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Opinion|What We Get Wrong About Christian Nationalism
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/opinion/christian-nationalism-charismatic-christianity.html
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American politics has begun to remind Gray Sutanto of home — not in a good way. He grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, and some American Christians’ comments on politics “sound a lot like Islamic nationalism to me,” Dr. Sutanto, who teaches theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington, told me. “The only times I’ve had to defend democracy are in America, not Indonesia.” But, he added, secular journalists usually get this story wrong. “They confuse any desire to influence society by way of Christian values with ‘Christian nationalism,’ ” he said. “If that’s your definition, then everyone who is a Christian is a Christian nationalist.”
I’ve spent a lot of time over the past year talking to frustrated conservative Christians. They complain about their fellow believers’ tendency to make idols out of political power. But they also criticize the media’s simplistic depictions, especially in stories about Christian nationalism and a movement known as the New Apostolic Reformation. Journalists and scholars paid little attention to this movement until recently, when they realized that some of its members had rallied to President Trump — and that they are charismatic Christians with an ostentatious interest in the supernatural. Leaders in this subculture have made public displays of casting out demons from Capitol Hill. Four of the six protest permits issued at the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6, 2021, went to charismatic groups. Journalists have warned that today they comprise an “army of God” with “tens of millions” aiming to “destroy the secular state.”
But if this is an army, it is a poorly organized one that spends a lot of time fighting within its own ranks. The term “New Apostolic Reformation” describes loose networks of churches that all emphasize the Holy Spirit and expect God to act in miraculous ways. But they disagree profoundly on the implications for politics. Yes, some prominent leaders are Prosperity Gospel grifters who blame political opposition on witchcraft. That’s all the more reason to pay attention to those charismatic Christians who do not make a living on incendiary sound bites, and who are leaning into the elements of their faith that may help rescue traditional Christianity from partisan political capture. A lot depends on who wins this argument over what Jesus meant when he said that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
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I got a taste of this variety and disagreement when I visited King’s Park International Church in Durham, N.C. Christians there look for God to heal the sick, reveal prophetic messages and perform other signs and wonders. The stranger thing, perhaps, is that both Republicans and Democrats attend. The church’s 120 elders, deacons and employees are split “about half and half, Republican and Democrat,” Reggie Roberson, the pastor, told me. The several hundred people who worship at King’s Park on an average Sunday are a mix of races, national backgrounds, ages and income levels. That’s how it should be, Bomi Roberson, who is married to Reggie and helps lead the church, said. She recalled a dream she had early in their ministry. She was flying over “a sea of people from all over the world, wearing their garb from all over the world,” she said. “I remember waking up and feeling that God gave me a glimpse of what heaven looks like.”
