During a recent appearance on the Tucker Carlson Network, author and Pastor Douglas Wilson explained the concept of Christian nationalism and why he embraces the label of Christian nationalist.
Wilson, pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, addressed misperceptions about the terminology and said people would have more, not fewer, rights under a Christian nationalist leader. A portion of the interview, which aired April 15, is available on YouTube, but the rest is behind a paywall.
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Teasing the interview on social media, Carlson posted, “Pastor Doug Wilson is the Christian nationalist they warned you about.” Wilson is controversial due to his views on race, his church’s desire to make Moscow a “Christian town,” his expression of complementarianism, and how Christ Church has handled previous sexual abuse allegations. The 70-year-old pastor’s books include “Mere Christendom,” “Reforming Marriage,” and “Southern Slavery: As It Was.”
Pastor Douglas Wilson on Christian Nationalism
While introducing Pastor Douglas Wilson, Tucker Carlson said President Joe Biden has nothing to run on for 2024, so he’ll be running against Christianity—more specifically, against Christian nationalism. Carlson credited Wilson as “one of the rare American Christian pastors who is willing to engage on questions of culture and politics,” adding, “for that he has taken a lot of grief.”
When asked point-blank if he’s a Christian nationalist, Wilson said he prefers that phrase to other names he is called, including “white supremacist” and “slave advocate.”
After recapping the origins of Christian nationalism, Wilson defined the concept this way: “If there is no God above the society, if there is no God above the state, take God away, [then] the state is God…The state becomes God, and it assumes the prerogatives of deity [and wants] to control everything.” Wilson said he thinks “most people would be with me up to that point.”
The next question, he said, is “which God” should be above the state, and that leads to theological debate. “Our current rulers don’t believe in God, but they do believe in the devil,” Wilson said. “And their belief in the devil is why they want to ascend the sides of the north [Isaiah 14:12-14]. They want to be as the Most High,” which was the “initial temptation in the Garden.”
Regarding the key question “which God,” Wilson said, “The Christian nationalist is the one who’s willing to answer that question [with] ‘the true God, the Living God.’” Because an imposed morality is necessary to have a “structured, ordered society,” he added, the next question is “which morality.” Pointing to Psalm 115, Wilson said people “become like what you worship.”
