CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM AND AUTHORITARIANISM
SUGGESTED READINGS
Shared by Rev. Steve Ivy, Religious Freedom Indiana
BOOKS
Butler, Althea. White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Racism in America. 2nd ed. 2024.
Campbell, Caleb. Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, 2024.
Du Mez, Kristin. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, 2020.
Fugelsang, John. Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, 2025. **
Gushee, David. Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies, 2023. **
Jones, Robert P. The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future, 2023.
Jones, Robert P. White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, 2020.
Kaylor, Brian and B Underwood. Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism. 2024. **
(Underwood is pastor of Allisonville Christian Church, Indianapolis.)
Kaylor, Brian, The Bible According to Christian Nationalism, 2025. **
Kennedy, Sheila. God and Country: America in Red and Blue. 2007
(Kennedy retired from the I.U. School of Public and Environmental Affairs in 2020.)
Meachum, John. The Soul of America, 2018.
Stewart, Katherine. Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy, 2025.
Strait, Drew. Strange Worship: Six Steps for Challenging Christian Nationalism, 2024.
(Strait is professor at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart.)
Taylor, Matthew D. The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement that is Threatening Our Democracy. 2024.
Tyler, Amanda. How to End Christian Nationalism, 2024. **
Wallis, Jim. The False White Gospel, 2024.
Whitehead, Andrew L. American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church. 2023.
(Whitehead is a professor at IU-Indianapolis.)
SELECTED ONLINE RESOURCES
The “Baptist News Global” daily email frequently addresses religious freedom issues.
(Note, while this site focuses on broad news among Baptists of all varieties, it regularly has columns addressing Christian nationalism concerns and actions.)
Philip Gulley, Substack (frequently addresses CN concerns)
See “The Recipe for Fascism,” January 17, 2025
(Gulley is pastor Fairfield Friends Meeting in Camby. He is no longer publishing most of his comments except to paid Substack subscribers.)
“The Convocation” on Substack and YouTube (Diana Butler Bass, Robert Jones, Kristin Du Mez, Jemar Tisby.) Also, they each have individual channels and publications on various platforms. All are insightful.
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty - a long history of advocating in the U.S. Supreme Court and working with Congress on issues relating to religious freedom and church-state separation.
For resources: https://bjconline.org/resources/. Amanda Tyler (above) is CEO.
Also see https://baptistnews.com/conversations-that-matter/ for an extended interview with Ms. Tyler.
Vote Common Good is a political action and lobbying organization that produced a great training curriculum. Available at:
https://www.votecommongood.com/confronting-christian-nationalism-curriculum/
or
https://confrontingchristiannationalism.org
Faithful America is an independent, interdenominational Christian organization begun in 2004 with almost 200,000 subscribers today. They are active in many causes, including working against Christian nationalism.
https://act.faithfulamerica.org/signup/about-us/
https://act.faithfulamerica.org/signup/christian-nationalism-resources/
A Public Witness Substack and newsletter provides religious-political insights from professional experience in academia, advocacy, congregational leadership, and political campaigns. The editor-in-chief is Brian Kaylor, co-author of Baptizing America.
https://publicwitness.wordandway.org
Americans United for Separation of Church and State advocates for the disassociation of religion and religious organizations from government through education, political action, and legal interventions.
ELCA Statement Opposing Christian Nationalism