
In 1946, Howard Thurman, then the Dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University, in his essay The Fascist Masquerade, wrote:
"The bitter truth is that the Church has permitted the various hate-inspired groups in our common life to establish squatter's rights in the minds of believers because there has been no adequate teaching of the meaning of the faith in terms of human dignity and worth."
Dr. Thurman was treating a larger issue about which he was asked to reflect upon: "The Christian rediscovery of resistance and resource", a phenomenon magnified at the close World War II in 1945, as America moved ever more intently to deny African Americans basic rights and freedoms.
Today, with the election of Donald Trump and the unfettered influence of oligarchal governance (what former President Joe Biden described as a "tech-industrial complex"), America is once again cyclically poised to roll back generations of gains made by Black people in voting rights, economic parity and labor inclusion.
At this writing, a furious assault is being made against diversity, equity and inclusion (read: the Negro problem!), fomenting fear, anger and anxiety among the general public.
Unfortunately (and forebodingly), the attention has been focused on the role of white Christian nationalism, a "form of religious nationalism that focuses on promoting the Christian views of its followers, in order to achieve prominence in political and social life".
What is the goal of the fascist agenda? Thurman points to the "seizure and control of the economic, political, social and cultural life of the state".
Thurman, however, would urge us to consider, not just how white Christian nationalism is undergirding the political realities working against many minorities in America, but, alarmingly, how this phenomenon is connected to the larger context of the revival of fascism as demonstrated by the odious rollout of Project 2025.
In 2016, it was Donald Trump, a political newbie. In 2025, it is Donald Trump with a systemic corps of idealogues, policy wonks and Republican abeyance.
In other words, it's not white Christian nationalism - it is fascism cloaked as white Christian nationalism!
Thurman argues it is, in part, our failing as a theological community which preempts and previews the dangers of the fascist mindset and warns of a Christianity that is so wrapped and warped by individualism as to be irrelevant to the needs of the poor, the marginalized and disenfranchised.
Ominously, he opines: If the revolutionary implications of the Christian ethic are not carried out, the pseudo-revolutionary allure of fascism will appeal to many malleable minds. As long as the authentic message of Christianity is ignored, pseudo-revolutionary quasi-fascists will use Christian trappings to lure the unwary."
We see this happening already. African Americans are slowly leaving the faith. Agnosticism is on the increase in many of our communities. A recent Pew Research poll lists Black Lives Matter as the most significant agent for change in the Black community. And, frighteningly, twenty-one percent of Black men voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election, up from ten percent in 2016.
Something insidious is happening in America and in Black America particularly. Our faith is being tested and, in many ways, is showing the effects of what Thurman cites as a primary device of fascism - pitting of religious, racial and economic groups against one another in order to break down national unity.
Across the national landscape, one in which the shadows of past giants in the struggle for peace and justice are receding, we must ponder how we shall prevail against the pernicious and devastatingly evil forces intent on re-making America in its image.
The ethic which Jesus Christ practiced, the ethic echoed in the voices of the Old Testament prophets, is still our witness!
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