America Magazine

(American Magazine. Kathleen Bonnette).

A recent story in Politico by Alexander Ward and Heidi Przybyla (“Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration”) and the kerfuffle it has animated in Christian spaces is in need of some nuance.

The authors warn of the dangers of a Christian nationalist agenda; they also highlight documents indicating that Christian nationalism would be an explicit policy priority of the administration if Donald J. Trump is again elected president. Mr. Ward and Ms. Pryzbyla worry that Russell Vought, a prospective chief of staff in a second Trump administration, “and his ideological brethren would not shy from using their administration positions to promote Christian doctrine and imbue public policy with it.” They also note that Mr. Vought “makes clear reference to human rights being defined by God, not man.” In a later interview on MSNBC, Ms. Pryzbyla went further, stating that the belief that rights come from God, rather than human authority, makes one a Christian nationalist.

Some Christian political activists, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Brian Burch of Catholic Vote, cried foul, saying that the MSNBC interview in particular is evidence that Christianity is under attack.

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(America Magazine. Stephen P. White).

Catholic life in the United States is deeply rooted in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. But that might not mean what you think it means.

The Associated Press recently published an article taking an in-depth look at an “immense shift” underway in the church in the United States. Among their conclusions: “Generations of Catholics who embraced the modernizing tide sparked in the 1960s by Vatican II are increasingly giving way to religious conservatives who believe the church has been twisted by change, with the promise of eternal salvation replaced by guitar Masses, parish food pantries and casual indifference to church doctrine.”

The combination of declining Mass attendance with, as the A.P. tells it, “increasingly traditional priests and growing numbers of young Catholics searching for more orthodoxy,” has given the latter an influence within the U.S. church disproportionate to their numbers (which remain relatively small) among American Catholics generally.

One man, speaking to the A.P. about the shift toward a more traditional liturgy at his parish, put it this way: “I’m a lifelong Catholic. I grew up going to church every Sunday. But I’d never seen anything like this.” This is hardly the first time that many American Catholics have found themselves wondering, “What’s happening to the Catholic Church I grew up in?”

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