INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 15 — Dr. Andrew Whitehead, a leading scholar on Christian nationalism in America, will speak on that topic on Sept. 15 at 4 p.m. in Fellowship Hall of North United Methodist Church, 3808 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis. His talk is entitled “Christian Nationalism: The Threat to Democracy and Christianity.”

The talk is free and open to the public.

In an article in “Christianity Today,” Paul Miller defined Christian nationalism as “… the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a “Christian nation” — not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future. Scholars like Samuel Huntington have made a similar argument: that America is defined by its “Anglo-Protestant” past and that we will lose our identity and our freedom if we do not preserve our cultural inheritance.”

The evils of the term made headlines after the Jericho March in Washington, D.C.. in January 2021, and when a mob of Donald Trump supporters — many carrying Christian signs, slogans, or symbols — stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, two months after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, calls Christian nationalism “the single biggest threat to religious freedom in the United States today.”

In his book, “American Idolatry,” Dr. Whitehead outlines how the three idols of Christian nationalism (power, fear, and violence) are corrupting American Christianity and making Christians hurt their neighbors.

In his 45-minute talk at North UMC, Dr. Whitehead will talk about how Christian nationalism threatens both the church and our democracy.

Dr. Andrew L. Whitehead

Andrew Whitehead is a professor of sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis. He has been interviewed on NBC News, National Public Radio, and the British Broadcasting Corp. He has written for “The Washington Post,” “Time,” “NBC News,” and the Religion News Service, where he examines Christian nationalism, religion, and American culture, as well as childhood disability and religion. 

His work has won several awards, including the 2023 Gold Medal Book Award for Religion from Foreword Reviews for his book “American Idolatry,” and the 2021 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion for his book “Taking America Back for God.” He has also won distinguished article awards from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the Association for the Sociology of Religion.

Last year he was presented with Indiana University’s Indianapolis Research Trailblazer Award and the Outstanding Tenure Track Faculty Award from the Indiana University Indianapolis School of Liberal Arts. 

Dr. Whitehead is also a project director at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at IU Indianapolis, and a co-director of the Association of Religion Data Archives, the world's largest online religion data archive.