Christian Nationalism demands what Jesus refused. A new Pew Research survey tested three ideas—that the Bible should override the people’s will in lawmaking, that government should stop enforcing church-state separation, that the United States should be declared officially Christian—and found nearly forty percent of Americans endorse at least one. The percentages matter for the political analysis, but the theological analysis starts somewhere else. It starts with the question of whether any of the three can be squared with what the New Testament actually says. The answer is no. Not one of them. Not in any translation. Not in any honest reading. The three demands are the three refusals.
I sat in Sunday School classes for thirty years where John 18:36 was taught as a verse about heaven—a future kingdom we’re waiting for—not as Jesus’s explicit refusal to make earthly laws when Pilate asked him directly. The verse was always there. The reading we were given made sure we didn’t see it. When I finally read the chapter straight through without the study-Bible notes telling me what it meant, the plain language did what plain language does. It said what it said.
John 18:36 is Jesus standing before Pilate at his trial. Pilate has asked whether Jesus is the king of the Jews—which is to say, whether Jesus claims the political authority that would make him a threat to Rome. Jesus answers, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.” That sentence is not figurative. It is not a metaphor that waits to be spiritualized. It is a direct answer to a direct question about whether the kingdom Jesus announces is the kind of kingdom that makes laws and enforces them with the sword. The answer is no. The kingdom is not of this world. If it were, the servants would fight. The servants do not fight, because the kingdom is not that kind of kingdom. When the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, the Council for National Policy’s coordinating apparatus, and the Southern Baptist Convention’s resolution-history since the 1980s say the Bible should have greater influence than the will of the people in making laws, they are claiming for the Bible exactly the kind of earthly-kingdom authority Jesus told Pilate the kingdom does not have. It is not a small difference. It is the difference.
The same refusal appears across the Gospel record. Matthew 22:21 distinguishes what is Caesar’s from what is God’s when the Pharisees try to trap Jesus into either endorsing Roman taxation or opposing it—Jesus refuses to collapse the two authorities into one. Romans 13:1-7, written by Paul to Christians living under Nero’s pagan empire, calls the church to submit to governing authorities while remaining a distinct community with a distinct allegiance—Paul does not call Roman Christians to take over the Roman state. Matthew 4:10 records Jesus refusing Satan’s offer of all the kingdoms of the world in the wilderness temptation—the offer was on the table, and Jesus said no. Matthew 6:6 commands private prayer with the door closed, not public displays on street corners to be seen by others. The pattern is consistent. The kingdom Jesus announced is not the kind of kingdom that runs governments, declares nations officially Christian, or abolishes the separation between what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Every time the question came up—and it came up repeatedly—Jesus said no.
The three demands Pew tested are not fringe positions. They are the policy agenda that the Heritage Foundation, the Council for National Policy, Project 2025, and the Southern Baptist Convention’s institutional apparatus since the conservative resurgence of 1979 have been building toward for forty years. The apparatus quotes Romans 13 to demand Christian influence over government while ignoring that Paul wrote Romans 13 to a church that did not run the empire and was not called to. The apparatus cites the Founding Fathers while deploying paintings of George Washington praying that depict moments described as apocryphal. The apparatus says it is defending biblical authority. What it is defending is the demand for earthly-kingdom power that Jesus refused at every turn. John 18:36 has not been edited. The kingdom is still not of this world. The question is whether the people funding the apparatus will read the verse again and notice what it says.
NPR’s report included a National Mall prayer service with cabinet members praying in front of a giant cross. Paula White-Cain, who runs the White House Faith Office, said, “Prayer’s not a religious act. It’s a national necessity.” The sentence cannot stand. Prayer is definitionally a religious act, and Jesus gave explicit instructions about where it belongs: “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen” (Matthew 6:6). The National Mall is not a room with the door closed. It is the street corner. The giant cross is the display. The performance is exactly what Jesus condemned.
R. R. Reno, the editor of First Things, defended Christian nationalism in the NPR report by saying Christianity limits political extremism by reminding us life’s purposes are greater than politics. He’s right—and the limit is exactly what John 18:36 establishes. The kingdom is not of this world; what is Caesar’s is not what is God’s. But when Heritage’s policy drafters say the Bible should override the people’s will in lawmaking, when the Council for National Policy’s institutional network says government should stop enforcing church-state separation, when Project 2025’s authors say the nation should be declared officially Christian, they have abolished the limit Reno says Christianity provides. Christianity no longer limits politics when it becomes the vehicle of politics. It becomes the thing it was meant to limit.
The Magnificat—Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55, which the church has sung for two thousand years—says, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” That is the character of the kingdom Jesus announced. The kingdom reverses earthly power; it does not baptize earthly power and call the baptism biblical authority. The Christian Nationalism apparatus is asking the government to declare the nation officially Christian, to enforce biblical law, and to stop enforcing the separation that protects both the church and the state from each other’s worst tendencies. The Magnificat says the kingdom brings down rulers. The apparatus says the rulers should declare themselves Christian and rule in the name of Christ. Now, I know that’s not a sentence anyone sitting in the pew this morning wants to read about the movement they’ve been told is defending the faith. I didn’t want to read it either, for longer than I care to admit. But the texts are still there, and they say what they say. These are not compatible claims. One of them is the Gospel’s witness; the other is the thing the Gospel repudiates.
The Pew survey found that more than half of Americans want the government to enforce the separation of church and state, and that most people who see religion gaining influence over government report discomfort with the trend. The verses have not been edited. John 18:36 still says the kingdom is not of this world. Matthew 22:21 still distinguishes what is Caesar’s from what is God’s. Matthew 4:10 still records Jesus refusing the offer of the kingdoms. The Magnificat still sings of rulers brought down and the humble lifted up. The three demands the apparatus is advancing—Bible over people’s will, abolition of separation, official Christian nation—are not innovations. They are the culmination of a forty-year project, and they are the demands that cannot be reconciled with the texts the apparatus claims as warrant. The texts say no. The people sitting in those pews—the ones I used to share—have a choice. They can keep funding the Heritage Foundation, the Council for National Policy, Project 2025, the SBC’s captured institutional machinery, or they can open to John 18:36 again and ask themselves which kingdom they are trying to build, and whether Jesus would recognize it.