How can we confront the increasingly dangerous and violent force of Christian nationalism? The books below explore drivers behind the rise of Christian nationalism and the reality of its impact on society, including its propensity for violence and the ways it perpetuates racism and xenophobia. By examining its history and facing these uncomfortable truths, we can foster a deeper understanding of Christian nationalism and explore proactive steps we can take to counter its harmful influence.
Jesus directed his followers away from the race for power, but somewhere along the way, many Christians turned Jesus into a mascot for imperial domination. Where did it all go so wrong? A trenchant reckoning with the murder, mayhem, and monsters of Christianity—from the early church and the Crusades to colonialism, slavery, and the Holocaust—Defying Tyrants demonstrates how imperialism has infected the body of Christ. In this scrappy quarrel with Christian supremacy, Matthew D. Taylor calls us to find in the teachings of Jesus and the witness of the early church a model of rebellion against tyrants of all kinds. Because if Jesus is Lord, Caesar isn't.
The Christian Past That Wasn't
America was not founded as a Christian nation. Who gains what from myths about the past? Why are many of us susceptible to their power? And how can the truth about a nation's past prevail? In The Christian Past That Wasn't, Warren Throckmorton investigates the gloss that Christian nationalist storytellers put on history and equips readers to debunk seven myths that they propagate. To understand Christian nationalism, we must know the power of myth. To counter it, we must know the facts.
Fascism is not coming to America; it has been here for a long time. In this investigation into the sinister realms of fascism and its many guises, Omer Aziz sets out to answer the question: Why are so many young people like him drifting to the ultranationalist right? And what can we do about it? Shadows of the Republic offers a haunting portrait of American fascism, how it began, and where it's going—and also an anti-fascist playbook to help us salvage democracy for years to come.
Praise and worship music often fits hand-in-glove with Christian Trumpism, and in this unsettling and sweeping investigation of the music of megachurches and political rallies, journalist Rick Pidock asks: How did songs beloved by white evangelicals become the soundtrack of Christian supremacy's war on democracy? Weapons of Worship uncovers a worship culture increasingly controlled by a set of powerbrokers and looks at how algorithms define the worship repertoire. As praise and worship music sands down the edges between Christianity and politics, Pidcock asks: Where are songs of conquest and spiritual warfare taking us?
How Western Christianity Got It Wrong
Jesus never intended to start a religion that would justify stealing land, enslaving people, or destroying creation. So how did we get here? In How Western Christianity Got It Wrong, acclaimed author Randy Woodley, of mixed white and Native American heritage, traces how a brown man from Nazareth who never lost his connection to the whole community of creation became the poster child for empire-building and environmental destruction. Drawing on Indigenous wisdom, Woodley uncovers what Jesus's liberating message looks like when freed from imperial frameworks.
Americans love political demons. Demons populate the spaces of American daily life in ways we might be inclined to dismiss, and they exert a power and a hold over our political imaginations that is, arguably, downright diabolical. While we may be tempted to turn our attention away from the discomfort of demons, author Michael E. Heyes challenges us to a clear-eyed reckoning that requires us to do the opposite. From the founding fathers to the rise of Christian nationalism, Devils of Democracy reveals how America's centuries-long obsession with evil has shaped—and endangered—our democracy.
Ordinarily, women are more religious than men. But these are no ordinary times. In America, where Christianity is still the most common religion, women are vacating churches. In the past decade, 16 million women have left the church. Younger women are disaffiliating from religion faster than men. In this landmark account of American women leaving the church, award-winning journalist Sarah Stankorb, author of Disobedient Women, asks why they leave—and where they land.
Christianity began as a revolutionary faith in Africa and Palestine, yet across centuries it has been distorted into a tool for conquest, slavery, and nationalism. In her powerful debut, We Need John Brown Christians, activist and broadcaster Jacqueline Luqman reintroduces us to John Brown, the radical abolitionist whose failed raid on Harper's Ferry and subsequent execution made him known both as "God's instrument" and as America's first person tried for treason. Far from the caricatures of madness or martyrdom, Luqman presents Brown as a model of uncompromising discipleship, a patron saint for those who would resist the misuse of Christianity today.
Our nation is awash in more guns than citizens. In the pages of In Guns We Trust, former evangelical and veteran journalist William J. Kole looks at the unholy alliance between white evangelicals, guns, and politics. Writing in the tradition of Tim Alberta and Kristin Kobes du Mez, he takes us into sanctuaries where worshippers raise hands and pack heat. With meticulous research, humanizing interviews, and immersive narrative, Kole pulls back the curtain on the locked-and-loaded Christianity that got us here.
When charismatic believers wage spiritual battles, ideas can take tangible form. With scholarly precision and narrative force, religion scholar Matthew D. Taylor makes intelligible the language, leaders, and symbols of the New Apostolic Reformation, which has galvanized support for Trump and far-right leaders around the world. The Violent Take It by Force maps a movement of magnetic leaders and their uncompromising beliefs—and where it might be headed next.
How to End Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism is a powerful and pervasive ideology, and it is becoming normalized. How to End Christian Nationalism is the essential guidebook for Christians alarmed by the rise of Christian nationalism and committed to faith freedom for all. Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, helps us confront Christian nationalist fervor and invite others to a better version of the gospel.
Leafing through photos from the January 6 insurrection, extremist researcher Noelle Cook was struck by how many women looked like her: middle-aged white women in puffy coats. With arresting detail, The Conspiracists draws us into the lives of conspiratorial women to explore how and why women are becoming radicalized. As misinformation spreads and extremism intensifies, The Conspiracists helps us understand women's conspiracism to give us hope of countering its force.
The rise of White Christian nationalism seems impossible to stop. We need a road map to countering recruitment. And we needed it yesterday. For White folks alarmed by the rise of Christian nationalism, Bring Back Your People is a mouthy, practical guide to resisting, organizing, and holding conversations with your friends, family, or anyone else who has been misled by White Christian nationalist ideas.
The insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, was not a blip or an aberration. It was the logical outcome of years of a White evangelical subculture's preparation for war. Religion scholar and former insider Bradley Onishi maps the origins of White Christian nationalism and traces its offshoots in Preparing for War. Through chapters on White supremacy and segregationist theologies, conspiracy theories, the Christian-school movement, purity culture, and the right-wing media ecosystem, Onishi pulls back the curtain on a subculture that birthed a movement and has taken a dangerous turn.
White boys and men are dangerous.
White boys and men are struggling.
Both of these statements are staggeringly true in America today. Disciples of White Jesus is a sensitive, searing, and unsparing look at American boyhood by journalist, mother, and pastor Angela Denker that offers a comprehensive look at the rise in radicalization among young white men in America, especially focused on the role of right-wing Christianity in the increase of religious-based hatred and violence.
Veteran journalist Angela Denker spent a year traveling across the United States, interviewing the Evangelical Christian voters who supported the Trump presidency and exploring how their voting bloc continues to influence the landscape of modern conservative politics. In this expanded edition of Red State Christians, Denker reflects on the lasting impact of the Trump presidency, the Christian white nationalism it emboldened, the 2020 election and transfer of power, and the subsequent insurrection at the United States Capitol. A must-read for those hoping to truly understand what Trumpism means for the 2020s and beyond.
To view all of our books and resources, visit broadleafbooks.com.
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