The phrase “Christian nationalism” has become a political flashpoint. Many Protestants openly embrace it, envisioning America as a Christian nation with laws explicitly shaped by biblical morality. At the same time, critics use the label as a weapon, treating it as proof that religion must be excluded from public life. This move justifies secularism, another form of Marxism, where the state replaces family, church, and community and becomes caretaker of all social life.
Both Christian nationalism and secularism distort reality. Catholic Social Teaching shows us a different way, one that becomes clearer when viewed through the lens of the hierarchy of responsibility in complex systems.
The Hierarchy of Responsibility
In my earlier article, Know Your Freedoms: Responsibility in Complex Systems, I explained that all complex systems are a hierarchy of modules that encapsulate a responsibility. In order to create new qualities, modules must be combined together to create something new. The new module that is created is dependent on the lower-level modules.
Take nature as an example. Hydrogen and oxygen each have their own qualities: both are gases, flammable and unstable. But when bonded together they create water, a substance with entirely new qualities such as dissolving, storing heat, and expanding when frozen. Water itself then becomes a base module in the cell, which depends on many other lower-level modules including the nucleus, mitochondria, ribosomes, and membrane to function. Each provides a responsibility within the system that is the cell.
Like atoms and cells, each level (module) consumes from the one below and provides to the one above. When every module fulfills its responsibility, the system thrives.
But systems also fail in two ways:
- When a module consumes too much or refuses to consume what it should.
- When a module forces control where it does not belong, either downward (oppression) or upward (subversion).
Oppression happens when higher modules crush the freedom of lower ones, expanding their control downward and absorbing responsibilities that are not theirs. Subversion happens when lower modules rebel against their place in the hierarchy, expanding their control upward and trying to dictate to higher ones. In both cases, the balance of responsibility is broken. The system becomes unstable and, in time, it dies.
Distortions in the Hierarchy
With this in mind, we can see why both Christian nationalism and Marxism distort responsibility in complex systems.
- Christian Nationalism as Subversion: Subversion happens when a lower module expands its control upward. In Christian nationalism, individuals or churches attempt to extend their authority into the state, demanding that government directly enforce faith. Instead of the state freely consuming moral truth from below, the lower tries to dominate the higher. This destabilizes the hierarchy by confusing provision with control.
- Marxism / Socialism as Oppression: Oppression happens when a higher module expands its control downward. Marxism and socialism embody this by having the state absorb the roles of family, church, and community. Education, economy, even conscience are taken over by centralized authority. Instead of consuming from lower modules, the state dictates downward, hollowing them out.
- Secularism as Refusal to Consume: Secularism is a distortion of a different kind. It cuts the state off from consuming truth from the levels below, especially the Church, family, and natural law. By claiming “neutrality,” secularism severs the state from its proper source of moral grounding. Yet the state still tries to provide order, justice, and meaning. Without nourishment from below, its provision becomes brittle and arbitrary, eventually collapsing under its own contradictions.
- Catholic Social Teaching as Systemic Balance: Catholic Social Teaching preserves the hierarchy of responsibility through the principle of subsidiarity. Higher levels must not absorb the responsibilities of lower ones, and lower levels must not try to dominate higher ones. Instead, each level consumes and provides in right order: the state consumes from natural law, human dignity, and moral truth, and it provides justice, order, and protection of rights. Families, churches, and communities provide their own responsibilities without being absorbed or collapsed. Subsidiarity protects freedom, prevents illegitimate expansions of control, and preserves legitimacy across the system.
Why Catholic Teaching Fits Complex Systems
Catholic Social Teaching is not about nationalism but about systemic balance. It insists:
- No coercion in faith (Dignitatis Humanae).
- Subsidiarity—higher levels act only when lower levels cannot.
- Moral foundation—the state must draw from truth in order to provide justice and order.
In other words, the Church describes government as one module among many. It has its own responsibility, but it must also respect the responsibilities of the other modules in the hierarchy and properly consume what lower level modules provide.
America’s Founding Vision
At its best, the American founding reflected this Catholic principle. The state did not establish a church, but neither did it deny the moral law. Laws against murder, theft, and perjury are not secular. They are grounded in natural law, accessible to reason, and confirmed by faith.
The goal was not domination or neutrality but freedom ordered toward responsibility. A government limited in scope, yet rooted in moral truth, is exactly what Catholic Social Teaching describes.
The Path Forward
The modern debate is framed as a false choice: either embrace Christian nationalism or embrace secularism. But both are failures of responsibility in complex systems.
The Catholic vision is better: governments, like all modules, must consume and provide rightly. Families provide formation, churches provide faith and moral truth, communities provide solidarity, and the state provides justice and order.
Catholic Social Teaching is not about nationalism but about a systemic balance: a hierarchy of responsibility where each level fulfills its role. When that balance is honored, legitimacy is preserved, freedom is safeguarded, and the whole system thrives.
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