By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
O. Alan Noble, a Christian writer and social media influencer, has called former President Donald Trump “manifestly unfit for any office.”
In a recent post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Noble voiced concern about Christian nationalism — a label frequently attached to Trump and his biggest supporters.
But Noble’s specific criticism focused less on the melding of faith and U.S. politics and more on the wide-ranging misuse of the designation itself.
“Actual Christian Nationalism, a legitimate threat to the church and nation, gains strength from the overly broad application of the term ‘Christian Nationalism’ in precisely the same way actual racism gained strength from overly broad usages of the term ‘racism,’” argued Noble, an English professor at Oklahoma Baptist University and editor-in-chief of the online magazine Christ and Pop Culture.
“Be precise,” he advised.
Related: The complexity of defining and measuring Christian nationalism: 5 takeaways
Noble declined an interview request from Religion Unplugged, explaining, “I’m not comfortable expounding on that tweet. [Christian nationalism] is a touchy issue that I’m not ready to speak about at length.”
But the point of his post seemed to resonate with fellow scholars.
“It strikes me the CN accusation has become for progressives what the ‘woke’ accusation has become for conservatives,” replied Christina Crenshaw, a cultural engagement and leadership associate at Dallas Theological Seminary.
“Like, not every orthodox Christian living faithfully in a pluralistic public square is a CN,” she added. “And not every expression of social/civic justice is Marxism. The reductionism and polarization is exhausting.”
Thomas Kidd, a church history professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri, offered an all-caps assessment of Noble’s message: “PRECISION DOES NOT SELL.”
This story appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
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