May 12, 2026 · 44 min · 21 segments
Christian Nationalism seems to be on the rise - particularly in the US, but increasingly in Europe. The phrase, however, is often used vaguely and carelessly. Indeed "Christian nationalism" can be…
Nick SpencerHostNo entities detected.
Now, I want to begin by exploring when people in America first started using the term Christian nationalist.
This is a devout evangelical Christian in the White House, but I don't remember people talking about Christian nationalism then.
There were some journalists that were using it back during the George W. Bush presidency.
She had a book come out in, I think, 2006, where she was essentially reporting on different aspects of that presidency and used that term Christian nationalism and Christian nationalists to understand and kind of explain this idea of folks working in and around that presidency of really trying to inculcate Christianity into public policy, um, the formal rules and regulations of the government, those types of things.
It would kind of pop up, but there wasn't a whole lot that was happening, um, since then.
I, I mean, can you even push it back further than that, though? Would people be u- using the term Christian nationalism, say, during the Reagan presidency when the, when the moral majority are, are so influential?
So one thing that we talk about and think about is how Christian nationalism, while we've been focusing on it from a social scientific perspective a lot more in the last 10 to 15 years, has been with us here in the States since before the dawn of the United States.
So when the first [laughs] colonists were coming over, we see the seeds of Christian nationalism and this idea, um, planted then.
And so for sure, in the 1970s, the rise of the moral majority, um, in response to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s that brought us the Reagan presidency in 1980, um, I think what we see today is really the natural outgrowth of a Christian nationalism movement that was happening then.
Now, I want to begin by exploring when people in America first started using the term Christian nationalist.
This is a devout evangelical Christian in the White House, but I don't remember people talking about Christian nationalism then.
There were some journalists that were using it back during the George W. Bush presidency.
She had a book come out in, I think, 2006, where she was essentially reporting on different aspects of that presidency and used that term Christian nationalism and Christian nationalists to understand and kind of explain this idea of folks working in and around that presidency of really trying to inculcate Christianity into public policy, um, the formal rules and regulations of the government, those types of things.
It would kind of pop up, but there wasn't a whole lot that was happening, um, since then.
I, I mean, can you even push it back further than that, though? Would people be u- using the term Christian nationalism, say, during the Reagan presidency when the, when the moral majority are, are so influential?
So one thing that we talk about and think about is how Christian nationalism, while we've been focusing on it from a social scientific perspective a lot more in the last 10 to 15 years, has been with us here in the States since before the dawn of the United States.
So when the first [laughs] colonists were coming over, we see the seeds of Christian nationalism and this idea, um, planted then.
And so for sure, in the 1970s, the rise of the moral majority, um, in response to the cultural upheaval of the 1960s that brought us the Reagan presidency in 1980, um, I think what we see today is really the natural outgrowth of a Christian nationalism movement that was happening then.
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