Give a psycho-social theory:  “the “devoted actor” hypothesis: people will become willing to protect nonnegotiable sacred values through costly sacrifice and extreme actions when such values are associated with groups whose individual members fuse into a unique collective identity.” See also Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional Commitment and Intractable Conflict across Cultures. Current Anthropology, Jun 2016. “Devoted actors of the global jihadi archipelago militate within such a novel transcultural niche, which is socially tight, ideationally narrow, and globe spanning. Nevertheless, its evolutionary maintenance depends on costly commitments to transcendental values, rituals and sacrifices, and parochial altruism, which may have deep roots even in the earliest and most traditional human societies.” 

Philosophically

A cornerstone in the West: Edmund Burke, who argued for traditionalism out of a concern for political stability. In his book A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, “Burke develops a view of the self desperately in need of negative stimuli of the sort provided by pain and hunger.” See Corey Robin, The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin. Google Books, p.219.

Australia: Chase Padusniak, Christianity and Christchurch. Jappers & Janglers | Patheos, Mar 19, 2019.  Padusniak gives helpful commentary on political discourse outside the U.S.

Austria: Tara Isabella Burton, Austria is Closing 7 Mosques and Kicking Out 60 Imams. Vox, Jun 8, 2018.; Will Collins, The Myth of a Christian Revival in Eastern Europe. The American Conservative, Jan 7, 2019.

Brazil: Shannon Sims, Here’s How Jair Bolsonaro Wants to Transform Brazil. The Atlantic, Jan 12, 2019. Bolsonaro won with support from Catholics and evangelicals.

Canada: Amanda Taub, Canada's Secret to Resisting the West's Populist Wave. New York Times, Jun 27, 2017.  Taub makes helpful observations.  Steven Zhou, Canada Among Very Worst White Supremacist Countries: Report. Vice, Jun 19, 2020.  Zhou’s troubling observations are also important.

China: Sigal Samuel, China Is Treating Islam Like a Mental Illness. The Atlantic, Aug 28, 2018.  The Chinese government is suppressing Uyghurs in western China; although China is not a “Christian” society, in coming years, Christian faith will almost certainly become accepted by sheer demographics. The question is whether Chinese Christians will continue policies like this against other religious groups.

Germany: See The Church For and Against the Shoah for a list of resources on how Christians in Germany were for or against Nazism. Elena Cresci, German Town Tricks Neo-Nazis Into Raising Thousands of Euros for Anti-Semitic Charity. The Guardian, Nov 18, 2014.; Samuel Huneke, Does Germany Hold the Key to Defeating Populism? The Atlantic, Mar 29, 2017. speaks of German education focusing on responsibility towards others, making the issue cultural, not primarily economic; J.C., How Germany Responds to "Blood and Soil" Politics. The Economist, Aug 13, 2017.  Lee Fang, Islamophobic U.S. Megadonor Fuels German Far-Right Party With Viral Fake News. The Intercept, Sep 22, 2017.  Fang highlights how propaganda is essential in the formation of ethno-nationalism.  Kathleen B. Jones, What the Nazis Taught Philosopher Hannah Arendt About the Rights of Refugees. Sojourners, Jul 17, 2018.  Jones explores the context of European ethno-national states as the challenge of post-Imperial Europe.  See Rick Steves, The Story of Fascism in Europe. PBS, Sep 4, 2018.  Anna Sauerbrey, 30 Years After Reunification, Germany Is Still Two Countries. New York Times, Aug 29, 2019.  “Why Eastern Germans are embracing the far right” in response to Merkel’s migration policy, wonders if small but loud activist groups are driving discourse.

Great Britain: Carole Cadwalladr, The Great British Brexit Robbery: How Our Democracy Was Hijacked. The Guardian, May 7, 2017.

Greece: Nick Robins-Early, Greek Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn MP Ousted After Calling For Military Coup. Huffington Post, Jun 15, 2018.

