Christian nationalism is an ideology that merges national identity with a specific vision of Christianity, asserting that a nation’s laws, social culture, and daily life should be shaped by Christian beliefs and values. It goes beyond personal faith or religious practice. It treats Christianity as a defining feature of the nation or land and uses that religious agenda to create powerful propaganda in hopes they can take hold in political power. Christian nationalism often relies on the idea that the nation was founded (or should have been founded) on Christian principles, that it is part of some divine mission, and that its legitimacy depends on maintaining Christian safety (dominance). As a system of oppression, Christian nationalism elevates certain interpretations of Christianity, which are typically conservative, patriarchal, heteronormative and exclusionary beliefs, as the “true” or “real” form of identity we should all be taking on. This framework tends to marginalize people who do not share those beliefs, including religious minorities, secular individuals, and Christians whose values differ from evangelist/nationalist ideals. By framing political conflict as a moral or spiritual battle, Christian nationalism has justified restricting rights, changing the function and accessibility of public institutions, and influencing laws in ways that privilege, benefit, and/or uphold, Christian ideals over others.

This ideology also reinforces patriarchal cisheteronormative structures. Christian nationalist movements often promote gender roles grounded in male authority/dominance, portraying the traditional heterosexual family as the only representation of the nation's values. Policies aligned with Christian nationalism tend to prioritize male dominance or leadership, restrict the reproductive autonomy and safety of AFAB people, and limit the recognition of queer gender identities and diverse family structures (non-cisheteronormative). In this way, Christian nationalism uses both religious indoctrination and hyper-nationalist rhetoric to uphold and replicate their system of oppression. Ultimately, Christian nationalism operates as a tool for concentrating social, cultural, and political power. It blends religious identity with national belonging to create an exclusionary vision of who counts as a “real” member of the nation. 

Systems of Oppression: Built through the continued societal uplifting of the social constructs that protect and empower the oppression and the discriminatory and violent practices associated with them. 

Oppression is a way of keeping specific people- defined often by social constructs- that lower social status, lateral policing of identity and behaviors- based on a desired appearance or behaviors, creates inequities that create a skewed social dynamics and impact all people. Whether or not we believe it, there are identities we carry that we may never know due to our ability to feel safe in expressing those identities freely in our current society/community. That pressure to behave and express your identities in a certain way, is part of the oppressionary systems themselves. We may feel pressured in participating in specific systems in order to keep or gain social power; sometimes our identities make it so that we fit more 'in' or 'out' of the system even with our expression of self being true. That doesn't make the identity we hold inherently bad or good, but instead that society has assigned attributes and experiences to those identities without our consent or space for personal definitions of identity. We all hold identities that oppress us, but the way in which we participate in oppression of others, defines the true motivations of a person when it comes to their identities and their appearance.

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