It’s Only ‘Christian Nationalism’ When Conservatives Do It

The Democrats in this most recent election ran a campaign attacking an ascendent “Christian nationalism,” which they warned would soon turn America into a theocracy. “I define Christian nationalism as the worship of power — social power, economic power, political power — in the name of Christ,” declared Texas Democrat James Talarico, now senator-elect. “I think Christian nationalism, this idea that we’ve got to take America back for Jesus, is one of the most dangerous things to our democracy,” cautioned Arkansas Democrat Robb Ryerse, who unsuccessfully ran for a House seat this midterm election. Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., asserted: “The hardcore Christian nationalists are trying to topple democracy. They want a full-blown theocracy.”

Yet, in fact, the Democrats ran a quite unapologetically religious platform that routinely sought to contextualize their politics as informed by Christianity, something that was not lost even on legacy liberal media. As much as the left seeks to portray the right as beholden to religious forces that imperil the so-called separation of church and state — an idea, by the way, that gained traction via rhetoric from such former conservative evangelicals as Russell Moore and David French — they are simultaneously quite cynically projecting their own version of Christian nationalism. It’s a double standard as hypocritical as it is ridiculous.

The Democrats Wouldn’t Shut Up About Faith and Politics

“We as Christians, we as people of faith from all traditions, have a responsibility to take our faith from the sanctuary to the streets to not just love God, but to love neighbor,” said Talarico on the campaign trail. “My faith in Jesus leads me,” he said, “to reject Christian nationalism and leads me to recommit myself to the project, the unfinished project of a multiracial, multicultural democracy.” That’s an interesting critique, given he elsewhere acknowledged: “All of this informs what I do at the capitol, it’s why I’m in public service, it’s why I try to make life easier for my neighbors, which is what I’m called to do as a Christian.” So, when Talarico applies his religious beliefs to his politics, it’s following Christ; when his opponents do it, it’s fascism. He’s not alone.

Kansas Democrat Adam Hamilton, now senator-elect, argued that he and Talarico think faith “looks like caring for the poor, looks like compassion, looks like mercy, it looks like not bullying and picking on people, it looks like not starting foreign wars, you know, initiating those wars.” For Hamilton, it’s even about economic policies: “When you think about that — the issue of who gets what, when and how — that is a very moral issue. Those are questions that have to do with justice. They have to do with our world view. They have to do with our faith.”

There are plenty more examples. “My faith teaches me that you show up and you listen. That’s what I do as a pastor, and it’s what I do as an elected official,” promised Iowa Democrat Sarah Trone Garriott, now U.S. Rep.-elect. “The policy decisions that I make and the way in which I see the world is based out of that [religious faith],” explained fellow U.S. Rep.-elect and Iowa Democrat Lindsey James. “It’s not based out of a political party or a political philosophy.” Tennessee Democrat Anna Golladay, who lost her bid for a House seat, had told voters: “I am running for Congress … as exactly what I am: a faith leader, a small business owner, and a person whose faith shapes how I think about caring for my neighbors.” And, perhaps most explicitly, Texas Democrat Frederick Haynes, now U.S. Rep.-elect, pronounced: “I feel that this is just an extension of the calling, because I see this as ministry.”

A Curious Revival and Reversal

Now, I don’t know about you, but describing one’s political career as “ministry,” one’s policy decisions as based on one’s religious faith, and applying one’s interpretations of the teachings of Christ to all manner of U.S. policy certainly sounds like a pretty significant intersection of religion and politics. Indeed, NPR in a September piece noted that many Democrats were “making Christianity a centerpiece of their midterm campaigns.” In late October, the Washington Post reported that “progressive Christianity is making a comeback” and that “the Christian Social Gospel is challenging the Trumpian right.” A separate Nov. 6 piece at the WaPo suggested that Democrats had “cracked the code on religion” and that “Democrats are already celebrating their gains with Christians as proof of concept that incorporating faith into campaigns resonates with voters.”

This is quite a shift. Back in August 2024, the same Democratic Congressman Jared Huffman opined that Democrats must defend secular government against Republican religious influence: “We vigorously defend the constitutional ‘wall of separation’ between church and state — the most essential pillar of religious freedom.” No less than then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2004 told a journalist: “In my own public policy, I’m very suspicious of religious certainty expressing itself in politics…. I think there is an enormous danger on the part of public figures to rationalize or justify their actions by claiming God’s mandate.” Democratic Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Sheldon Whitehouse have all decried Christians who they warned would allow their faith to influence political or legal decisions, Feinstein most famously with her bizarre statement to then-Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett that the “dogma lives loudly within you.”

The Left’s Own Christian Nationalism

Now, it would seem, the “dogma” lives loudly in many Democrats. But this is a dogma of progressive Christianity and the “social gospel.” It is a dogma that celebrates abortion because “creation has to be done with consent.” It is a dogma that says gay marriage brings us closer to God. And it is a dogma that preaches that “God is non-binary,” and that policies that promote transgender ideology for children enjoy divine approbation. It is, in fact, a false gospel, one that brings not eternal life and freedom from sin, but enslavement to our passions and death.

There is, of course, a tremendous hypocrisy and double-standard with this approach. And there is the fact that celebrating abortion, homosexuality, and transgenderism as objective goods flies in the face of teaching across a host of Christian traditions — and also brings destruction in its wake, as we already knew through 50 years of Roe v. Wade and the medical establishment’s pro-trans recommendations that scarred a generation of American youth. Perhaps most interesting is that the left has itself cultivated and embraced its own version of Christian nationalism, one based on a language of tolerance and acceptance. It is a false gospel. But at least this year, it is one that has deceived a fair share of the American electorate.

Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He is a regular contributor at many publications and the author of three books, including the upcoming “Wisdom From the Cross: How Jesus’ Seven Last Words Teach Us How to Live (and Die)” (Sophia Institute Press, 2026).