Christian Nationalism

Text of Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

At the 2025 SCSW Synod Assembly, the assembly passed a resolution encouraging congregations to “study the issue of Christian Nationalism and its threat to our Lutheran tradition.” (Resolution 4 – “Christian Nationalism” – amended version). The resolution also called upon the synod council or its designees to “offer a resource list on the synod’s website to aid congregations and members in this study” (Resolution 4 – “Christian Nationalism” – amended version).

The full text of the resolution is can be found here.

The following list is a compilation of resources on the issue and threat of Christian Nationalism, including ELCA Social Statements, websites, books, and more. Special thanks to retired Pastor Peter Heide for this resource.

ELCA Public & Social Statements
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary
Respecting Religion and BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty)
Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania (LAMPa)
The International Bonhoeffer Society
Books (Listed Oldest to Newest w/Formats in Addition to Print)

  • Confederates in the Attic: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Tony Horwitz (1999) (NLS, Audiobook,  Kindle)

  • Mandate for leadership: the conservative promise 2025 (Project 2025) by Heritage Foundation (2004) (NLS, Podcast)

  • The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet (2009) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (National Book Award Winner) by Ibram X. Kendi (2016) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (2018) (   NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah (2019) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism by Katherine Stewart (2020) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2020) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez (2020) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn in and How to Talk Across the Divide by Pamela Cooper-White (2022) (Audiobook, Kindle)

  • The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracyby Philip Gorski (2022) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)

  • The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism: A Call to Action by Carter Heyward (2023) (Audiobook, Kindle)

  • How to End Christian Nationalism by Amanda Tyler (2024) (Audiobook, Kindle)

  • On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (2025) (NLS, Audiobook, Kindle)