The worship of power, wealth, and whiteness is not new in American history. But what we see today is different and more concerning, thanks to an alliance with a would-be dictator. How do Christians fight against an ideological Christianity that has been weaponized to serve the interest of white Christian nationalists?

In his book, Christians Against Christianity, best-selling author and religious scholar Obery M. Hendricks Jr. challenges right-wing evangelicals on the terrain of their own religious claims, exposing the falsehoods, contradictions, and misuses of the Bible that are embedded in their rabid homophobia, their poorly veiled racism and demonizing of immigrants and Muslims, and their ungodly alliance with big business against the interests of American workers.

Episode 1, “Genuflecting at Strange Altars”

In the first part of this series, Dr. Obery Hendricks, Dr. Charlene Sinclair, and Peter Laarman take a deep dive into what white Christian nationalists actually worship: power, wealth, and (most of all) whiteness. They discuss what’s new and dangerous in the close alliance between this cohort and would-be dictator Donald Trump. Dr. Hendricks, a respected biblical scholar, observes how far removed the white evangelical values are from the actual values of the Jesus of the gospel accounts, to the point that the white evangelicals’ claim to be “Bible believers” becomes absurd.

Special Guests: This FRONT ROW podcast features Dr. Obery Hendricks, Dr. Charlene Sinclair and Peter Laarman.

Dr. Obery Hendricks 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.