Christian Nationalism Versus the Village Ethic

The village is the revolution. Not the politics of fear. Not the curated spectacle of dominance. The village is where the heart is. The village is where all are welcome. The village is the neighborhood, the shared streets, the spaces where people see each other and care.

Christian nationalism has abandoned this ethic. It sheds the empathy learned in childhood gospel lessons for a posture and policy of dominance, often clothed in the language of God and nation. Today, ICE roams the streets of America, enforcing borders that fracture neighborhoods instead of building safe villages of care and compassion. Faith has been weaponized; morality replaced by control.

Mr. Rogers was a soft, calm white prophetic voice that was ignored and has been largely forgotten. His simple ethic of neighbor—belonging before difference, love before ideology—offers a model of moral imagination now absent in public life. Christian nationalism has replaced that imagination with suspicion and hierarchy, using faith to justify exclusion rather than nurture community.

Black History Month reminds us that the village ethic has always been a tool of resistance. For a people stripped of foundation, family, and identity, the Black church became a village: a place where dignity was preserved, strategy was shared, and civil rights were pursued against the violent machinery of racist white supremacy and political policy. The village is where movements were born, where communities survived, and where justice was taught in action.

The debate between organizations like FBA and local community activists on whether Black neighbors should assist immigrant neighbors facing ICE enforcement illustrates the moral logic of the village ethic. It is a debate of relative judgment: if your immigrant neighbor is part of your village, then you love thy neighbor as yourself. If the immigrant is not your neighbor, there is no moral dilemma in whether you act. A village mentality helps us return to the contextual clues that guide practical care, allowing us to heal and build at home first.

The problem arises when opinions about what is “right” are broadcast on social media as universal policy. Debates without practical, proximate action are pointless. True village work demands presence over posts, neighborly action over abstract argument.

The prophets demanded more than comfort. Jeremiah confronted a faith that ignored widows, orphans, and strangers while pretending to worship God. True religion disturbs the peace when peace is built on oppression. Mr. Rogers offered a gentle echo of this same moral imperative, though many chose to ignore it.

The village ethic is radical because it is simple. Love your neighbor. Care for the least. Welcome the stranger. Do not turn faith into policy that kills or marginalizes. It is political because it is personal. It is prophetic because it costs.

To reclaim the village is to resist Christian nationalism. It is to assert that God’s kingdom is built not on fear, walls, or dominance, but on care, presence, and community. The village is the revolution, and it begins with the neighbor we are taught to see, hear, and love.