A couple things from the Christian Nationalism episode:
I honestly didn't connect Christian Nationalism with violence, i.e. the conversation about violent extremism. Obviously Jan 6th and probably occasional mass shooters associated but that didn't seem to me to be the central point of talking about, analyzing, studying Christian Nationalism.
I think I have been more interested in how whatever you want to call the political/cultural ideas/movement affects the Church and congregations. And, pulling that thread a bit, effective ways for congregations and Christian leaders and teachers to disciple people out of the dangerous parts of it and also out of having that political/cultural idea/movement define their vision of Christianity. (Because it's obviously ineffective (counterproductive?) to just point directly at it and explicitly say it's not Christian.)... Similarly, how to mitigate and repair the very public expression of that political/cultural idea/movement becoming such a significant part of the (narrative surrounding the) public witness of the Church.
Yeah, that's interesting. At what point does promoting guns as a tenet of a syncretic political religion become violent extremism? Is it more the iconography than the actual ownership and use? I take it that's all viewed as an implicit veiled threat and not vapid socio-cultural projection? Or at some point it transitions from one to the other and it's not clear how to identify the transition point?
A couple things from the Christian Nationalism episode:
I honestly didn't connect Christian Nationalism with violence, i.e. the conversation about violent extremism. Obviously Jan 6th and probably occasional mass shooters associated but that didn't seem to me to be the central point of talking about, analyzing, studying Christian Nationalism.
I think I have been more interested in how whatever you want to call the political/cultural ideas/movement affects the Church and congregations. And, pulling that thread a bit, effective ways for congregations and Christian leaders and teachers to disciple people out of the dangerous parts of it and also out of having that political/cultural idea/movement define their vision of Christianity. (Because it's obviously ineffective (counterproductive?) to just point directly at it and explicitly say it's not Christian.)... Similarly, how to mitigate and repair the very public expression of that political/cultural idea/movement becoming such a significant part of the (narrative surrounding the) public witness of the Church.
Thanks for listening and your thoughts! Andrew Whitehead just sent out this tweet-thread on how he’s connecting CN with the violence convo, that you might find interesting? https://twitter.com/ndrewwhitehead/status/1632126878763950085?s=46&t=yK-SPOcNcPS_yBwSoZNWJg
Yeah, that's interesting. At what point does promoting guns as a tenet of a syncretic political religion become violent extremism? Is it more the iconography than the actual ownership and use? I take it that's all viewed as an implicit veiled threat and not vapid socio-cultural projection? Or at some point it transitions from one to the other and it's not clear how to identify the transition point?