American feminist theologian and Episcopal priest Carter Heywood is one of 11 women whose ordination led to allowing women into the priesthood in the Episcopal Church in 1976. Here she analyzes the current political divide and accompanying violence in the US, arguing that both are grounded in the founding of the US as a presumed “white, Christian nation” controlled by wealthy white men. Heywood traces the paths by which this assumption continues to inform politics, economics, social structures, and values. She views this influence as a threat to American democracy and a challenge to an alternative vision of the US as an inclusive, diverse society that supports “liberty and justice for all.” She lists seven sins that make white Christian nationalism so destructive and deems the most dangerous to be the presumption of omnipotence—the desire to have total power and control, leading to replacing democracy with theocracy (a dictatorship claiming to be ordained by a white God). The result is a politics of domination: men over women, whites over Blacks and BIPOC, humans over nature and nonhuman animals. She calls for action grounded in humility; in respect for all persons, the natural world, and animals; and loving nonviolence. Highly recommended.
