As the liberal world crumbles, alternatives are appearing on the horizon. People are considering populist or nationalist models that will restore America’s sense of community, family and faith. These illiberal options are enjoying some success all over the world, as evidenced by the recent European elections.
What alarms the liberals is that this drift toward tradition often includes Christian symbols and rhetoric. Liberals claim the explosive mixture of politics and religion will lead America into a political “crusade” toward theocracy. And this represents a threat to liberal democracy.
Not a Possibility
This narrative of an imminent Christian crusade to theocracy does not correspond to populist or nationalist actions. Such a crusade is not even a possibility. While many right-wing nationalist parties do have Christian trappings, they lack religious foundations and doctrine. These efforts are generally limited to vague references to Judeo-Christian values.
Even worse, some of those who claim to represent the Christian cause adopt pagan ideas, atheist attitudes and strange philosophies. Many populist candidates are irreligious or do not observe a Christian moral code.
The Godless Crusade
If the new populist models represent a Christian crusade, it is a godless one.
This fascinating paradox is discussed in the book The Godless Crusade: Religion, Populism and Right-Wing Identity Politics in the West. Author Tobias Cremer noted this “godless” contradiction in many populist movements representing the right. He wanted to discover what was happening.
He interviewed dozens of conservative, nationalist and populist figures from parties in Germany, France and the United States to write a book that presents a picture of these strange political crusades without Christ.
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He concluded that these political models favor a “secularized idea of ‘Christendom’” that sees Christianity as a “cultural identity marker” rather than a profession of faith or moral code. Christianity also serves as a convenient standard around which legitimately concerned citizens might rally against massive immigration, especially from Islam.
The shocking results are parties light on religion but heavy on imagery to attract the Christian masses.
The Hollowing Out of Religion and Morals
This portrayal of the Christian cause reflects something of the reality of the state of religion in today’s postmodern society. A liberal and dominant culture without a moral compass has hollowed out much of the substance of mainstream religion so that all that is left is the label and the externals.
At the same time, many nominal Christians have embraced the sexual revolution and thus abandoned the practice of Christian moral codes just like everyone else.
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Christian symbols and imagery survive as remnants of an identity, community and faith that have been gradually lost through a “process of secularization, globalization and individualization.”
Many have the illusion that something might be recovered by appealing and clinging to these externals without the difficult return to strict morals. However, this Christian-lite approach cannot produce the profound transformations needed to restore society.
The Populist Response
National populists have recognized these conflicting aspirations and offered their own remedy: a godless crusade that turns Christianity into a secularized Christianism, consistent with the sad state in which most live.
It supplies nominally Christian voters with a party that represents the closest approximation of where they now stand without insisting upon conversion to past standards.
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Secularized Christianity does not promise a recovery but only the sweet memory of the abandoned community, faith and identity. It presents a pleasure like that found in viewing a faded photograph of a bygone era without living amid its hardships.
Obviously, not all those who follow these populist or nationalist movements seek only the Christian imagery. Many still strive to live within the strict moral codes and the profession of Christian faith that go far beyond cultural identity markers.
Many such Christians think they might strike a deal with the godless crusaders to obtain some victories over the left. Indeed, some gains can be made. However, there can be no Christianity without Christ or crusade without the cross. A policy of concession will inevitably fail.
The Cultural Dimension of Christianity
Tobias Cremer’s book describes the many ungodly undercurrents inside the populist movements with Christian trappings. While manifesting themselves differently from country to country, the currents share certain characteristics.
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The first is that religion is present in a cultural context. Religious imagery is separated from its doctrinal or theological content. Religion becomes an expression of national identity and culture rather than the profession of faith and the all-important worship of God.
This religious imagery need not be limited to Christianity. It is enough that it harkens back to a vague religious feeling. Some European nationalist movements, for example, even call upon pagan myth and ancient legend to reinforce this nationalistic image. Mr. Cremer notes that there has always been a strong pagan influence in nationalist and populist thought.
A German Metaphor
Thus, leading elements of Germany’s populist movement, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), insist upon using Christianity as a cultural identifier with little connection to Christian teaching. They also manifest a pronounced hostility to the Church and an attachment to Germany’s ancient and pagan past.
“We do not seek to defend Christianity in any religious sense, but as a traditional way of life in Germany, as a traditional sense of home [Heimatgefühl],” said Alexander Gauland, President of the AfD in 2016. “Christianity is only a metaphor for the customs inherited from our fathers.”
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Similarly, the former AfD president in North Rhine/Westphalia, Marcus Pretzell, said that those in the AfD who speak about the Christian West “actually mean ethnic Germanity…. This has nothing to do with Christianity. These are references to Germanic mythology—this is about a Germanic movement.”
Religion as a Rebellion Against Modernity
Similar statements about cultural priorities can be found in France and the United States. The National Rally (NR) party of Marine Le Pen in France promotes Catholic imagery, such as the figure of Saint Joan of Arc as a national heroine and the public display of Nativity scenes, as part of its Catholic cultural identity.
However, Mr. Cremer notes that this presentation is limited to cultural terms. National Rally general secretary Nicolas Bay, for example, claims that France’s Christian identity is “our law, our architecture, our heritage, it’s a reality that makes the Christian heritage foundational to our national identity.”
In describing the American situation, religion reporter Ruth Graham of The New York Times explains, “Christianity is increasingly becoming a cultural and political identity, with theological differences falling to the wayside and Christianity serving as a kind of generic expression of rebellion against modernity.”
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All these cultural manifestations appeal to the religious sense of many Christians. However, the populist model does not take these sentiments to their final consequences found in conversion, the practice of Christian virtue and the worship of God. Such superficial impulses do not have the power to transform souls and societies.
A Lack of Emphasis on Moral Issues
A second characteristic of the godless crusade is its lack of emphasis on moral issues. Sometimes, cultural elements coincide with moral issues and result in positive changes. However, moral hot-button issues tend to be crowded out by identity and cultural issues like immigration, wokism and national trade policies.
Indeed, the members of these currents are much less likely to be regular churchgoers than followers of more established political parties. They tend to downplay issues like abortion, same-sex “marriage” and homosexuality that are contrary to God’s Law.
France’s NR, for example, no longer opposes abortion. Indeed, Marine Le Pen and many of her NR deputies in parliament voted to enshrine abortion into France’s Constitution—the first nation to do so in history. In addition, the party no longer actively opposes same-sex “marriage” or surrogacy.
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Mr. Cremer relates how the RN increasingly defends homosexual and women’s causes as a means to fight against radical Islam. RN speaker Sebastien Chenu even organized a pride parade in Marseille.
In Germany, the author shows how the populist currents attract non-practicing voters to their parties, which “employ Christianity as a secularized national identity marker against Islam.” By concentrating on immigration, their disproportionally irreligious followers tend to avoid the hot-button issues that resonate with many practicing Christians.
Similar tendencies of avoiding these issues can be seen in the gutting of the moral issues from the GOP’s 2024 platform. Pro-life and pro-marriage planks long enshrined in the platform were taken out in favor of more cultural and identity issues.
In the name of pragmatism, moral issues are sidelined as if they did not matter, causing frustration among social conservatives who feel betrayed by the shift.
Secular Policies
Finally, these amoral and cultural convictions translate into secular policies that are hostile to the Church and any benefits religion might receive from the State. Far from desiring to institute a theocracy as the left likes to portray populist currents, they tend to pursue secular policies with almost Jacobin fervor.
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These secular policies are often proposed as a means to cut off benefits to Islam.
Thus, the German AfD has published manifestos calling for an end to church taxes collected through the state, abolishing the Church’s education benefits, and curtailing church participation in politics.
In 2017, France’s National Front party (which later became Marine le Pen’s RN) proposed banning “all public funding for places of worship and religious activities” and the application of secularist policies (called laicité) “to the entirety of the public sphere and to inscribe it into the labor code.” Thus, Marine le Pen believes that “by banning all religion from the public square, Islam will be forced to diminish its public presence and immigration.
An American Dilemma
Mr. Cremer acknowledges that the American situation is different from that of Europe. A religious right based on moral convictions still exists in America. It propelled the Republican Party to power over the decades. However, the trend inside the Steven Bannon wing of the populist movement is toward an ever more secular position that exists in tension with the religious element. The classical formulations for expressing religious sentiments are being laid aside.
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Despite these characteristics, national populist movements can address legitimate concerns and grievances that burden the nation. They can enact legislation, make judicial appointments and craft policies that can help the conservative cause.
However, Mr. Cremer rightly cautions that such collaboration is not without strings attached. It can be a “Faustian bargain” that does not extend beyond the shallow identity label. As far as securing lasting help for issues like abortion, same-sex “marriage,” or Christian morals, populists can be a questionable ally. The godless crusade will always be a contradiction in terms.
Embrace the Totality of the Cause
A far better policy would be to embrace the totality of this cause. The Christian imagery, rhetoric and symbolism that so attract the spiritually famished masses should be utilized by Christians as fully representative of what they believe and the God they adore—not a label or cultural identifier.
Enough of godless crusades! For too long, false advertising, simulacra and narratives have dominated the postmodern world. Christianity must not be used as a mere vehicle for promoting non-Christian agendas.
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It makes no sense to attract people through captivating Christian symbols and leaving behind what those symbols represent. The authenticity of the Gospel message contains the means to transform and regenerate the world.
A Return to Order
The world needs to return to the perennial principles that brought forth a Christian order that corresponds to the natural development of individuals and societies.
This Christian order has the advantage of being an alternative with a proven record. It worked before when civilizations were in decline and chaos reigned. This same call to Christian principles echoed amid the ruins of the Roman Empire, and the pagan barbarian, Muslim and Viking invasions. It resonated with all peoples as the Gospel message spread to the farthest corners of the earth.
It involves not reviving a historical epoch or turning back the clock but rather returning to those timeless principles—valid for all peoples and all times—that will spontaneously give rise to original and organic solutions. Such a perspective does not flee from inevitable difficulties but embraces them, seeking help from an Almighty God.
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When dealing with God’s cause, Americans must engage in a godly crusade. Anything less is doomed to fail.