Citizens of the Nation-State and the Kingdom: US Evangelical Conceptions of Political Membership and Agency

Keywords: Evangelical Christians, citizenship, Christian nationalism, multiculturalism
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Geographers have worked to complicate territorially bounded conceptions of citizenship, calling attention to the complex spatialities of rights, participation, and community. A key insight of this scholarship has been the overlapping nature of citizenships, whereby individuals may claim membership in multiple territories, while single territories may encompass multiple systems of membership and rights. The social-spatial complexity of citizenship is exemplified by the mobilization of US evangelical Christians around two distinct political projects: The first rejects American ethnocentrism and the trappings of American nationalism with the aim of creating a universal community of believers that reflects the diversity of God’s kingdom. The second has fused evangelicalism to American nationalism and has sought to inject ‘Christian values’ in political life. These contradictory projects of Christian multiculturalism-universalism, on the one hand, and America First Christian nationalism, on the other hand coexist, however uneasily, in Christian communities. This paper will explore the complicated historical relationship between American evangelical Christianity, nationalism, and citizenship and will examine the tensions in contemporary evangelical mobilizations around ideas of political membership and rights. A broader aim of this paper is to shed critical light on the idea of secularism by showing the constant contestation and configuration of the boundaries between faith, politics, and the political community.