Christian Nationalism

World Magazine's latest issue has a cover story on Christian Nationalism.
It's quite good, featuring most of the main players and critics.  

It points out how the Left wants to paint the Right all as nationalists, to energize the Left to vote against the Handmaiden's Tale vision in their heads.  

It points out Christian Nationalists aren't aiming for that vision.  

But it does point to problems, especially in Stephen Wolfe's book, the main catalyst of the discussion right now.

Wilsonites and Canon Press won't like being called a "tiny fringe," but they are.  Most Christian conservatives who are politically engaged do not share the "Moscow Mood."  I think Wilson has an important point to contribute (see next paragraph), but Moscow's messaging often hurts them more than it helps.

One thing the article doesn't cover enough is the underpinnings of theology at play.  Cornelius Van Til's rejection of neutrality anywhere, including politics, is a major factor.  It inherently rejects the secular liberal political order, where we think the same "natural law" rules can apply to everyone.  Can they?  No, CN says, we need God's revealed, special-revelation-law to apply to everyone.

World makes it seem like the choice is either secular liberal democracy a la Rawls, or theocracy.  This is a major flaw of the article.  Wolfe's book didn't do very well describing a path between the two.  Maybe Wilson's Mere Christendom does better.

It seems to me we want Christian worldview underpinnings to our law and politics, without the government fining or jailing people for worshiping in a way the state deems idolatrous (an absurdity at this point), taking God's name in vain or having their restaurant open on Sunday.

Most of CN is just Quixotic dreaming: "what would it look like if society actually implemented God's Word?"  They're not going to.  The last sentence of World's article sums it up: "It’s a sucker’s game. … You risk getting distracted from the things that actually matter."