By Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry
*Samuel was a speaker at FFRFās 2023 convention in Madison
Bracing primer on a force that imperils American democracy. Examines its ideology and three centuries of its history through today.
Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nationās capital on January 6, 2021. And bewildered by the images displayed by the insurrectionists: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; āJesus Savesā and āDonāt Tread on Meā; Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a prayer in Jesusās name after storming the Senate chamber. Where some saw a confusing jumble, Gorski and Perry saw a familiar ideology: white Christian nationalism. In this short primer, Gorski and Perry explain what white Christian nationalism is and is not; when it first emerged and how it has changed; and where itās headed and why it threatens democracy. They explain what makes white Christian nationalism āwhite.ā They show how it took shape over three centuries ago. And how it has influenced American politics over the last three decades. Throughout American history, white Christian nationalism has animated the oppression, exclusion, and even extermination of minority groups while securing privilege for white Protestants. It enables white Christian Americans to demand āsacrificeā from others in the name of religion and nation, while defending their ārightsā in the names of ālibertyā and āproperty.ā The future of American democracy, they argue, will depend on whether a broad spectrum of Americansāstretching from democratic socialists to classical liberalsācan unite in a popular front to combat the threat to liberal democracy posed by white Christian nationalism.
Hardcover, 176 pages.