Christian Nationalism fears Islam not because it is extreme, but because it still works. An essay on unity, mysticism, and the discipline empire can’t control.
This is beautiful. And it rings especially true since just last night, I caught up with an old friend over dinner. He comes from a historically-Orthodox Ukrainian family but was raised in a nondenominational evangelical church in the Chicago area. We had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, and in the course of the conversation, it became apparent that my friend didn’t really know what or where Ethiopia was, had no idea about its Christian history, had no idea there had ever been Christianity in Africa or the Middle East (?!?) before modern, white Christian’s began to evangelize there, knew almost nothing about Eastern Orthodoxy despite knowing that his grandparents practiced it, and had no idea any Christian scriptures had originally been written in any language other than Greek. I, his rabbinical seminarian friend, knew a hundred times more about NT and early Christianity than he did, and he is a very faithful Christian who prays every day. But the scaffolding of his Christianity is impoverished historically and ritually. Eastern Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are so much richer. Though I will observe that none of them has been totally shielded from toxic nationalism by the richer ritual life or scholasticism.
Have you heard of Safi Kaskas, VMB? He is a Muslim Scholar and provides a rich interfaith dialog for Jewish, Islamic & Christian practitioners. Very encouraging.
Yes, Safi Kaskas is a solid example of what actual interfaith work looks like when it’s rooted in scholarship, discipline, and lived practice rather than fear narratives.
Brilliant read. It's also almost amusing how christianity (true, red-letter christianity) originally walked hand-in-hand with mysticism until it was demonized. John was a mystic. Some might even classify Yeshua himself a mystic. But somewhere along the way, we lost that connection between faith and spirituality. And now most are so afraid to even consider one could be a Christian and a mystic at the same time. But Christian mysticism IS still a thing.
You’re right that mysticism was there early, but it wasn’t preserved. Christianity lost most of its mystical path through institutional suppression. What survived did so at the margins and often under suspicion.
Much of what modern Christianity now calls contemplative practice re-entered modern Christian discourse through borrowing from Sufism, though its Islamic roots are usually not acknowledged.
When someone actually begins to awaken inside Christianity, they’re rarely celebrated. They’re monitored, corrected, or pushed out.
Truth is so compelling & for me, at least today, calming. The first 3 hours today were wonderful (i was still in bed). Then made the mistake of getting up & had several chances to practice Presence after discovering things like a clogged dehumidifier that were NOT on my agenda. Raged & then paused & took a breath. Checked my phone & cried….15 people killed at Bondi Beach, one of my favorite places on earth I’ve only been to once, because a Hanukkah celebration was happening. I’m not Jewish, my former husband was, & actually my reaction would have been just as deep no matter the reason or religion - it just hits closer to home.
I said forget it in a very profane way to a few other things i had planned to do & read your beautiful post on why Christian Nationalists are afraid of Islam. Itz Truth. And it calmed me down because for some reason, what i know of Islam, i can’t imagine why it would cause fear.
You answered everything with details and explained it with such clarity - both Christian Nationalism AND Islam. Unbiased, factual, understandable.
It was illuminating & shines a bright light. Wish it was on the cover of every mainstream magazine that still exists (are there any?)
Jesus walked on water. He performed miracles. He said you can throw a mountain into the sea if you have enuf faith. If that’s not mystical, I don’t know what is.
I’ll read this a few more times tonite & let it soak in. It’s brilliant.
Glad you’re still sharing the prayer cards. I think because I always wear a mask, people are too scared to talk to me so i never get a chance for a conversation that would lead to it. Carry em with me & I still hang them up slyly in every store bathroom i visit. It’s such a beautiful prayer 🙏
It’s quite an adventure sometimes - public bathrooms are all interesting & different & depending on the situation, i hang it in each stall if itz vacant & then also I can post a big one on the wall outside the stalls.. i like to wear a trenchcoat & feel like a spy. It per chance i would encounter someone who asked what i was doing, i would answer “I’m a volunteer for a Tulpa, Virgin Monk Boy, Patron Saint of those who oppose Christian Nationalism.” Kinda disappointed that opportunity hasn’t happened yet.
Stopped by whole paycheck yesterday - small side restroom, 2 stalls, one big with changing table, deserted. Ran out of scotch tape - curses! Laid an 8x10 of VMB Pray for America on very clean changing table & left. An hour later popped back in. It was still lying there. Very unique art museum hopefully seen by many hopeful mothers wanting a future for their child 💝
Do you follow Father Richard Rohr? I think you would enjoy him. Mysticism still exists in my tradition, and always has, but we’re a minority in the U.S., even though we’re the single largest branch of Christendom in the world. Great essay, btw!
Mary, thank you. And yes, Rohr’s work has been part of my path. He helped reintroduce a lot of people to the contemplative stream, even if he’s translating things that used to be handed down through elders instead of paperbacks.
And you’re right that mysticism still exists within your tradition. I never meant to say it disappeared. What I’m pointing to is that across Christian history, the mystical path often survived by clinging to the edges—protected by monastics, visionaries, and the occasional stubborn saint. It was present, but it wasn’t exactly encouraged. More often it was monitored, corrected, or treated like a problem waiting to happen.
Islam, by contrast, never exiled its own interior path. Prayer, presence, breath, fasting, remembrance, those stayed central. That contrast is part of why Christian Nationalists react the way they do.
But I’m grateful you brought this up. The contemplative minority inside Christianity has always carried an outsized amount of light. And I’m glad you’re part of it.
I uncovered Christian Mysticism through my path through the 12 Steps. A fake religion cannot save you when you’ve placed yourself beyond human aid, but a higher power that you submit to can. Islam and Sufism make a lot of sense to me, especially the discipline and the practice, which led me to an experience of a higher power, not just a belief in one.
There’s a guy named Daryl Davis that I ran across doing a Live with a reporter named Brian Karem who speaks to the general process at work here. He says (and I’m paraphrasing from memory here) that ignorance begets fear, begets hate, begets rage, begets destruction. And the latter three are but symptoms of the first. Solve the ignorance problem, and suddenly there’s nothing to fear because the element of the unknown that makes us fearful no longer exists. With the mystery taken out of it, we realize that we’re not fundamentally different from others of a different race, or religion or nationality, and in fact have much more in common with them than not. It’s not *directly* on point, but the concept is the same.
I appreciate your scroll. I will print it out for my personal journal. I will do same with the Prayer. I am such a newbie to these conversations among people who know history, who know the inner workings of religions. Raised a Protestant and married my spiritual Soulmate. I hesitate mentioning he was an Episcopal Priest, and so much more. Everyone who wanted communion got it. No rules, no age limits, no membership tithe required. Bill learned early that we are spirits living in a body…sometimes human, sometimes plant, sometimes animal. My parents never had a name for how they worshipped our Maker, or shared their unnamed spiritual experiences in Nature.
The Catholic Church is how I learned that it was rare to find a community of any mainline, or independent group who were actually following Jesus’ teachings. Bill was faithful to what Jesus intended. So, hypocrisy at any level of living together in community sets me off. For me it may be one of the worst forms of lying. Gas lighting. Thinking it’s acceptable to ignore Truth.
Or, to ignore people’s experiences of the unseen world. Bill learned through experience to ask individuals after a time with a loved one passing, had they been having any experiences that they didn’t understand. The person on the other end of the conversation, in a hushed voice, would say, “well, I’ve never told anyone this, but…my deceased husband appeared at the foot of my bed and said I must sell all the stock, my savings, before the end of the week.”She had to fight off her son who thought she’d lost her mind. She did sell the stock, and within the next week, the company crashed and the stock was worthless. She literally would have been penniless. My response to my own experiences: “ You can’t make this stuff up!”
So my question to you, especially with my own experiences , is when do my experiences qualify as mystical experiences? I’ve read mystics, I’ve read books explaining mysticism…me, clueless if the author really knew what they declared! Anyway, my husband knew many many people who had experiences with the unseen beings. I am having them with him now from the Other Side. My question isn’t so much about whether or not I qualify s a “mystic,” but more about why would any of us be drawn into a structure and form and systems where everyone reads the same liturgy, or kneels at certain times or even crosses themselves. I think I’ve lost the meaning of a church community. The only community that I can think of that might practice what you are talking about are the Quakers, Friends, and I don’t know that they even consider themselves Christians? I kinda get why Cynthia wants to make changes operating within the current system of her religious system…but, I hope I’m not being too heretical here, but the creation of churches was never Jesus’s or Magdalene’s original purpose…my attraction to Magdalene is not, in my mind, anything named “Christianity.” Her messages seem so much more to helping us live in two worlds at once. How can I embody the sacred? I do it by listening to my own inner voice. And yes I can be inspired by people who are living the embodiment themselves, but that’s not a reason for me take up their path, is it? Isn’t my challenge to make my own way, my own path.
I’ll stop now. I’m suspicious my questions may simply reflect my own state of mind and being, that I’m doing automatic writing without any judgment. The kind of writing we’re meant to do in our personal journals!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Peace to all, I do believe it takes a village to get any one of us through this earthly life. ❤️🙏❤️👍👍
If anyone got this far, I appreciate you listening, I really do.😎
You’re pointing at something very specific, and very concrete.
What you’re naming isn’t “theocracy,” it’s moral restraint. Limits on greed, exploitation, and commodification of desire. Historically, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived under those kinds of shared ethical boundaries far more easily than under modern market-driven permissiveness.
The irony is that today’s Christian nationalists don’t actually want biblical discipline. They want cultural dominance without restraint. And that’s exactly why a Muslim saying this makes them nervous.
Glad I’ve re-read like I wanted to several times - learn more, ponder more, am blind-sided more, let go more, absorb more. Soooo much for me to soak in so much longer. Truth, welcomed or not, my being needs awareness of. Inspiring. History can be horrific & can also brew so much truth, hope & lasting love ❤️
I haven’t (yet) but maybe folks are just too “polite” here in southern ATlanta lol. I would make a scene falling of my chair laffing if i heard someone say that (still bad self control at times 🤭
I'm told by an American ex-pat who lived in a few modern cities in the middle east for decades that they are very safe. The police state is almost non-existent because everyone obeys the law, so they don't need cops everywhere. People go outside and don't hole up like we do here. Ex-pat communities are super strong. It definitely made me think differently about their culture.
I think your friend’s observation is actually really important, and it matches what a lot of people who’ve lived in those places say: public life is more alive, people are out, communities are tighter, and things often do feel safer and more human-scaled.
When I first read your comment, I immediately heard one of the Christian nationalists in my head saying something like, “Yeah, people behave there because they know what will happen if they don’t…” (insert Scooby-Doo confused “huh??” head-tilt sound effect here).
That story gets told a lot because it fits an authoritarian fantasy: “If we just get tougher, everything will be fine.” But history shows pretty clearly that societies don’t become healthy by being frightened into submission. They become healthier when people actually belong to something and to each other.
The law is tough but I agree. The tight community bond overshadows the fear and the police state. My friend is a Libertarian too, so we're especially critical of the police state, force, aggression, etc.
In some ways their law is quite a bit more strict, but my friend said the State treats your home like it's your castle. It is very very hard for police to step inside your home. In other words, what you do in your home is your business, which very much aligns with our principles of liberty and freedom.
This is beautiful. And it rings especially true since just last night, I caught up with an old friend over dinner. He comes from a historically-Orthodox Ukrainian family but was raised in a nondenominational evangelical church in the Chicago area. We had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant, and in the course of the conversation, it became apparent that my friend didn’t really know what or where Ethiopia was, had no idea about its Christian history, had no idea there had ever been Christianity in Africa or the Middle East (?!?) before modern, white Christian’s began to evangelize there, knew almost nothing about Eastern Orthodoxy despite knowing that his grandparents practiced it, and had no idea any Christian scriptures had originally been written in any language other than Greek. I, his rabbinical seminarian friend, knew a hundred times more about NT and early Christianity than he did, and he is a very faithful Christian who prays every day. But the scaffolding of his Christianity is impoverished historically and ritually. Eastern Christianity, Islam, and Judaism are so much richer. Though I will observe that none of them has been totally shielded from toxic nationalism by the richer ritual life or scholasticism.
Have you heard of Safi Kaskas, VMB? He is a Muslim Scholar and provides a rich interfaith dialog for Jewish, Islamic & Christian practitioners. Very encouraging.
Yes, Safi Kaskas is a solid example of what actual interfaith work looks like when it’s rooted in scholarship, discipline, and lived practice rather than fear narratives.
Thank you for naming him!
Thanks for this calm & respectful look into Islam — instead of the hateful propaganda we always hear from MAGA.✨🌙✨
Brilliant read. It's also almost amusing how christianity (true, red-letter christianity) originally walked hand-in-hand with mysticism until it was demonized. John was a mystic. Some might even classify Yeshua himself a mystic. But somewhere along the way, we lost that connection between faith and spirituality. And now most are so afraid to even consider one could be a Christian and a mystic at the same time. But Christian mysticism IS still a thing.
Anyway, you just won yourself a subscription. 😌👌🏽
You’re right that mysticism was there early, but it wasn’t preserved. Christianity lost most of its mystical path through institutional suppression. What survived did so at the margins and often under suspicion.
Much of what modern Christianity now calls contemplative practice re-entered modern Christian discourse through borrowing from Sufism, though its Islamic roots are usually not acknowledged.
When someone actually begins to awaken inside Christianity, they’re rarely celebrated. They’re monitored, corrected, or pushed out.
S'why I don't really talk about my personal path publicly. Cos I know what they do to people like me. 😅😅
christian nationalism is not Christian!! It is Blasphemy!! Christ loved all and would never chose a nation!
CHRIST LOVES THE POOR, those Turned away from Christian nationalist! These people are shams! They don’t believe in CHRIST!!
Truth is so compelling & for me, at least today, calming. The first 3 hours today were wonderful (i was still in bed). Then made the mistake of getting up & had several chances to practice Presence after discovering things like a clogged dehumidifier that were NOT on my agenda. Raged & then paused & took a breath. Checked my phone & cried….15 people killed at Bondi Beach, one of my favorite places on earth I’ve only been to once, because a Hanukkah celebration was happening. I’m not Jewish, my former husband was, & actually my reaction would have been just as deep no matter the reason or religion - it just hits closer to home.
I said forget it in a very profane way to a few other things i had planned to do & read your beautiful post on why Christian Nationalists are afraid of Islam. Itz Truth. And it calmed me down because for some reason, what i know of Islam, i can’t imagine why it would cause fear.
You answered everything with details and explained it with such clarity - both Christian Nationalism AND Islam. Unbiased, factual, understandable.
It was illuminating & shines a bright light. Wish it was on the cover of every mainstream magazine that still exists (are there any?)
Jesus walked on water. He performed miracles. He said you can throw a mountain into the sea if you have enuf faith. If that’s not mystical, I don’t know what is.
I’ll read this a few more times tonite & let it soak in. It’s brilliant.
Glad you’re still sharing the prayer cards. I think because I always wear a mask, people are too scared to talk to me so i never get a chance for a conversation that would lead to it. Carry em with me & I still hang them up slyly in every store bathroom i visit. It’s such a beautiful prayer 🙏
And THAT was a much needed, reality-check post.
What a great practice you have posting VMB’s Prayer!❤️🙏👍👍 Thank you!
It’s quite an adventure sometimes - public bathrooms are all interesting & different & depending on the situation, i hang it in each stall if itz vacant & then also I can post a big one on the wall outside the stalls.. i like to wear a trenchcoat & feel like a spy. It per chance i would encounter someone who asked what i was doing, i would answer “I’m a volunteer for a Tulpa, Virgin Monk Boy, Patron Saint of those who oppose Christian Nationalism.” Kinda disappointed that opportunity hasn’t happened yet.
👍👍🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Stopped by whole paycheck yesterday - small side restroom, 2 stalls, one big with changing table, deserted. Ran out of scotch tape - curses! Laid an 8x10 of VMB Pray for America on very clean changing table & left. An hour later popped back in. It was still lying there. Very unique art museum hopefully seen by many hopeful mothers wanting a future for their child 💝
Do you follow Father Richard Rohr? I think you would enjoy him. Mysticism still exists in my tradition, and always has, but we’re a minority in the U.S., even though we’re the single largest branch of Christendom in the world. Great essay, btw!
Mary, thank you. And yes, Rohr’s work has been part of my path. He helped reintroduce a lot of people to the contemplative stream, even if he’s translating things that used to be handed down through elders instead of paperbacks.
And you’re right that mysticism still exists within your tradition. I never meant to say it disappeared. What I’m pointing to is that across Christian history, the mystical path often survived by clinging to the edges—protected by monastics, visionaries, and the occasional stubborn saint. It was present, but it wasn’t exactly encouraged. More often it was monitored, corrected, or treated like a problem waiting to happen.
Islam, by contrast, never exiled its own interior path. Prayer, presence, breath, fasting, remembrance, those stayed central. That contrast is part of why Christian Nationalists react the way they do.
But I’m grateful you brought this up. The contemplative minority inside Christianity has always carried an outsized amount of light. And I’m glad you’re part of it.
I uncovered Christian Mysticism through my path through the 12 Steps. A fake religion cannot save you when you’ve placed yourself beyond human aid, but a higher power that you submit to can. Islam and Sufism make a lot of sense to me, especially the discipline and the practice, which led me to an experience of a higher power, not just a belief in one.
Great stuff ✌️
There’s a guy named Daryl Davis that I ran across doing a Live with a reporter named Brian Karem who speaks to the general process at work here. He says (and I’m paraphrasing from memory here) that ignorance begets fear, begets hate, begets rage, begets destruction. And the latter three are but symptoms of the first. Solve the ignorance problem, and suddenly there’s nothing to fear because the element of the unknown that makes us fearful no longer exists. With the mystery taken out of it, we realize that we’re not fundamentally different from others of a different race, or religion or nationality, and in fact have much more in common with them than not. It’s not *directly* on point, but the concept is the same.
A system that depends on outrage is not sustainable. Shared practice vs. shared outrage....that resonates.
I appreciate your scroll. I will print it out for my personal journal. I will do same with the Prayer. I am such a newbie to these conversations among people who know history, who know the inner workings of religions. Raised a Protestant and married my spiritual Soulmate. I hesitate mentioning he was an Episcopal Priest, and so much more. Everyone who wanted communion got it. No rules, no age limits, no membership tithe required. Bill learned early that we are spirits living in a body…sometimes human, sometimes plant, sometimes animal. My parents never had a name for how they worshipped our Maker, or shared their unnamed spiritual experiences in Nature.
The Catholic Church is how I learned that it was rare to find a community of any mainline, or independent group who were actually following Jesus’ teachings. Bill was faithful to what Jesus intended. So, hypocrisy at any level of living together in community sets me off. For me it may be one of the worst forms of lying. Gas lighting. Thinking it’s acceptable to ignore Truth.
Or, to ignore people’s experiences of the unseen world. Bill learned through experience to ask individuals after a time with a loved one passing, had they been having any experiences that they didn’t understand. The person on the other end of the conversation, in a hushed voice, would say, “well, I’ve never told anyone this, but…my deceased husband appeared at the foot of my bed and said I must sell all the stock, my savings, before the end of the week.”She had to fight off her son who thought she’d lost her mind. She did sell the stock, and within the next week, the company crashed and the stock was worthless. She literally would have been penniless. My response to my own experiences: “ You can’t make this stuff up!”
So my question to you, especially with my own experiences , is when do my experiences qualify as mystical experiences? I’ve read mystics, I’ve read books explaining mysticism…me, clueless if the author really knew what they declared! Anyway, my husband knew many many people who had experiences with the unseen beings. I am having them with him now from the Other Side. My question isn’t so much about whether or not I qualify s a “mystic,” but more about why would any of us be drawn into a structure and form and systems where everyone reads the same liturgy, or kneels at certain times or even crosses themselves. I think I’ve lost the meaning of a church community. The only community that I can think of that might practice what you are talking about are the Quakers, Friends, and I don’t know that they even consider themselves Christians? I kinda get why Cynthia wants to make changes operating within the current system of her religious system…but, I hope I’m not being too heretical here, but the creation of churches was never Jesus’s or Magdalene’s original purpose…my attraction to Magdalene is not, in my mind, anything named “Christianity.” Her messages seem so much more to helping us live in two worlds at once. How can I embody the sacred? I do it by listening to my own inner voice. And yes I can be inspired by people who are living the embodiment themselves, but that’s not a reason for me take up their path, is it? Isn’t my challenge to make my own way, my own path.
I’ll stop now. I’m suspicious my questions may simply reflect my own state of mind and being, that I’m doing automatic writing without any judgment. The kind of writing we’re meant to do in our personal journals!!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Peace to all, I do believe it takes a village to get any one of us through this earthly life. ❤️🙏❤️👍👍
If anyone got this far, I appreciate you listening, I really do.😎
Glad I’m re-reading this as i planned - learn more, ponder more, get pissed more, get inspired more
As a Muslim, I would feel very comfortable in a Christian country that followed the Bible a country that banned gambling, usury, pornography, etc.
You’re pointing at something very specific, and very concrete.
What you’re naming isn’t “theocracy,” it’s moral restraint. Limits on greed, exploitation, and commodification of desire. Historically, Muslims, Jews, and Christians lived under those kinds of shared ethical boundaries far more easily than under modern market-driven permissiveness.
The irony is that today’s Christian nationalists don’t actually want biblical discipline. They want cultural dominance without restraint. And that’s exactly why a Muslim saying this makes them nervous.
Glad I’ve re-read like I wanted to several times - learn more, ponder more, am blind-sided more, let go more, absorb more. Soooo much for me to soak in so much longer. Truth, welcomed or not, my being needs awareness of. Inspiring. History can be horrific & can also brew so much truth, hope & lasting love ❤️
Best advice for a MAGA Christian: Get down off your cross.
Brilliant. Can I borrow that? I'll credit you 😉
Yes, you may
I’ve heard that in the rooms. 🤔
I haven’t (yet) but maybe folks are just too “polite” here in southern ATlanta lol. I would make a scene falling of my chair laffing if i heard someone say that (still bad self control at times 🤭
I'm told by an American ex-pat who lived in a few modern cities in the middle east for decades that they are very safe. The police state is almost non-existent because everyone obeys the law, so they don't need cops everywhere. People go outside and don't hole up like we do here. Ex-pat communities are super strong. It definitely made me think differently about their culture.
I think your friend’s observation is actually really important, and it matches what a lot of people who’ve lived in those places say: public life is more alive, people are out, communities are tighter, and things often do feel safer and more human-scaled.
When I first read your comment, I immediately heard one of the Christian nationalists in my head saying something like, “Yeah, people behave there because they know what will happen if they don’t…” (insert Scooby-Doo confused “huh??” head-tilt sound effect here).
That story gets told a lot because it fits an authoritarian fantasy: “If we just get tougher, everything will be fine.” But history shows pretty clearly that societies don’t become healthy by being frightened into submission. They become healthier when people actually belong to something and to each other.
The law is tough but I agree. The tight community bond overshadows the fear and the police state. My friend is a Libertarian too, so we're especially critical of the police state, force, aggression, etc.
In some ways their law is quite a bit more strict, but my friend said the State treats your home like it's your castle. It is very very hard for police to step inside your home. In other words, what you do in your home is your business, which very much aligns with our principles of liberty and freedom.