At NatCon, an Effort To Make Christian Nationalism a More Inclusive Movement

But more often, NatCon attendees seemed to mitigate their differences by trying to find common cause. Asked about the dynamic, Wilson derided antisemitism but acknowledged the tension between advocating for a Christian America and holding together a coalition that includes Jewish people.

“Jesus either rose from the dead or he didn’t — I’m a Christian,” he said.

But in the “political sphere,” Wilson said, there are pathways for extreme right Christians to find commonality with Jewish conservatives.

“I think it’s good for them to see that there are Orthodox Jews who hate pornography as much as they do,” he offered by way of example.

But in practice, the common enemy that emerged to unite Christian nationalists and Jewish allies at NatCon wasn’t pornography, but Muslims. Several speakers made a point to single out Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim American and leading New York City mayoral candidate.

“New York, our greatest city, is on the precipice of being run by a Zohran Mamdani — I think we realize that something has gone absolutely wrong,” Jack Posobiec, an alt-right political activist who has promoted Christian nationalism in the past, told the crowd. He then added: “As I stand here today, we are less than 10 years away from one of America’s great cities being run by a Muhammad.”

Posobiec was echoed later that day by Bannon, the onetime adviser to Trump. Referring to Mamdani, Bannon insisted “the existential threat to Israel — the Jewish people — is not in Tehran,” but rather “is right in New York City.” He then denounced Mamdani as “a Marxist and a jihadist,” while acknowledging Mamdani is likely to win the election.

Whether a return to the anti-Muslim sentiment — a flavor of vitriol that once helped bolster Trump’s 2016 election coalition — will be enough to help NatCon is an open question. But if this year’s gathering is any indication, it appears to be the chosen path forward for Christian nationalists hoping to expand their tent: In his own address, Wilson argued that while America was “deeply Christian and Protestant at the founding,” it also “did successfully adapt to the presence of Catholics and Jews.”

But accepting large numbers of Muslim immigrants in the U.S., he said, is a bridge too far.

“Millions of Muslims without any commitment to, or mechanism of, assimilation is another matter,” said Wilson, who has previously said that Muslims would be barred from holding office in his version of a Christian America. “There’s only so much white sand you can put in the sugar bowl before it isn’t the Sugar Bowl anymore.”

This article originally appeared here.