Do self-proclaimed white nationalists understand what that actually means?

Josh Hawley has declared he advocates Christian nationalism. Well, then.

“Some will say now that I am calling America a Christian nation. So I am. And some will say that I am advocating Christian nationalism. And so I do,” the U.S. senator from Missouri announced this month from the podium of the National Conservatism Conference in Washington.

The conference, known as NatCon, promotes “the rich tradition of national conservative thought as an intellectually serious alternative to the excesses of purist libertarianism, and in stark opposition to political theories grounded in race.”

Uh huh.

Maybe it should be no surprise that the man who fist bumped the insurrectionist crowd on Jan. 6, who wrote “Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs,” and who fought the Affordable Care Act as an attorney in the Hobby Lobby case has come out for Christian nationalism.

But I’m going to wager that some of you don’t really know what that is and perhaps have not even heard of it.

Only a third of U.S. adults say they have heard of Christian nationalism and have a favorable or unfavorable view of it, according to a February Pew Institute poll.

But 60% of Christians haven’t heard of it.

More Democrats than Republicans have (55% to 36%). So why are conservative politicians bandying around the term like it’s the next commandment on those stone tablets God gave to Moses?

I’ve challenged Hawley before on what he says he believes. In his 4,300-word treatise, “Our Christian Nation,” for the magazine First Things, Hawley seems to understand the true origins of Christianity and favors Jesus Christ over “the strong man.”

So, I have to ask again, and challenge anyone claiming to be a Christian nationalist this question: Are you sure, and do you really know what you’re claiming to be?

Christian nationalism is not Christian, and it goes beyond the idea that we live in a Christian nation.

Let’s take a look.

I’m not a Bible scholar, nor an expert in the study of Christian nationalism. So, I turned to someone who is: Andrew Whitehead is an Indiana University professor of sociology and executive director of the Association of Religion Data Archives at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture.

He has written two books, “Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States” and “American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church.”

I asked Whitehead to explain the term to someone who has never heard of it.

“Christian nationalism is the desire to see the fusion of a very particular expression of Christianity with American civic life. And it believes that this particular expression of Christianity should undergird all of what America is and how it operates and that the government should defend and preserve this form of Christian nationalism as the cultural ideal in the United States.”

Notice that Whitehead uses the term “particular expression of Christianity” a lot. That’s because there are lots of expressions of faith in America and the world. But Whitehead said this kind of expression combined with nationalism brings with it what he calls “cultural baggage.”

“The Christian of Christian nationalism is focused on one particular type and it isn’t just kind of Orthodox historic Christian beliefs like, ‘I believe in the divinity of Jesus,’ or that ‘God is three parts in one,’ or those types of things.”

Key elements of Christian nationalism

Whitehead identified four key elements in Americans surveyed that show how strongly they embrace Christian nationalism:

• Authoritarian social control (we live in a chaotic world and need order)

• Desire for a traditional patriarchal social hierarchy (men lead; women support)

• Strict ethnoracial boundaries (white, natural-born, Anglo-Protestant)

• Populism and a tendency toward conspiratorial thinking (us versus them).

From a historic Christian perspective these beliefs go against the teachings of Jesus Christ in so many ways: God gave us free will to make decisions and mistakes. Women followers of Christ led in the early church. Jesus preached to a multicultural following. Jesus invited everyone to the table.

The puzzle pieces of Christian nationalism simply don’t fit into the larger picture of Christianity.

My biggest concern is that because so many people don’t really know what Christian nationalism means, the only way they’ll find out is from political candidates who aren’t explaining the whole story.

To be certain, it’s more than being patriotic and loving God.

So if you really believe we live in a chaotic world and need a white, male savior to take America back from all of the others, then maybe you are a Christian nationalist.

But if you are someone with conservative values who loves Jesus and apple pie, maybe you aren’t. And that’s OK.

Yvette Walker is a columnist for The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.