The Unchristian Truth about White Christian Nationalism
A New Book From Quoir Publishing Hitting Shelves on June 24
Quoir Publishing does outstanding work by putting out provocative and interesting titles. Over the years, in addition to publishing two of my books, they have put out a list of books that include titles like these. You can find a complete list of their books here.
Quoir describes its purpose this way:
If you’re looking for authors who aren't afraid to take on the hard questions of faith with brutal honesty, and books that explore the mystery of life without fear, then join us on the frontlines of a new spiritual revolution.
Because the universe is bigger than our boxes, we have to be willing to challenge assumptions and venture beyond our inherited boundaries.
Because divine love is our DNA, we must provoke the complacent while comforting the afflicted.
No topic is more important right now than White Christian Nationalism. If you’ve been reading my column for long, you know that is one of the major themes that I cover. Our democracy and way of life are being threatened by this anomalous blob called White Christian Nationalism, but Quoir’s new book, The Unchristian Truth about White Christian Nationalism, will help reveal the errors, the threats, the contours of that movement, and perhaps the opportunities we have to collectively fight back.
The truth is, white Christian Nationalism isn’t really Christian. It is white and it is nationalistic, but it is as far away from the teachings and ethics of Jesus as you can imagine. Those who cast themselves as Christian Nationalists are mostly interested in power and how to get it, and then use that power to assure a privileged status in society for those who think like them and impose their cultural straitjacket on everyone else. This is not how Jesus talked about how to spread the gospel.
Quoir’s new book is written by a group of writers who have unique and powerful insights into this movement. Many were once a part of that movement, as I was. I’m honored to be able to contribute one chapter to this effort called “Ideas of Consequences.” The focus of that chapter (9) is the Christian Nationalist attack on public education. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of white Christian nationalism.
Here are the table of contents and the various author’s names:
Lisa Sharon Harper has written the Foreword for this book and identifies clearly the goal. Ms. Harper is the founder and president of Freedom Road, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment, and common action. She writes:
In these pages you will find followers of Jesus in the Academy, the church, and the street contending with the central ideas and value structures of White Christian Nationalism, historical accounts of how White Christian Nationalism rose to its current position of explicit power in the U.S., and how to counter White Christian Nationalism when it comes for us, our neighbors, and even our “enemies.”
Harper frames the book around several key questions:
How did we get here? Where exactly are we? How do we survive this? How does the Christian faith survive this? And how can we overcome?
She then outlines her vision for how this book can make an impact and a difference. She writes further in the Foreword:
With this Foreword, I aim to ground our conversation in a Theo-ethical vision of democracy and argue why the conversation outlined in these pages is critical to the life of the Body of Christ.
This will be a major work on the subject of white Christian nationalism in the days ahead. We need to know about this movement to counteract its worst tendencies.
I’ll post a link to the book once it is released.
My two books from Quoir Publishing:
