In the first part of this series, Dr. Obery Hendricks, Dr. Charlene Sinclair, and Peter Laarman lay out the beliefs of the ideologues who want an America ruled by a vengeful strongman. They ask if this movement can be fought by speaking in biblical terms, by seeing “loving your neighbor as yourself” as a struggle for the common good.

Do these authoritarians care about what is right or only what serves their interest? Will their value of domination win out over repentance? Can a return to ethics and justice stave off their ascent?

Churches have a choice: They can embrace the radical power of Jesus of the gospels or slowly lose ground to an evangelical movement that worships at the strange altar of whiteness.

Obery M. Hendricks Jr. is a lifelong social activist, and one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America. He is the most widely read and perhaps the most influential African American biblical scholar writing today. His recent book, Christians Against Christianity: How Right-Wing Evangelicals Are Destroying Our Nation and Our Faith (Beacon Press, 2021) has gathered wide acclaim.

Dr. Charlene Sinclair is an organizer, thinker, and writer whose work centers on the intersection of race, gender, economy, and democracy. Strongly influenced by the pathbreaking thought of the late James Cone, founder of Black Liberation Theology, Dr. Sinclair is committed to fashioning strategies that embrace a liberationist approach to faith and spirituality in the context of popular struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice.

The Reverend Peter Laarman is a retired United Church of Christ minister and activist who led Judson Memorial Church in New York and Progressive Christians Uniting in California. He is currently involved with the King & Breaking Silence webinar project of the National Council of Elders and with the development of a new formation called Social Ethics Energizing Democracy.