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

by Gorski, Philip S.
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ISBN: 9780197618684
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Overview

A bracing examination of a force that imperils American democracy.

Most Americans were shocked by the violence they witnessed at the nation's Capital on January 6th 2021. But perhaps even more bewildering were the images that accompanied it: a wooden cross and wooden gallows; Jesus saves and Don't Tread on Me; Christian flags and Confederate Flags; even a
prayer in Jesus' name after storming the Senate chamber. Where some saw a jumble, Gorski and Perry saw a pattern. Authoritarian violence, libertarianism, white supremacy, and conservative Christianity have long gone together. They still do. What unites them is the ideology of white Christian
nationalism.

In this short primer, Gorski and Perry explain white Christian nationalism is both a deep story about America's past and a political vision for its future. Tracing its history back three centuries, they show how Biblical metaphors of blood within white Christian nationalism have animated the
oppression, exclusion, and even extermination of minority groups while securing privilege for white Protestants. They also show how white Christian nationalism has come to work in tandem with its fraternal twin-white Christian individualism. Today this combination lets Americans on the right demand
sacrifice from others in the name of religion and nation, while denying their own sacrifices in the names of liberty and property.

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.

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Author: Gorski, Philip S.
  • ISBN: 9780197618684
  • Condition: New
  • Number Of Pages: 192
  • Publication Year: 2022
Language: English

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