The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism: A Call to Action

In this distracted warning, priest Heyward (Tears of Christepona) contends that white nationalism has corrupted Christianity. She chronicles the history of the movement in the U.S. from colonial Puritans to the January 6 attack on the Capitol and enumerates seven sins implicated in “Christofascism”: entitlement, white supremacy, misogyny, capitalist spirituality, violence, and the drive for omnipotence and domination. Exploring how Christianity has abetted white supremacy, Heyward details early white Christian Americans’ claims that Blackness stems from God’s curse on Ham, but she doesn’t explain how her other examples of white supremacy—obsession with racial “purity” and backlash to the 1619 Project—link back to Christianity. The author criticizes clergy for remaining silent on issues of economic justice, but her lengthy foray into “Reaganomics” again neglects to mention how Christianity is implicated. This often loses sight of its stated aim of detailing Christianity’s contributions to systemic injustices in the U.S., instead presenting a brief history of U.S. racism that is covered more thoroughly elsewhere. Readers looking to understand white Christian nationalism would be better off seeking out Jeff Sharlet’s The Family or Chris Hedges’s American Fascists. (Sept.)