I've lived in a small town in a red state for most of my life, surrounded by a mix of farmers, factory workers, small business and shop owners, as well as people from the local university. In my daily life, I never hear the term "Christian Nationalism." To me, it's a pejorative label used for obvious political purposes.

In my small town, we rely on each other for survival. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, or other factors of our neighbors aren't important to us. These are our neighbors, and we value them regardless of their background. The only thing that tends to cause tension is politics. Loud, “in your face” activism to vomit your views onto another person or group is received as a mild form of violence. Calm conversation or debate is not.

I think the term "Christian Nationalism" is an obvious play to energize Liberals, Progressives, and Democrats against some unseen monster lurking in the dark. There is no tangible, organized force of "Christian Nationalists" waiting to take over cities or sweep the country to take away the rights of anyone.

As a Christian, I live by the principle of nonaggression and strive to be kind. I understand that the Church has been responsible for many historical wrongs, not individual Christians. Nationalists, in general, are proud of their country and want the best for it. I’m not sure why this is threatening. The term "Nationalist" often sounds scary due to its word association with the Nazi party, which was officially known as the "National Socialist Party." This is textbook use of a word or phrase that subconsciously links one unrelated thing to another unrelated thing by picking words that are similar.

Perhaps the larger issue is that life in cities and rural areas is completely different. As foreign as living on a different planet in some cases. I believe that people in cities shouldn't be setting policies for rural people, and rural people shouldn't be setting policies for city people. The silliness of this great terror is in its name. I wish we could focus on building our communities and respecting each other's differences, rather than letting politicized labels drive us further apart.

I went on several tangents there, and I apologize for that. Let your people know that there is no army of teeth gnashing, bible thumpers coming to force them to say the pledge of allegiance. If they believe that there is such a group perhaps they should ask themselves why they believe that, who planted that thought in them, to who stands to benefit from that belief…