As the US Christian nationalism movement has grown, a Christian-led counter-movement has steadily emerged to denounce the “weaponizing” of their religion and the right-wing’s political agenda. They reject the Christian right’s view of Christianity as superior to other religions, and the bible as the only ‘true’ law, as well as the call for biblical principles to replace American law (see Who’s Who Among Christian Nationalists?). In the wake of the January 6th US Capitol insurrection, a group of Christian faith leaders issued an open letter decrying the “weaponization” of religion and prayer, and the conflation of Christian faith with patriotism, such as religious crosses draped with the American flag.

Amanda Tyler is the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, and leader of the faith coalition group, Christians Against Christian Nationalism. “This ideology has been with us for a long time,” she remarked about Christian Nationalism, in a July 2021 interview with National Public Radio. After the capitol uprising, “we at Baptist Joint Committee and other groups that we work with noticed a rise in Christian nationalism and saw it as an urgent threat not just to our democracy and our unity as Americans, but also to our faithful walk as Christians.”

Confronting white supremacy

Christians Against Christian Nationalism moved quickly to unite Christian, leaders to share concerns, speak out, and mobilize their constituents, and partnered with Vote Common Good, led by Pastor Doug Pagitt, which aims to influence religiously motivated voters. They jointly produced a curriculum to educate Christians about right wing nationalism and view education as priority 2024 mission for Christians leaders. “I'm thankful to say that my congregation, for the most part, has kind of held this dangerous ideology at arm's length,” stated Tyler. “But it is simply everywhere that we look.”

Tyler and her organization are also addressing the prevalent racism and white supremacy within the white-dominant Christian nationalist movement, and its historic links to the white nationalist movement, and “white pride” groups like The Proud Boys. Their curriculum includes a module on fighting white supremacy. Her organization does outreach to Black, Latino and Asian-American religions leaders to share their concern and strategize, too. That’s important, given the Heritage Foundation is actively recruiting Black, Latino and Asian-America evangelicals via its Spanish-language website, Libertad.org, and campaigns.

Mobilizing Black and Brown Faith Communities

The Poor People’s Campaign, a progressive movement based in California, is led Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, an outspoken civil rights leader, and co-chair Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis. It is also leading an interfaith campaign against what they call “the distorted moral narrative of Christian Nationalism.” Barber’s group, formally titled The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, focuses on the structural roots of America’s racism and issues of inequity and “the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy” – and Christian nationalism. Barber challenges Christians to take a stand: Are they siding with the rich and powerful? Or with the poor, as Jesus did?

His coalition campaign continues to organized mass marches, rallies and meetings with US leaders across sectors, and is denouncing Project 2025’s agenda. It aims to mobilize 140 million low-income and poor people of all faiths, creeds, and backgrounds.

Americans United Against for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS) is a wellestablished nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that does education and advocacy to protect religious freedom, and supports the US Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. They engage in defense of religious freedom in the courts, legislature, and public sphere. AUSCS has a staff of nearly forty, and remains actively engaged in fighting Christian Nationalism, including legal cases, to defend those whose religious freedom rights have been violated, including issues of LGBTQIA+ rights, public school, racial equality, religious minorities, reproductive health access, and fighting other cases of religious discrimination. The organization’s magazine and blog provide ongoing coverage of frontline Christian nationalist battles.

Pew Center. The nonpartisan Pew Center provides polling and tracking data on myriad public issues and has been tracking American views on religion for years. In May 2024, Pew research confirmed what many media have long reported: the great majority of Americans continue to support the Constitutional principle of the separation of church and state, while few feel the federal government should declare Christianity to be America’s official religion.

But importantly, their May poll also shows Americans polled were almost evenly divided about the role the Bible should play in influencing American laws: 51% of those polled want it to have “no” or “not much” influence; the remainder want “some” influence. Among the latter, 28 percent would choose to follow the Bible over US laws in case of a conflict. Perhaps not surprisingly, 86% of them were white evangelical Protestants, including 55 percent who felt the Bible should have “a great deal” of influence. That contrasts with roughly three-quarters of Black and Latino Protestants who support “some” influence. Finally 80 percent of athiests, agnostics and Jews said the Bible should have no influence on US law; so did 57 percent of Muslims. (1) – ACD

(1) Views of Christian nationalism, Christianity's place in politics | Pew Research Center