So Donald Trump has jumped on the Christian merchandising bandwagon with the publication of his “God Bless the USA Bible.” For the low, low price of $59.95, any MAGA devotee can now get the King James Version of the Bible (translated in 1611, back when Christians had no trouble kicking butt and taking names), along with copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance, as well as a handwritten chorus of the famous Lee Greenwood song “God Bless the USA.” I suppose I should not have been surprised. Given the unholy alliance between Trump’s self-serving brand of so-called Christianity, and our nation’s deeply rooted notion of American exceptionalism, such a Bible was all but inevitable. One wonders whether or not the purchasers will take the time to read the myriad of Bible verses calling for care and compassion for the poor and seeking peace between all human beings. I doubt it.

Jim Wallis, however, has certainly read them, digested them, and fashioned them into a healthier perspective. He has made a career out of using the words of Holy Writ to challenge the very people who claim to believe them to reconsider their assumptions and actions. His latest book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy continues this long practice. Never one to mince words, this latest work seems more alarmist than most of his other books. “It is increasingly clear,” says Wallis, “that voting rights, racial equality, civic justice, and democracy itself are now at serious risk in America—and that is becoming an understatement. This is a time of testing—both for the future of our democracy and for the integrity of our faith communities. We are literally in a battle now between false religion and true faith and between racial fascism and multicultural democracy.”

Unlike many Christians who trace America’s degeneracy to the banning of school-sponsored prayer and the removal of the Ten Commandments from City Hall, Wallis lays the blame at the feet of something buried deep in the American psyche, something sinister that has come to full flower now. It is, as he stated in an earlier work, the sin of racism:

“America’s original sin of racism with a human hierarchy based on skin color still lingers, and has continued to ‘evolve’… Jim Crow is now wearing a suit, instead of sheets, and is once again making a comeback to prevent a united democratic future. Here is the new strategy of white supremacy in modern terms—in a single sentence: to prevent our changing demography from changing our democracy … Today’s racism is the resurgence of the old ideology combined with the return of an old heresy. That is the false gospel of white Christian nationalism. Its very name spells its heresy—’white’ instead of the diverse human calling the message of the gospel makes; ‘Christian’ but implying domination instead of service; and ‘nationalism,’ which is contrary to Jesus’ Great Commission, where he tells his followers to go into all the world and make disciples in every nation.”

No wonder today’s politicians-in-Christian-clothing decry the rise of “woke” ideology (whatever that is), and want to block the teaching of Critical Race Theory (defined as anything that makes a white person uncomfortable) in schools. At least the purveyors of white Christian nationalism during my youth in the waning days of the Jim Crow south had the temerity to honestly admit their goals—to prevent anyone who was not white from gaining power. Today’s bullies hide behind phrases like “voter integrity” and “secure borders” to mask the same purposes. “White Christian nationalism,” Wallis claims, “doesn’t cross lines, it creates them. It seeks to divide us, leading this country down a path that starts with fear, that turns to hate, and ultimately leads to violence. White Christian nationalism defies what Jesus says about loving our neighbor, and even our enemies.”

To offer an alternative perspective, Wallis returns to the Bible for analysis of the situation, and ideas for moving forward. It’s vintage Wallis—biblically based, honestly analyzed, and illustrated with stories from his long career as an activist, preacher, and educator. However, I could not escape a feeling of déjà vu all over again. For example, few, if any, of my progressively-minded clergy and lay colleagues would argue with his application of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) to our current struggle over race relations and immigration policy, nor his enjoining readers to face the waves of violence and hatred abroad in the land by taking Jesus seriously when he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Both those sentiments, and many others, elicit a hearty “amen” from my soul. But is he merely preaching to the choir? Will those who need these words pay attention?

When discussing our crisis of untruths, half-truths, and disinformation Wallis quotes 2 Timothy 4:3-4: “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” Unfortunately, I fear that time has come and is closing the ears and minds of those Wallis wants to motivate with this book. How did the church of Jesus Christ, especially here in America, fail to give our sisters and brothers the intellectual and spiritual tools they need to turn toward the truth instead of aside from it?

I think of a man who belongs to the church I attend—a very progressively-minded congregation—who approached me recently with a question. He had heard a statement by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (who makes me almost ashamed to claim my Georgian background) about “the fact” that the Jews killed Jesus. “Is that true? Is that factual, like she said?” I was not familiar with the citation from Congresswoman Greene, and he could have been misquoting her, but he was skirting dangerously close to the Medieval notion that anti-Semitism is justified because of the Jews’ supposed culpability in the crucifixion of Jesus. In addition, I was shocked to discover a fine, dedicated Christian man who has been very active in our church for decades, but has reached his golden years without a basic biblical and historical foundation that steers him clear of malignant theology. How did our church fail him? How did clergy like myself fail him? No wonder white nationalist theology is going gangbusters. Too many of us have asked our fellow believers to hang their faith on a cloud.

Perhaps I am being unfair. Wallis does implore pastors and other church leaders to preach, teach, and take public stands based on honest readings of the Bible, and he calls upon people of all faiths, and no faith, to confront the issues of our day squarely and have the courage to address them however possible. Indeed, Wallis makes it clear there are myriads of faithful people whose efforts are largely going unnoticed by the news media and the public at large as they address voter suppression, violence, homelessness, immigration, and countless other problems.

Whether those endeavors will pull us back from the brink remains to be seen. I am less cynical, however, about Wallis’ vision of a future in which Christians belong to a “remnant church.” As a devotee of William Willimon’s and Stanley Hauerwas’ concept of the church as a collection of “resident aliens,” and aware of the biblical notion of the “remnant,” I find Wallis’ imagining of a church shorn of the trappings of racism, consumerism, and divided loyalties to be highly motivating. Foundational for his argument, is Romans 12:1–2: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In other words, the only adequate response to Christian nationalism “is to move from bad religion to true faith, to restore the authentic meaning of our best faith traditions and a call for a civic faith in democracy that could bring many of us together.” A remnant church, Wallis claims, will be characterized by the pillars of repentance, return, and restoration—all of which flow from Jesus’ call to “repent, for the kingdom is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). As the old structures of Christendom collapse, perhaps disciples of Jesus can return to the single-minded devotion that typified so much of the early Christian movement. One can only hope.

And hope is the operative word for the days ahead. While Wallis does not outline specific strategies, he does beckon us to hope. Recalling a conversation he had with Desmond Tutu, Wallis claims that optimism and hope are not the same thing. Optimism is based on a feeling, or mood, or personality type about how things look today. Hope, however, is a choice, a decision, and one based on what we call faith. The aforementioned Willimon and Hauerwas said that the most radical action the church can take is to be the church envisioned by Jesus. If I am reading Wallis correctly, he would maintain that the church cannot be the church unless it chooses hope over optimism. Ergo, I hereby repent of my cynicism and anger, and hurl hope into the face of these troubled times. Ecclesia semper reformanda.

Reprinted from “Letters to a Free Country” website: https://edbuckner.substack.com/