What is Christian Nationalism, and what is it not? With Philip S. Gorski, author of "The Flag and the Cross"

<p>The topic of Christian nationalism has been much in the news recently. Republican politicians like Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia both have claimed the term as their own, and Boebert in particular has loudly proclaimed that she does not believe in the separation of church and state. “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk,” she <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWOSF3SHdUo&amp;t=5271s" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. “The church is supposed to direct the government; the government is not supposed to direct the church.”</p><p>Perhaps the most aggressive Christian nationalist, despite his protestations about the term, is Pennsylvania's Doug Mastriano, a state senator who is the Republican nominee for governor in that state. Listen to Mastriano's comments in <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/doug-mastriano-donald-trump-christian-right-1234589455/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a 2021 zoom call a week before the January 6 insurrection,</a> in which he baptizes conspiracy theories and his political will to power in the language of spiritual righteousness.</p><p>That call was organized by a man named Jim Garlow, who is reportedly influential in something called <a href="https://bereanresearch.org/dominionism-nar/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the New Apostolic Reformation</a>, which is <a href="https://buckscountybeacon.com/2022/08/underreported-and-massive-theocratic-movement-joins-forces-with-michael-flynn-and-roger-stone/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">a loosely connected network</a> of men and women who call themselves apostles and prophets. These self-proclaimed divine emissaries claim that God speaks to them uniquely, and they claim authority over other people based on these grounds.</p><p>Here's another example of the growing fusion throughout the country between religion and politics, in a way that confuses the two as one and the same rather than understandin