Hungary: Rachel Donadio, How Hungary Ran George Soros Out of Town. The Atlantic, May 15, 2018.  Jane Coaston, George Soros Is Not a Nazi, Explained. Vox, Jun 11, 2018.  Will Collins, The Myth of a Christian Revival in Eastern Europe. The American Conservative, Jan 7, 2019.  Zach Beauchamp, It Happened There:  How Democracy Died in Hungary. Vox, Sep 13, 2018.  Anne Applebaum, A Warning From Europe: The Worst Is Yet to Come. The Atlantic, Oct 2018.  Polarization. Conspiracy theories. Attacks on the free press. An obsession with loyalty. Recent events in the United States follow a pattern Europeans know all too well.

Netherlands: Gordon Darroch, Dutch Respond to Trump's 'Gag Rule' with International Abortion Fund. Guardian, Jan 25, 2017.  This is a peculiar case where "Christian traditionalism" – perhaps also a case of selective memory – in the Netherlands sees compatibility with progressive values and a strong social safety net, unlike Christian traditionalism in the US, which does not – a case of both selective memory and heresy.  See also Douglas Murray, Geert Wilders Doesn’t Threaten Dutch Liberalism: He’s Defending It. The Spectator, Jan 28, 2017.  Ian Buruma, Why Geert Wilders is Taking Over Dutch Politics. The Spectator, Jan 28, 2017.

Poland: Slawomir Sierakowski, Poland Turns Away From Democracy, Thanks to the U.S. New York Times, Jul 24, 2017.  Matthew Taylor, ‘White Europe’: 60,000 Nationalists March on Poland’s Independence Day. The Guardian, Nov 12, 2017. Jordan Kyle and Yascha Mounk, Why It's So Difficult to Kill a Populist Movement. Washington Post, Mar 9, 2018.  Will Collins, The Myth of a Christian Revival in Eastern Europe. The American Conservative, Jan 7, 2019.

Russia: Joseph Pearce, Solzhenitsyn on Russia and the West. The Imaginative Conservative, May 2, 2017.  Pearce portrays Solzhenitsyn as a Western Christian; I regard this as a strained cultural and historical comparison at best, and propagandist at worst.  Mansur Mirovalev, Russia's Communist Party Turns to the Orthodox Church. Aljazeera, Dec 12, 2016.  Tara Isabella Burton, How Russia's Strongmen Use Homophobia to Stay in Power. Vox, Aug 2, 2017.  Melik Kaylan, Hidden Clues In The Trump-Comey Drama: It's Worse Than You Think. Forbes, May 11, 2017.  Kaylan argues that Trump set the state against itself, to  erode public trust in institutions; Kaylan provides comparisons to Russia, Turkey, Venezuela.  Michael Carpenter, Russia is Co-Opting Angry Young Men. The Atlantic, Aug 29, 2018.  Will Collins, The Myth of a Christian Revival in Eastern Europe. The American Conservative, Jan 7, 2019.  Rachel Maddow, Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth. Crown | Amazon page, Oct 2019.  See also interview by Andrea Mitchell, Maddow: Why Russia’s Economy Can Help Explain Putin Election Interference. Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC, Oct 3, 2019.  And interview by Lawrence O’Donnell, Rachel Maddow On Her New Book "Blowout". The Last Word | MSNBC, Oct 5, 2019.  See also Basav Sen, Dig Beneath the World’s Far-Right Governments—You’ll Find Fossil Fuels. Foreign Policy in Focus, Oct 9, 2019. “From Brazil to India to the United States, extractive industries have aligned themselves with authoritarian governments waging war on minority populations”

United States: The Church in White America: The Anti-Supremacists for a list of resources related to those white Americans who fought for the human and civil rights of non-white people. The Church in White America: The Supremacists for a list of resources of those white Americans who took a supremacist approach. See The Church in the Americas for non-white Christian expressions: Native, African, Asian, Hispanic.