I first used this term in the post “The new Carrie Prejean?” I’m using often enough that it seems helpful to break the definition I used there out into a separate post.
Christianist is a term I first heard from Atlantic Monthly blogger Andrew Sullivan — a useful term that to me conveys not Christiantity as religion, but rather Christianity as political ideology. Sullivan, who is gay, Catholic, & conservative — but not a “war of values” social conservative — does not feel any more represented by the religious right than my friend Dianne O’Connell of Immanuel Presbyterian Church does; in an essay written for Time magazine, Sullivan writes, “let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism.”
Hence, a handy term to distinguish the politics of Jerry Prevo & his followers & allies — the ideological contemporaries & descendants of the Moral Majority — from other forms of Christianity found in Alaska, the U.S., & the world.
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Yes, I’ve been using this term for months now, inspired by the “Islamist” term for radical Moslems. The oppressive, anti-democratic reactionary theocracy these people are pushing has nothing to do with Christianity, but calling them “Christians” makes it hard to attack them because then you’re seen as attacking Christians. People need to wake up to their agenda; it’s real, and it’s dangerous, and it’s insidious because it flies under the radar.
I’ve been using the term for about 4 years. Don’t know who coined it but picked it up from the cosmos, I thought.. Perfectly descriptive and people seem to ‘get it’ without much trouble. Bill Moyers did a PBS interview years ago that outlined the theocracy planned, quite seriously, by folks like Pat Robertson et al. Do be concerned over there in America.
From the land that sent you all the Puritans,
Jay, London
Thanks for reminding me of the term, I had heard it, probably from Mel, in person, but had not thought of it recently, it seems that it fits right in with islamist. I think that the “christianists” and the “islamists” would, each, have a hauntingly similar view of the world as they would like it–albeit through a different focus. Repression, and the anti-democratic theocracy being prime factors of their “world view”.