Dear friends in Christ,

I will be wearing my collar tomorrow at a demonstration called “No Kings.” There are several locations in Tucson and the nearest to Saint Philip’s will be River and Via Entrada. This will be my way of fulfilling the peppy dance-like tune of “Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus” that continues with “ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal banner, it must not suffer loss.”

I do not want to be like the majority of white southern clergy who never addressed racism and the violence of the Ku Klux Klan, those Klansmen who also wore face coverings to intimidate and bully. There comes a time when silence is no longer acceptable.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, history professor at New York University, wrote about 20th century dictators in her book, Strongmen. They are all alike. Just variations on a theme. They convince their respective countries of their superior (Only I can fix it) abilities. The end result is their own self destruction and the destruction or great harm to their countries. They offer themselves as idols and elicit worship and adoration of themselves.

Ben-Ghiat notes how they all “favor ideology over expertise, and killing, imprisoning, and forcing into exile large numbers of talented people, strongmen impoverish the societies they rule.” Through pervasive fear, “they throw on a cloak of masculine invincibility…and seek out other strongmen as partners who will legitimate their authoritarian worldview.” They all have an uncanny charisma and attract “many followers by celebrating male authority…The strongman’s rogue nature also draws people to him. He proclaims law-and-order rule, yet enables lawlessness.”

Christian Nationalism embraces the strongman style. The humility and kenosis of Christ is paved over with Christian superiority over other religions. The American version means God prefers Americans over all others. The non-violence of Jesus is also forgotten. A non-biblical Jesus figure emerges who looks more like John Wayne (see the book, Jesus And John Wayne).

Public demonstrations in the Deep South were necessary to root out racist violence. We are now in a different historical moment that requires involvement that honors our Teacher, Guide and Savior.

Your fellow traveler,

—Richard