Abstract
In the United States, Christian nationalism does not just shape politics, it discretely redraws the line between a “patriot” and a “terrorist.” This research examines how, from Donald Trump’s 2016 election through the present, Christian nationalism in the United States reshapes political extremism and what we are willing to name as “terrorism,” while tracing its roots through further histories of settler colonialism and state violence against Indigenous communities in North America. Rather than treating Christian nationalism as only a set of beliefs, I approach it as a political regime that fuses national identity, race, and power; asking how leaders and organizations define a “Christian nation” and how that language justifies increasingly extreme actions. Employing a mixed-methods research approach, I combine historical and legal analysis, media analysis, and qualitative case studies of historical events and documented acts of violence. I examine how the media, politicians, and law enforcement label or refuse to label Christian nationalist violence as terrorism, compared with other religious or ideological violence, in the name of God. I also analyze how race, immigration, Indigenous sovereignty, and “Western civilization” narratives shape who is imagined as a terrorist, and where gaps in domestic terrorism law allow religiously coded extremism to go unnamed and/or unpunished. Using an intersectional framework, I dissect the impacts of how consistently naming Christian nationalist violence as terrorism might transform public understandings of security, democracy, and political legitimacy in the United States.
Presenters
SueRae O'BlenessStudent, Political Science and Women's Gender Sexuality Studies, University of Central Oklahoma, Oklahoma, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Christian Nationalism, Political Extremism, Terrorism, Indigenous Sovereignty, Policy Reform, Politics
