Thread by @angela_denker

Why a new version of my 2019 book, Red State Christians: a #thread for #launchday

Link to new version: bookshop.org/books/red-stat… (also available on @amazon and @BNBuzz + an indy bookstore near you (my favorite!))

I spent 2018 traveling across America interviewing Christians in red states + counties to unpack Christian support for Trump in 2016.

Hillbilly Elegy by @JDVance1 had recently pubbed, and a certain sort of apologist narrative for white rural Americans was en vogue ...

This narrative had some merit (I've seen rural despair firsthand, + the ravages of the #opioidepidemic) - but it was often too shallow, and it lacked the theological depth that understood the role of religion + God in @GOP support for Trump

I pitched a book to @Fortresspress in 2017, fresh off leaving my call at a large Orange County (CA) Evangelical-style @elca church, at least partially due to criticism I received when I wrote about the gap b/w Trump's claim to Christianity + his treatment of vulnerable Americans

My publisher in turn pitched to me what at the time they saw as a Hillbilly Elegy-explainer of 2016, but for Christians.

My goals were 3-part: journalistic (give voice to unheard voices); pastoral/theological (explain the how Americans view of God --> Trump); ...

And personal. Unlike many of the explainer articles then circulating about Trump's electorate: the rural + religious mostly Midwestern voters who supported Trump were my close family, friends, and church members. So this book was/is personal.

I spent 2018 traveling across America, in a way unimaginable in this #COVID era. I went to Dallas, Houston, and El Paso, walking across the border in Juarez with a fellow pastor.

I wrote about my in-laws' hometown in rural Missouri, and I spent time with trad Catholics in NH ..

At the 2018 March for Life in DC, members of the @ERLC (@SBCvoices) alerted me to what they called then the "gospel distortion" of #ChristianNationalism in their churches, and how it led to Trump.

They insisted I add a trip to my travel plans: Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, TX; on Fourth of July weekend.

What I discovered there become the first chapter and the guiding lens/framework of the book

Christians across America varied greatly, from the opulence of the OC to the gritty poverty of Appalachia. What unified their coalescence behind Trump was the adherence of greed-driven Christian leaders to abandon Jesus + preach the flag+power+$$

When #RedStateChristians published in Aug 2019, @kkdumez had not yet published Jesus & John Wayne, and @profsamperry + @ndrewwhitehead's seminal study of #ChristianNationalism was set to come out in a few months ...

When I spoke about the book, I lifted up four words: Surprise - Warning - Opportunity - Hope

The warning was focused on #ChristianNationalism. The opportunity + hope were focused on how relationships + dialogue could reclaim Jesus' Gospel in America.

I was scared but hopeful.

I was on a plane back from Chicago when #COVID restrictions hit America full force. I didn't know it would be my last book-related air travel.

#COVID shattered any illusion that American Christian leadership would choose humanity + life when faced with potential loss of $$

Pastors touted fake cures + urged ppl to continue on with business as usual. They followed conspiracy theorists who spat on the graves of those who died.

They cast doubt on life-saving vaccines. The movement I wrote about had taken a deadly turn. How could it claim #ProLife?

In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police less than 10 mi from my house.

Hope crept back into my heart. I marched w fellow clergy for racial justice. When I shouted Black Lives Matter, it became an article of faith in a world impervious to death.

Of course, I noticed that our protests were still sort of segregated. I came face to face with my own lack of courage. In #RedStateChristians, I had prioritized white Christian comfort over Black suffering + death.

I tiptoed around racism, writing passages over + over again ...

I had always been careful not to offend. As a female pastor, I knew my place in Christian leadership was always fraught. I had been punished before for telling the truth. Still, my position remained one of privilege.

I spoke more boldly. Families left my church.

I realized that #ChristianNationalism could not be defeated without naming that it is rooted in whiteness. It's rooted in a racist power struggle, where those in power claim 3/4 of the pie, and the rest of us battle over the remaining 1/4 - and blame the most vulnerable.

Meanwhile, Trump and @GOP leaders + their conservative Christian partners laughed and dog whistled. They posed with Bibles. They clung to control. They lied without shame.

Simmering underground movements awoke. @BethMooreLPM spoke courageously for a generation of Christian women. @bethallisonbarr, a scholar + Baptist pastor's wife, told the truth about complementarianism. @kkdumez shook the foundations of American history with Jesus + John Wayne.

Black Christian leaders, withering an onslaught of lies + persecution + dehumanization in the wake of ongoing threats on their lives, spoke the Gospel truth.

I learned and walked behind @JemarTisby @racelessgospel @BJContheHill @stewartdantec @RevDrBarber @yehicurry

On #jan6, I prepared for a Zoom church council mtg + watched unabashed Americans threaten to overthrow our govt. They carried Christian flags + shouted Christian slogans, carrying deadly weapons.

I remembered my ancestors, European crusaders - + my German Lutheran relatives ..

So convinced of our righteous whiteness, we executed violence + death, while Jesus lay dying.

We were never suspicious of our own claim to power or rightness. In our churches, we buried #COVID victims and choked down Jesus' body + blood, confessing silently.

Sometime around this time, @broadleaf_books asked if I'd like to do an updated version of Red State Christians.

So few get this chance: to go back to work + say where I was wrong + what I learned + what God might say in this very moment.

Writing this new version was an act of confession + contrition + an offering to the truth. It was a lament of grief to the incredible personal family loss I experienced in the wake of #COVID + #antivax lies.

It was an honest reckoning with the limits of dialogue + how to leave.

And ultimately, it's a prayer. It's a prayer rooted in ambivalence, doubt, and unremitting sorrow about our nation + the Christians who have abandoned Jesus for our idolatrous worship of $$ + power.

It's a prayer that the truth might set us free.

I hope you read it.