I love to read, and I assume you do too since you have subscribed to this newsletter (thank you very much), as well as many others, I’m sure. There are two topics that I have been immersing myself with during the past year or so and you have likely seen it reflected in my column.
I’ve been reading a lot about Christian Nationalism and Antiracism.
If you haven’t noticed, these two topics are entangled significantly. Christian Nationalism is better described as “white” Christian Nationalism because at its core is a defense of patriarchy and white supremacy. To miss that connection is to miss the main driver of the Christian Nationalist movement.
My second passion is around books about Black History, racism, and antiracism. I am currently publishing a daily article on Black Female heroes of the United States. It is a category that is sorely missing in our conversations.
Additionally, later this year I will have another book being published called, The Spiritual Journey to Antiracism: A Travel Guide for White People. Look for updates on this release.
What I hope will be helpful to you is to provide a book list of some of the key books that I think are important on these two topics. I’ll give you an annotated list of some of the best books on these topics that I have found over the past year, plus any worthwhile documentaries. Today will focus on Christian Nationalism.
GOD & COUNTRY - Documentary
I’ll start with a new documentary that is being released TODAY! February 16.
In the United States, there are approximately 200,000,000 Christians. Depending on which statistics you accept, there are probably around 80,000,000 Christian Nationalists (CNs). In a country of 331 million, that is a significant number. (Not all those 80 million CNs have uniform beliefs) But this documentary will highlight the voices of the other 120,000,000 million Christians who don’t subscribe to the tenets of CN.
A new documentary is being released today in select theatres around the country. The name of it is God and Country. One of the producers is Rob Reiner, which has caused a major controversy by itself. Reiner is a self-declared atheist. But the film isn’t about atheism.
The “stars” of the film are leading Christian voices who are opposed to CN and are ringing the alarm bell on the danger it poses not only to American Democracy but also to the church and Christianity itself.
Christian Nationalists, the film explains, are working behind the scenes and in broad daylight to restructure the political machinery through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and the installation of friendly federal judges to allow for permanent rule by a minority: theirs. "We are going to impose Christian rule in this country!" declares Rick Wiles, a pastor and the founder of TruNews. It is a website rife with conspiracy theories.
The other aspect of the film that is causing an uproar from the CN crowd is the inclusion of leading evangelicals who don’t subscribe to CN. People like David French, Russell Moore, Bishop William J. Barber III, Katherine Stewart, Kristin Du Mez, and Jemar Tisby. All are outspoken critics of CN and are included in the interview lineup. It is based loosely on Katherine Stewart’s book, The Power Worshippers. (Another book you should read if you want to understand how CN works in this country)
View the trailer here, and then go find a way to view this film. Jemar Tisby gives guidance on how to bring the film to your community. Read it here.
Because this movement, which provides the voter base for Donald Trump, is a large and looming threat to our democratic republic, it is imperative to be educated on this topic and to answer the threat from the position of an informed citizen.
These are the best books I’ve read on the topic of White Christian Nationalism within the past year. If you want to educate yourself in this critical election year, you may want to get these books and read them for yourself.
The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide by Pamela Cooper-White. (2022)
Pamela Cooper-White is a pastoral psychotherapist and a historian of psychoanalysis and religion. She is providing not only valuable historical context and insight to the Christian Nationalist Movement but also a keen psychological profile of the mindset and thought process associated with those who are identified with this group.
This will be especially helpful if you are dealing with someone close to you who ascribes to this ideology.
“The goal of this book is to understand who comprises the Christian nationalist movement and what they believe, to examine how people get drawn into this movement and the overlapping groups that made up the stew of insurrectionists on January 6 (and before and after), and to offer some recommendations for how to “triage” when it is possible to have a meaningful conversation with Christian nationalist-leaning people (including our neighbors, friends, and family members) when to go slow, and when not to attempt dialogue but to turn our energy and focus on wider efforts at social justice reform and education.” (White, p. 5)
The next two titles are written by scholars who still hold the claim to being evangelicals but have spoken out against Christian Nationalism as a corruption and distortion of the Christian faith, or even as an idolatry. As a former evangelical myself, I think that those who have been in that religious tribe have valuable insights into its networking, motivations, and general cultural context. These are two of the best works I’ve found on the topic…at least this past year.
American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, by Andrew Whitehead. (2023)
Andrew Whitehead,(PhD, Baylor University) is an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, where he codirects the Association of Religion Data Archives in the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He is the co-author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, which won the 2021 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Whitehead and his co-author from the earlier book, Samuel Perry, have provided the most comprehensive set of sociological data profiling those in the Christian Nationalist Movement. I highly recommend Taking America Back for God to digest the empirical research they have conducted. It is key to understanding who the Christian Nationalists are, what they believe, and the numbers and demographics of this group.
In his current offering, American Idolatry, Whitehead takes his training and skill as a sociologist and provides a theological critique and warning to those who remain in the evangelical spaces and are trying to combat this bastardized form of religious extremism. He identifies his goal clearly by stating, “The first goal of this book is to make clear that Christian nationalism—a cultural framework asserting that all civic life in the United States should be organized according to a particular form of conservative Christianity—betrays the example set by Jesus in the Gospels.” In other words, Whitehead sets out to show that there is nothing “Christian” in the ideology and practices of Christian Nationalism.
If you only read one of these books, I would recommend this one:
The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Era of Extremism, by Tim Alberta. (2023)
Alberta grew up in an evangelical church whose pastor was his father. Albert, who is a staff writer for The Atlantic and the former chief political correspondent for Politico, and has written for dozens of other publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and Vanity Fair, still claims his evangelical faith. He has, however, rejected the extremism and idolatry that CN poses.
As a professional writer, his narrative is gripping and readable. He spent several years, after the death of his father in 2019, seeking out and interviewing the leaders and kingpins within the CN movement. It is a first-hand, insider account of what these leaders are saying and thinking, and what their goals and objectives are. It humanizes these people so that those opposed to them don’t fall prey to the same tactic that CN uses…demonize your opponent.
Starting with the Trump takeover of the Republican party and the CN movement, Alberta introduces you to those who have been the foot soldiers in this movement. Names included in Alberta’s journey to find out “why” Christians have become so extreme include people such as John Torres, the senior pastor of Goodwill Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Brighton, Michigan; Jerry Fawell Jr., former President of Liberty University; Russell Moore, editor of Christianity Today (former President of the Southern Baptist Convention); Robert Jeffress, pastor of the infamous First Baptist Church of Dallas; Gary Click, the state representative from Ohio’s 88th House District and former pastor of the Fremont Baptist Chapel; Ralph Reed, president of the Faith & Family Coalition; Greg Locke, pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Nashville; Brian Gibson, a pastor from Kentucky who participated in the attack on the Capitol; Luke Barnett, a pastor in Phoenix who holds a “Freedom Night” weekly service, among many more.
Sifting through the wreckage of what represents CN—pastors broken, congregations battered, believers losing their religion because of sex scandals and political schemes—Alberta asks: If the American evangelical movement has ceased to glorify God, what is its purpose? He paints an expansive and profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement. Through the eyes of televangelists and small-town preachers, celebrity revivalists, and everyday churchgoers, Alberta tells the story of a faith cheapened by deep-seated fear, a promise corrupted by partisan exploitation, and a reputation stained by perpetual scandal.
Here is the final video of an interview with Dan Partland (director) and Rob Reiner (producer) of the documentary, “God and Country.”
My reading list just got longer.
This information needs to be heard across this country. Many people have no idea what white Christian Nationalism is and what it wants to do. It is a danger to our country and is certainly nothing like the example of Jesus.