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We don’t often know precisely when we’re living through a history-making moment, but on a few occasions we realize the significance of what is happening in real time and it becomes an unforgettable landmark in the journey of our lives.

January 6, 2021 was one of those moments that you knew was historic even as you watched it unfold. A mob of protesters invaded the U.S. Capitol building on a mission to overturn a lawful presidential election.

On that day the United States came perilously close to losing a hallmark of democracy, the peaceful transfer of power.

If you paid attention to the photos and videos that day, you would have seen Christian symbolism on display: crosses, pictures of a European-looking Jesus, prayers in Jesus name.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it: White Christian Nationalism is the biggest threat to democracy in the United States today.

We ignore it at our peril.

Thankfully we have an excellent new resource to under white Christian Nationalism, The Flag + the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy by Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry.

Gorski is a professor at Yale and you may remember Perry as a co-author of Taking America Back for God. In this new book, the authors look specifically at the ways white Christian Nationalism seeks to undermine the power of the vote and institute an authoritarian political structure ostensibly premised on the Christian religion.

From the description

Gorski and Perry show white Christian nationalism and white Christian individualism motivate the anti-democratic, authoritarian, and violent impulses on display in our current political moment. The future of American democracy, they argue, will depend on whether a broad spectrum of Americans--stretching from democratic socialists to classical liberals--can unite in a popular front to combat the threat to liberal democracy posed by white Christian nationalism.

Here’s a look at the table of contents. As you can see, it’s super quick read. No reason not to grab it and devour in a weekend or so.

I was honored to write the foreword for the book.

BUY: The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy

Have you seen signs of white Christian Nationalism in your community or church? How did it show up? Leave a comment below!

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Footnotes by Jemar Tisby

New Book Alert- The Flag and the Cross: White…