(RNS) — Standing outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2023, Georgia McKee witnessed two very different responses on the second anniversary of the infamous mob attack.
Circled together and holding candles, one group of faith leaders condemned Christian nationalism, calling it a “poisonous ideology” and “gross distortion of our Christian faith.”
The other group marched in front of the Supreme Court building, shouting into megaphones, wearing MAGA hats, waving American flags and holding signs saying, “One Nation Under God.”
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McKee took some videos on her phone, spliced them together to contrast the two gatherings and showed the final video to her co-workers at the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a coalition of Baptist denominations that advocates for the separation of church and state. Next, she created a TikTok account and posted the video. In the year since, it’s had over half a million views.
“That made us realize, oh, people like this content,” said McKee, digital communications associate at BJC. “We got lots of messages saying, thank you so much for showing this video, we need more of a Christian witness that is faithful to the message of Jesus.”
The @EndChristianNationalism TikTok account has gained more than 40,000 followers and earned over 600,000 likes in the past year. The account is affiliated with BJC’s Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, a grassroots movement that provides training and resources for combating Christian nationalism on the ground.
“It’s not just about going viral for us,” said McKee, who runs the account.
Raised in Texas, McKee grew up attending a Southern Baptist church where an American flag flanking the pulpit was commonplace. But in college at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, McKee began to reckon with what she saw as exclusionary elements of her faith. She deconstructed, became spiritual but not religious and then joined an Episcopal church for a season. Today, McKee is a seminarian at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, where she’s studying to become a Baptist minister in a more progressive Baptist tradition, like Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Alliance of Baptists, “or whatever comes next,” she told Religion News Service.
After a year of making videos where she leans into her now-trademark tiny clip-on mic and gives play-by-plays of Christian nationalism in action, McKee can spout off a definition for the topic without hesitation.
“Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that abuses the name of Jesus for a very specific American goal,” McKee said. “Christian nationalism is not Christianity.”
In the whirlwind of pastoral duties, finding moments of rest can seem like an impossible task.
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