A group of students in the College of Biblical Studies have launched a coordinated effort in response to the fears of the rising influence of Christian nationalists. Their goal – to actually find one.

“Christian nationalism” has been the subject of widespread media coverage over the past decade and has been addressed in a dramatically increasing number of academic journal articles and peer-reviewed publications in theological scholarship as the most significant threat to the church in modern times. The only problem, said Caleb Morgan, junior Bible and ministry major from Lubbock, is none of his friends actually know a Christian nationalist.

“I know it’s a big problem in the church because it’s all anybody talks about,” Morgan said. “And whoever they are, they’re ‘on the rise.’ So they have to be around here somewhere.”

Indeed, in 2002, just nine academic journal articles mentioned the term “Christian nationalism.” Two decades later, it was 177.

In recent months, Morgan and friends, Hannah Whitaker, sophomore ministry and vocation major from Edmond, Oklahoma, and Josiah Bennett, masters of divinity student from Franklin, Tennessee, have spent much of their time scouring campus and the surrounding community for Christian nationalists.

“I thought I had one – a guy in the nearby neighborhood had hung an American flag out in front of his house,” Whitaker said. “Turns out it was Veterans Day. I had forgotten about that…”

Still the students are determined to identify those who are the greatest – and perhaps only – true threat to the church, based on the academic literature and conference presentations.

Morgan acknowledges the biggest challenge the group faces is defining just what a “Christian nationalist” actually is.

“But we all agree – we just don’t like it,” he said.

One challenge came two years ago, when Politico correspondent Heidi Przybyla during a national broadcast said what unites Christian nationalists “is that they believe our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority. They don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court. They come from God.”

“That really threw me off,” Whitaker said. “I realized my high school government teacher might be a Christian nationalist.”

“…and Thomas Jefferson,” Bennett added.

Bennett said after several years of reading the academic literature, he’s grown more skilled at identifying Christian nationalists.

“They walk around and trade little pieces of paper with a picture of an unfinished pyramid and God’s eye on top,” he said. “The paper says ‘God has favored our undertakings’ in Latin on one side and ‘In God We Trust” on the other.’ They’re sneaky!”

“And when they say the Pledge of Allegiance, they’re a little too enthusiastic about it,” Whitaker said.

Bennett also said there’s a political tell to Christian nationalists.

“Christian nationalists end up letting their politics dictate their faith,” he said. “So the worst part is they end up voting for the wrong guy.”