Updates from the Road, Trump Continues Down the Fascist Path
Plus, a summer book trilogy offer, exclusively for WTL subscribers
Dear #WhiteTooLong readers,
Greetings from the road—it’s been a busy spring, and I’ve had the privilege of being with so many inspiring organizations and congregations who are doing the work of truth-telling and attempting to repair the damage done by the centuries of entanglement of white supremacy in American Christianity. Here a just a few places I’ve been over the past month:
Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School (Rochester, NY), where I was honored to give the commencement address. [video available]
First Lutheran Church (Duluth, MN) [video available]
Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding (New York, NY)
Middle Collegiate Church (New York, NY)
Wilshire Baptist Church (Dallas, TX) [video available]
And—with apologies for the late notice—I’ll be speaking TONIGHT (5/22) on “White Christian Nationalism and the 2024 Elections” at an event sponsored by the Central Atlantic Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The event will be live streamed and in person at First Congregational UCC Church in Washington, DC. The event is free but registration is required.
To see whether my book tour is taking me to a place near you, check out my full 2024 speaking schedule.
Finally, I’m looking forward to some much-needed writing leave for summer 2024, where I’ll be working on the proposal for my next book. Stay tuned for updates as the proposal begins to take shape.
Onward-
Robby
Trump Continues Down the Fascist Path
Even with Trump’s schedule being cramped by his criminal trials, he continues to spew a steady stream of anti-democratic, fascist rhetoric. While it’s easy to tune out because it is, well, just so awful, I’m struck that Trump’s current speech is measurably more extreme than anything he said during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns or while he was in office. It’s critical to register these increasingly fascist statements against the background noise. Here are just a few of the most extreme things Trump has said over the last week, each of which represents another step he is taking down the fascist path.
On Tuesday, the Trump campaign sent a fundraising email that was signed by Trump with the subject line, “They were authorized to shoot me!” The rhetoric then made an unprecedented and false claim, “You know they’re just itching to do the unthinkable … Joe Biden was locked & loaded ready to take me out & put my family in danger.”
On Monday, Trump’s Truth Social account posted (and later deleted after an outcry) a 30-second video that featured mock-up headlines after an imagined Trump victory. One clip shows a black-and-white photo of Trump, with a headline that reads: “WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMERICA?” with text underneath reading: “Strength significantly increased by the creation of a unified Reich.”
On Saturday in Dallas, TX, at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Dallas, Texas, Trump called on gun owners to vote and to “be rebellious.”
On Friday in St. Paul, Minnesota, Trump told a raucous crowd, "No matter how hateful and corrupt the communists and criminals we are fighting against may be, you must never forget this is not a nation that belongs to them. This is a nation that totally belongs to you. It belongs to you. This is your home, this is your heritage…. We will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all."
As Trump’s criminal trial goes to the jury, Trump and the cronies who showed up to his trial are repeatedly undermining the justice system, attacking it in public as rigged and politically driven. But when Trump was given the opportunity to take the stand as a witness, where he would be required to answer questions under oath, he declined (and even then lied to justify his silence, falsely claimed that he did so because the court gag order prevented him from doing so).
Related on #WhiteTooLong
Between now and the election, I’ll be holding the most dangerous of Trump’s statements up to the light. Keeping these before us will help prevent our moral sensibilities from being anesthetized, so we can grasp the clear and present danger Trump presents both to democracy and to Christianity.
A Summer Book Trilogy Offer, Exclusively for WTL Readers
To kick off the summer, I’m rolling out two summer reading discount offers, exclusively for WTL subscribers. In short: Buy a book, get a discounted paid annual newsletter subscription.
(Already a paid subscriber? Pass this offer along to a friend!)
COMPLETE THE TRILOGY OFFER. Are you or a friend missing one of my three most recent books? If you buy any one of them between now and June 30th, you can get 50% off an annual subscription. How it works: Just send me an email at robertpjones.substack@gmail.com confirming your purchase (hardcover, audiobook, or ebook), and I’ll send you a link to receive the discounted subscription.
BUY THE TRILOGY OFFER. If you order all three books for yourself, friends, or family members, you’ll get 100% off an annual subscription. Same deal: Just send me an email at robertpjones.substack@gmail.com confirming you’ve ordered all three the books, and I’ll send you a link to receive the free annual subscription.