They’re pulling from a playbook thousands of years old

Nearly 1,700 years ago a Christian mob in Alexandria, Egypt — stirred into religious frenzy by Theophilus, the Bishop of Alexandria— sacked and destroyed the immense Temple of Serapis. Tens of thousands of books, which were the remnants of Alexandria’s famous library, not to mention priceless artifacts of Greco-Egyptian history, were gleefully destroyed.

In the end, the Temple of Serapis had proven too tempting a target for rampaging monotheists, who took the Bible’s order to reject other gods quite literally.

Fast forward to 2025 and a similar threat to worship freely — or not at all — has emerged. The threat comes from those who call themselves Christian nationalists.

Not all Christians are Christian nationalists, of course. Indeed, there is a Christians Against Christian Nationalists organization dedicated to the separation of church and state. (See below.)

Still, the nationalists are growing in strength, particularly among Republicans, more than half of whom identify as either adherents or supporters of Christian nationalism, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey conducted in late 2024. (See below.)