To fully understand this ongoing debate, one must consider the historical role of Christianity in America, the legal protections for religious freedom (despite the spread of secularism) amid a decades-old culture war highlighted by societal shifts starting in the 1960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As a result, Christianity in the United States is certainly undergoing a transition. It is moving from a position of cultural centrality to one of pluralistic coexistence, especially since new waves of immigrants over the last 30 years who are Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists move to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 2022 post<\/a>, veteran journalist Richard Ostling, a regular Religion Unplugged<\/em> contributor, observed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cChristian nationalism\u201d became common coinage in the U.S. fairly recently, usually raised by cultural liberals who view it with alarm, and often with \u201cWhite\u201d as an added adjective. The term is not generally embraced by those considered to be participants.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n As journalist Samuel Goldman remarks, to describe something as Christian nationalism \u201cis inevitably to reject it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Merriam-Webster definition of plain \u201cnationalism\u201d is \u201cloyalty and devotion to a nation\u201d but adds this important wording, \u201cespecially a sense of national consciousness exalting one nation above all others and placing primary emphasis on promotion of its culture and interests as opposed to those of other nations or supranational groups.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNationalism\u201d is not the same as \u201cpatriotism,\u201d the natural and benign love and loyalty toward one\u2019s homeland that characterizes all peoples and countries, including huge numbers of non-nationalists on America\u2019s religious left as well as the right. Nor is it the same thing as either political or religious conservatism but is instead a narrow faction within those broad populations.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> The question of whether #Christianity<\/a> is under attack, especially in the United States, is a complex and deeply polarizing one https:\/\/t.co\/REqRKWg2aY<\/a><\/p>— Clemente Lisi (@ClementeLisi) October 8, 2025<\/a><\/blockquote> \n