Flying home to America from East Africa a few days ago and watching television coverage of the ICE raids, detentions and deportations, I have had nationalism on my mind. As nationalist rhetoric pulses ever more fervently through American political culture — full of slogans like “America First,” “Great Again,” the renaming of the “Gulf of […]

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Of the many currents at the nexus of American religious and political life, Christian Nationalism is unquestionably the dominant force. Christian Nationalists and allied elements of the far right have taken over the Republican Party; purged moderate Republicans from the precinct level as well as their side of the House and much of the Senate; […]

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On May 19 Air Force One landed in Detroit, Michigan, delivering Joe Biden to the Freedom Fund Dinner of the NAACP. It was a classic campaign event, with homage to Michigan state party leaders, an audience seated sedately at their tables, and a series of speeches from a podium. But some 50 miles away, quite […]

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If you want to know where the Republican Party is headed, you need to set aside your assumptions and simply listen to what its leaders and activists say—especially when they’re talking amongst themselves. As a reporter and author on the religious right beat over the past dozen years, I’ve made a point of attending such […]

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As we head into the fall elections, there is increasing recognition of the critical role played by religious conservatives in the Republican Party and a corresponding curiosity over the seeming contradiction between the supposed values of this constituency and their rock-ribbed support of Donald Trump. Outside observers often marvel at how Christian nationalists put up […]

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