Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the writer's point of view on the nature of outside observation of Lancaster County
I wonder how deeply other Christians look into the churches and other organizations they support. Many Christians simply want to be faithful. Although they may be savvy customers in most parts of life, they are not inclined to research the activities of churches and Christian organizations. Even — or perhaps especially — the ones they support.
A friend recently shared with me an invitation to an April 29 fundraiser for Dayspring Christian Academy, which is located in Mountville. The invitation bears all the marks of Christian nationalism, the movement that seeks to impose one narrow Christian agenda upon the rest of society, including the government. Red, white and blue color scheme. “Remember America Speaker Series” under an arc of red stars. And the banner: “Family. Church. Education.”
For the record, I love my country. And I care about family, church and education.
The event’s main speakers, Fox News host Pete Hegseth and former child actor turned evangelist Kirk Cameron, represent a sort of mainstream Christian conservatism.
Then I read, “Special Appearance by Sean Feucht.”
Sean Feucht reflects the kind of Christian nationalism that poses a direct threat to democracy. Feucht travels the country appearing in “ReAwaken America Tour” events alongside pardoned criminals and election deniers Roger Stone and Michael Flynn. That tour visited Lancaster County just before the November midterm elections and featured bizarre conspiracy theories and a host of Christian kooks. One speaker claimed God’s “angel of death” was about to strike Democrats dead and the world’s wealth would be transferred to Christians.
Feucht didn’t attend just one of these events; he participated in many. He continues to feature videos from former President Donald Trump at some of his events, even after the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. This is the kind of Christian nationalism Dayspring is promoting.
“When it comes to the church, few voices have been as loud in calling the God’s people to engage the culture and redeem it for Christ than Sean Feucht,” Dayspring Headmaster Dan Stone states on the school’s website.
Nation’s culture wars
As a scholar of religion, I’ve been tracking Christian nationalism for several years. I’ve also been reading Dayspring’s promotional magazine off and on. Its thematic issues rarely address Christian theological teaching or provide inspirational content. I cannot recall content that encourages people to love God more dearly or our neighbors more closely. Almost always, the magazine plays into our nation’s divisive culture wars. I recall one recent issue largely devoted to critical race theory. I would be shocked if anyone in Dayspring’s administration or faculty has ever read critical scholarship on race in its raw form. I do.
As researchers Katherine Stewart, Julie Ingersoll and Bradley Onishi point out, Christian nationalism is profoundly antidemocratic. It often manifests itself in “Christian academies” such as we have in Lancaster County. And it’s behind attacks on public education as we are seeing in local school board meetings now.
Local congregations are organizing one uproar after another about school library books, transgender students and the possibility that schools might actually include the subject of race in the teaching of American history. I know which congregations are behind some of these efforts because I talk to parents, board members and administrators in several school districts. I hope my fellow Christians are asking whether they sponsor organizations that make it harder, rather than easier, for teachers to educate our students.
For his part, Feucht was based for years in Redding, California, as a worship leader at Bethel Church. Bill Johnson, the senior leader at that church, openly promotes dominionism, the idea that Christians should “take dominion” — that is, control — over the “seven mountains of culture”: family, religion, education, media, arts and entertainment, business and government.
Do my fellow Christians want to support this ideology? Do they follow a gospel of love or one of domination?
Institutional veiling
Dayspring can invite whomever it wants to speak and perform at its events. My concern is that Christian nationalism tends to hide behind Christian institutions.
Last fall, this kind of institutional veiling occurred in relationship to the Lancaster County Community Foundation’s ExtraGive campaign. In an effort to promote transparency, the foundation required participating nonprofits to share their nondiscrimination policies. A number of “Christian” organizations refused to do so, including Dayspring and Veritas Academy.
The schools cited religious freedom and their “biblical” stances on biblical sexual morality as reasons for their nonparticipation. In other words, they chose not to disclose their stances toward LGBTQ persons to prospective donors through the campaign and developed their own alternative funding vehicles.
It can be difficult to find the terms “homosexuality” or “transgender” on the websites of these institutions, though the Dayspring website does include a post about the need to “prepare children to defend a faith that is constantly under attack” from a culture that will introduce them to “transgenderism, radical feminism, racial violence, and increasing religious persecution” (according to the LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, “transgenderism” is “a term used by anti-transgender activists to dehumanize transgender people and reduce who they are to ‘a condition’ ”).
Lancaster County’s role
Research — by experts including Robert P. Jones, president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, and University of Oklahoma sociologist Samuel Perry — shows that people who hold Christian nationalist views are far more likely to support political violence than are the rest of us. Sure enough, last year, a Lancaster County preacher joked about bombing the institution where I preach, Lancaster Theological Seminary, in a sermon that appeared on social media: “If I’d had to attend Lancaster Seminary, I would have had to become the Unabomber.”
Not. Funny. At. All.
To observers around the world, Lancaster County sits at the heart of the political division in the United States. National and international journalists have visited our region to understand the relationship between Christian nationalism and our country’s polarization. I hope my neighbors are not supporting “Christian” institutions that foster this division.
Greg Carey, Ph.D., is professor of New Testament at Lancaster Theological Seminary. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the seminary.
