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Dr. Clyde N. Wilson

More of the Way We Are Now

5/11/2025

9 Comments

 
Picture

These days some people are talking up “Christian nationalism.” It is not clear to me what Christ and nationalism have to do with each other. The New Testament, unlike the Old, strikes me as a message of liberation from nationalism.


It’s true that America began as a Christian society and remained so until fairly recent times. However, our Founders did not found a “nation.” They founded a republican Union. And the materials that make a Christian society no longer exist except among a minority. ‘Christian nationalism” is merely an ideology. And like most ideologies is a theory about something that doesn’t exist.

American Christians should be patriots who love their land and people, not nationalists who love their government, especially a government that is a force against both Christianity and patriotism. And American Christians should recognise that our Lord created different varieties of humans, all in His image, who needed to keep to their own given boundaries.


The last thing American Christians need is more nationalism. “Christian nationalism” is just a weak and sad revival of the old Yankee Puritanism which has done so much damage to our society, It is a blasphemous claim that America is the righteous chosen nation---a belief, as General Lee said, that makes a bad government--- aggressive at home and abroad.

The other evening I somehow persuaded myself to watch the annual Country Music Awards for the first time in years. I shut down in less than an hour, having given up any hope of ever hearing any “country music.” The show was a gaudy Hollywood spectacle driven at a frantic New York pace. There was not a thing about that was “country” or had any relationship to what was once known as country music. One of the more authentic recent country songs is rightly titled “Murder on Music Row.”



Of course, the term “country music” was a sales gimmick to avoid having to call it Southern music even as it swept the world with its talent and humanity. If you really want to know about this aspect of our Southern culture take a look at Joseph Stromberg’s recent book from Shotwell Publishing, Southern Story and Song.
9 Comments
Joyce L Bennett link
5/12/2025 02:36:38 pm

"Why, they'd even tell the Possum
to pack up and go back home.
There's been an awful murder,
Down on Music Row.

Wonderful essay. What has happened to country music is indeed a crying shame.

Reply
GENERAL KROMWELL
5/13/2025 07:29:03 am

Thank you, Dr. Wilson. I will share this piece with many members of my congregation. They are all Christian nationalists. I am sorry if I have bothered you sending you private messages via email. I’m also not the best writer anymore because I write in a rush due to time constraints such as raising a young family. Best to have quality over quantity. But I write those people I love and/or respect. I don’t take it personal you are too busy to respond. I’m busy myself, lol. I hope all is well. Sorry I have nothing profound to write in response. I’m rushing to do work to make sure I have quality family time when I get home. God bless.

Reply
Clyde N Wilson
5/13/2025 11:38:14 am

Good writers know that less is more!

Reply
General Kromwell
5/13/2025 11:47:51 am

Christian nationalists will see Jesus before America ever rises from her grave.

Reply
H. V. Traywick, Jr. link
5/14/2025 02:01:46 am

I once saw a demonstration of how AI can create a "Country Music Song" - just tell it to plug in a few things like a Chevy pickup and a beer joint and let 'er rip. George Jones once asked "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?" Now we know: alien robots.

Reply
Anthony Powell
5/17/2025 07:19:42 am

Also, recall when the Dixie Chicks dropped 'Dixie' from the name, and Dolly Parton renamed Dixie Stampede 'Stampede.' Ashamed of Dixie. Shame on them.

Reply
General Kromwell
5/15/2025 06:12:53 am

America is not racing towards Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah are now racing towards America.

Reply
Bobby Craven
5/19/2025 03:15:35 am

I jokingly tell people I was born before rock-n-roll and was raised on old school country music and big band/pop.
Waylan and Willie and the Boys are 2nd generation "country" to me.
What most call "bluegrass" today my daddy called country. Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe, the Carter Family, Jimmie Rogers; etc. is what I grew up calling country.
I was raised in Charleston, SC We were always taught to mistrust Yankees and Yankeeism.
Christian Nationalism is no less a dangerous ideology than Marxism in my estimation.
Mark Twain said it well: Loyalty to country always; loyalty to government when it is deserving.

Reply
Paul Yarbrough
5/21/2025 09:26:02 am


"I was raised in Charleston, SC We were always taught to mistrust Yankees and Yankeeism."
I was raised in Jackson, Miss. Strange? We must have had the same teachers.

Reply



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    Author

    Clyde Wilson is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of South Carolina He is the author or editor of over thirty books and published over 600 articles, essays and reviews

    Dr. Wilson is also is co-publisher of Shotwell Publishing, a source  for unreconstructed Southern books. 

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