An influential evangelical Christian denomination advanced a report denouncing Christian nationalism, despite pushback from a group of social media savvy pastors and authors.
Leaders in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) General Assembly on June 24 debated a report that rejects the movement that believes the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation, showing general support.
The report denounces ideologies that promote racial and ethnic superiority, such as "race realism" and "kinism," which are embraced by some pockets of the Christian nationalist movement.
The PCA and its sibling evangelical denomination, the Nashville-based Southern Baptist Convention, have been wrestling with the popularity of Christian nationalism among a minority of their members. The PCA’s support for a study committee’s report was the first major rebuttal of Christian nationalism for a major evangelical body in the U.S.
“We were unanimous as a committee in rejecting speech that is crass, unwholesome, unclean, debasing, snide and contemptuous,” Mississippi pastor David Strain, who chaired the study committee on Christian nationalism, said during a floor debate. “We wish to be clear about the unqualified wickedness of racism and kinism, antisemitism and all forms of racial prejudice.”
The PCA voted at its 2025 general assembly to establish the Christian nationalism study committee amid debate about how to best engage politics from a conservative religious perspective as Christian nationalism grows more popular. Advocacy groups and certain figures, such as Stephen Wolfe, author of “The Case for Christian Nationalism,” have become more connected with the PCA and Southern Baptist Convention. Critics have accused Wolfe and those advocacy groups, such as American Reformer and the Center for Baptist Leadership, of trying to inject Christian nationalist views into denominations that believe strongly in religious liberty.
North Carolina pastor Kevin DeYoung, who served as PCA General Assembly moderator last year, appointed the members of the denomination’s study committee on Christian nationalism. Because DeYoung previously sparred with Wolfe online, many expected the study committee to be wary of Christian nationalism.
The committee’s report, presented to the PCA General Assembly at its Louisville gathering, was exactly that.
“The church and the state are both institutions created by God, each with its distinct calling and sphere of responsibility,” the report said. “The church is not called to direct the affairs of the state, nor the state the affairs of the Church.”
Wolfe criticized the study committee’s assertions. The report makes, “modern liberalism the one and only acceptable political philosophy in the PCA,” he said in an interview before the floor debate. “That’s my conclusion from reading it. It would essentially require ministers to be modern liberals.”
Wolfe is not part of the PCA, but he teamed up with two PCA pastors to write a new book titled, “Reformed Christian Politics.” His co-authors are New Mexico pastor Zachary Garris and Florida pastor Sean McGowan. The three of them want their book to be used as a resource that informs additional revisions to the report.
The study committee missed a filing deadline, so it will technically bring the final version to the PCA General Assembly at its 2027 gathering. However, the assembly decided June 24 to provide the partial report to its churches and regional governance bodies, called presbyteries.
“Our people are waiting for a statement. They have heard the terms Christian nationalism floated around,” Georgia pastor Jim Shaw said during the floor debate.
Other commissioners thought the report overstepped.
The report contains, “vague, unspecified accusations of things like racism, kinism, unclean speech,” Virginia pastor Ken Christian said on the floor. “These are leveled against nameless people throughout the pastoral letter, which has the effect, however unintentional, of tarring Christian nationalist adherents or sympathizers with such ideas without any specifics.”
The committee's report noted the label of Christian nationalism contains various definitions and advises pastors to pay "careful attention to what a person actually believes, not to the label they use or the label others apply to them."
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect