MEGAN FOWLER
Presbyterians and Lutherans, among others, voted at annual conventions to study how to respond to the political movement.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY
JULY 30, 2026
Sollina Images / Getty
At denominational gatherings across the country this summer, one topic of conversation has been a near constant: Christian nationalism.
Denominations discuss and debate a wide range of subjects at their annual conventions, occasionally making headlines, as Southern Baptists did in June with a vote to ban women from preaching. But among Baptists, Presbyterians, and other evangelical groups, a quieter work has been underway in committees and working groups as churches grapple with how to address growing efforts to marry Christianity with the tools of government.
At its annual synod in June, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) voted to form a Christian nationalism study committee that will present a report in 2028. The same month, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) heard a partial report from a Christian nationalism study committee it created last year and approved the group continuing its work for another year.
Such projects, which on their face might seem like academic exercises, have met resistance within some denominations, in part stemming from disagreements over whether Christian nationalism is a serious theological problem or a passing fad.
The Christian Reformed Church narrowly approved—by a 93–84 vote—a resolution to form its study committee. The group will define the term Christian nationalism, examine how different forms of the teaching have appeared throughout church history, and guide CRC churches on what it means for them.
The goal of the resolution is, in part, to reject “theological frameworks that conflate ecclesial identity with national identity.”
Sollina Images / Getty
At denominational gatherings across the country this summer, one topic of conversation has been a near constant: Christian nationalism.
Denominations discuss and debate a wide range of subjects at their annual conventions, occasionally making headlines, as Southern Baptists did in June with a vote to ban women from preaching. But among Baptists, Presbyterians, and other evangelical groups, a quieter work has been underway in committees and working groups as churches grapple with how to address growing efforts to marry Christianity with the tools of government.
At its annual synod in June, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) voted to form a Christian nationalism study committee that will present a report in 2028. The same month, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) heard a partial report from a Christian nationalism study committee it created last year and approved the group continuing its work for another year.
Such projects, which on their face might seem like academic exercises, have met resistance within some denominations, in part stemming from disagreements over whether Christian nationalism is a serious theological problem or a passing fad.
The Christian Reformed Church narrowly approved—by a 93–84 vote—a resolution to form its study committee. The group will define the term Christian nationalism, examine how different forms of the teaching have appeared throughout church history, and guide CRC churches on what it means for them.
The goal of the resolution is, in part, to reject “theological frameworks that conflate ecclesial identity with national identity.”
Some delegates expressed hesitation to ask the CRC to engage with a topic that is difficult to define and might no longer be relevant in two years, when the study committee gives its report.
“Our denomination should not be seeking to respond to every buzzword that comes in the culture,” said JP Trabbold, a pastor at Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in Ripon, California, according to reporting by the denomination’s magazine. “It is a matter that’s too broad to define. People that call themselves Christian nationalists, they fall into different camps.”
“Everyone agrees there are ways that the church and state relate that are unhealthy, but we also all agree that there are ways that are healthy,” said John Lee, pastor of Bethel CRC in Sioux Center, Iowa, on a CRC podcast. “It’s incumbent upon us to not jump to the prophetic and quickly denounce this as a false church … without defining what it is they are denouncing.”
The partial report from the Presbyterian Church in America committee highlighted darker behaviors sometimes associated with Christian nationalism.
The 35-page report included a pastoral letter and a series of affirmations and denials. The pastoral letter denounced “the intemperate and unclean speech adopted by some of those who call themselves Christian Nationalists,” and warned pastors that some expressions of Christian nationalism “embrace forms of antisemitism, race realism, and Kinism,” a reference to the belief that Christians should favor their own relatives and ethnic groups.
This year’s moves are a continuation of steps denominations have already been taking to confront Christian nationalism. Last year, the PCA voted to join other, smaller Reformed denominations—the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church—in “condemning without distinction any theological or political teaching which posits a superiority of race or ethnic identity born of immutable human characteristics and calls to repentance any who would promote or associate themselves with such teaching, either by commission or omission.”
The suggestions in the PCA report, like many resolutions passed at denominational conventions, are not necessarily binding. Pastors and church leaders cannot be disciplined for disregarding the report’s findings. But the findings can shape church postures toward certain viewpoints.
“It is our hope that this report will inform the thinking of the courts of the church as they seek to identify the confessional boundaries for officers and officer candidates,” the report states.
Other denominations large and small have decided this summer to take action on Christian nationalism. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a conservative Presbyterian denomination with less than 35,000 members, voted at its annual meeting in June to form a study committee.
And last week, the 2 million-member Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod adopted, by a large margin, a resolution to form a committee “to examine such political and social issues,” especially racism, antisemitism, and Christian nationalism.
At the summer’s largest denominational convening, the Southern Baptist Convention did not specifically address Christian nationalism, but it adopted a resolution rejecting ethnonationalism. The measure stated in part that the SBC rejects “nativism, racial or ethnic hostility, ethno-nationalism, discrimination, and all ideologies or rhetoric that deny the equal worth and dignity of any people group regardless of immigration status, while also affirming that Christian compassion and hospitality do not negate lawful order or excuse indifference to public justice and social peace.”
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