Baptist News Global Covers Baptizing America

The first news article about the forthcoming book by Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood is out. And it’s a good one. So we wanted to share it with you.

As Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global wrote about Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, he worked in quotes from the book and from an interview with Kaylor.

Here’s a taste of what Brumley wrote in his article:

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While White evangelicals get most of the blame, mainline and other non-evangelical Christians must acknowledge their part in fostering the political ideology that seeks to merge Christian and American identities. … This is a book that tells an often overlooked side of the story.

… “It can be uncomfortable to realize we are part of the problem,” said Kaylor. … “We all need to do the work to detox, to separate the wheat and chaff from what’s gospel and what’s American. But it’s easier and more comforting to look at the extreme and dangerous examples of Christian Nationalism today and to say, ‘Oh, we are not like those people over there.’”

… [Mainline Protestants] made strides in promoting the merger of faith and government through the mid-20th century when Christian Nationalism was described in different terms, the book claims. “Phrases like ‘civil religion,’ ‘American exceptionalism,’ ‘religious nationalism,’ and others contain elements of what is now labeled as Christian Nationalism.”

… “If it is now considered Christian Nationalism to advocate for official prayers in public schools, then it was also Christian Nationalism when Presbyterian, Episcopal, Lutheran, and Methodist clergy helped get such prayers into schools in the first place.”

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Read the rest of the article at Baptist News Global.

And if you’ve not done so yet, pre-order your copy of Baptizing America today! You can buy it online wherever you purchase books. If you order it directly from Chalice Press, save 33% off the cover price when you use the promo code “BaptizingW&W.”