To this point, I’ve read 42 books in the year. It’s just my pace. I listen to a lot of audiobooks when I’m traveling, so that adds up quick. It’s slower than a lot of people… and why am I justifying how many books I’ve read?

However many I finish with this year, Book Number 42 will be the most frightening book I’ve read (well… listened to). I’m not “scared.” I’m not left in fear. It’s just a frightening book.

The Flag and the Cross by Samuel Perry and Phillip Gorsky dive into the history of what is White Christian Nationalism. For all those folks claiming “we’re erasing history” (which is said when Confederate names come off of schools or Confederate statues come down), this book IS history. It is not erasing. It is DISCOVERING.

Their thesis is about far more than racism. Racism is a huge part, but the underlying themes have always been about power, control, and violence.

The frightening part was their research that has yielded data showing this isn’t slowing down. January 6, 2021 was not the “main thing.” There may be a bigger event and it could cripple democracy, in their estimation, for at least a generation.

While it is frightening research, that doesn’t mean I am afraid. It’s just the thought that we’ve cared so little about having a good society, a good culture, and a country that works, all in the pursuit of preserving power even to the point of violence is disturbing to me.

In 2015-16, I began to be stirred seeing a pattern repeated throughout American history. The cycle I saw is how they lay out this book. We make progress in coming together as a country and then we get shoved back why the woundedness of White Christian Nationalism. After the Civil War, it was the KKK and Jim Crow. After WWI, it was the new rise of the KKK and mass lynchings. After the Civil Rights movement, it was assassinations of key leaders and the “law and order” regime of Richard Nixon.

And in all of it, even in the face of being a witness to a crumbling democracy, I don’t have fear. I serve NOT the United States of America, but the Kingdom of God. I don’t have to stand in defense of democracy, but I will call out anything that wants to use power and control and violence and call it “Christian” because THAT is not the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God is greater. Democracy is wobbling. Dictators come and go. Systems we worship come and go. Capitalism. Socialism. Communism. All the “isms” and “ologies” will crumble. The Kingdom of God will be here. Steadfast.

Decades ago I challenged my congregation with the question, “Are you and American who happens to be Christian or a Christian who happens to be American?” That answer was easier to answer in the early 2000’s but when 2016 rolled around, the REAL answer came out. It shocked me. Then it sent me deeper into the life of Christ.

I am a Christian who happens to be an American. My deeper allegiance is the Kingdom of God, not preserving some perceived power and “exceptionalism” that is the American myth.

There is a need for vigilance. There is a deeper need for allegiance to the Kingdom of God.