Think about it- if Christian nationalism is correct and religion is about being patriotic, armed, anti-abortion and heterosexual then why didn’t Jesus teach any of that? If Christian Nationalism is correct then Jesus would have to be the worst teacher of all time.The answer many Christian Nationalists give to the question “why didn’t Jesus teach against abortion and homosexuality is that Jesus didn’t talk about a lot of important things but that doesn’t make them right. That answer is technically true, but it also completely dodges the question. Christian Nationalists need to explain how they can claim to be following Jesus when the movement is based almost entirely on things Jesus didn’t say. How did Christians Nationalism degenerate from “turn the other cheek” to “stand your ground’? How did Jesus’ call to share the world get replaced by a heartless commitment to free markets? How did Jesus’ call to care for our one human family get replaced with calls to turn the needy sojourner away from our borders?Christian Nationalists need to realize that Jesus never saw the finished Christian scripture. Jesus never approved a hierarchy of clergy. Jesus never said that in order to be married you need to get a wedding license from the state. Jesus never signed off on any of the creeds that would be developed centuries later. If anything, Jesus rejected the religion of dogma and hierarchy in favor of a life of simplicity, humility, forgiveness and sharing. When a rich young ruler asked Jesus what he could do to inherit eternal life Jesus didn’t mention baptism, confession of sins, or any of the atonement theories of Paul. He told the young man to share his possessions with the poor. Think about that for a moment.Jesus answered another person asking about eternal life with a story of nonsectarian compassion. The parable of the good Samaritan is a teaching story of religious people getting it wrong and a merciful outsider getting it right. Jesus then told his followers to “go and do likewise.” Doesn’t the story of the good Samaritan imply one doesn’t need to be a sectarian Christian to live the kind of life Jesus described? If we look at the teachings of Jesus it seems that a loving Atheist is actually much closer to the life Jesus described than a perfectly orthodox believer who is indifferent to the world’s suffering. The question is whether some Christians will give Jesus a say in the matter of what it means to be Christian. If Christian Nationalism is correct and the essence of Christianity consists in things Jesus never mentioned then Jesus would have to be the worst teacher of all time. If we assume that Jesus wasn’t a bad teacher, then we must also assume he did not come to teach people to be American nationalists OR sectarian Christians but to be kind and universal human beings. Maybe Christian Nationalists should “go and do likewise.”