The story of America is not a struggle b/w liberal & conservative visions of common life; it’s the story of a plantation economy struggling against everyday people for power & control.
Every successful effort to expand democracy—from abolition to women’s suffrage to labor & civil rights—has been driven by a moral movement among everyday people.
The plantation economy resisted moral movements by investing in #slaveholderreligion. Preachers who defend anti-democratic policies are well-funded by the corporate elites & those who remain quietly apolitical are rewarded.
To call resistance to this #slaveholderreligion ‘liberal’ or left-wing faith to dismiss the fact that we are trying to conserve the only tradition that offers any hope of a democratic future in this land.
This is the core of what @RevDrBarber & I have been teaching in our Mobile Course in Public Theology this semester. I’m grateful that there are thousands of faith leaders across America who see this clearly.
It’s also central tenant of the #PoorPeoplesCampaign’s call for a moral revival. If like me you’re a Christian—liberal or conservative in disposition—this is the on-going work of #ReconstructingtheGospel. amazon.com/gp/aw/d/083084…
Here’s a 25min documentary of this story you can watch w/ your family, small group, book club or Sunday School class: cbsnews.com/amp/video/race…

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More from @wilsonhartgrove

Aug 22, 2018
An important revelation from yesterday’s Cohen confession for evangelicals: Trump conspired from the beginning of his campaign to deceive the preachers who stumped for him.
After Access Hollywood tape came out, @Franklin_Graham said: “ I’ve not met an evangelical yet who condones his language or inexcusable behavior from over a decade ago. However, he has apologized to his wife, his family, and to the American people for this.”
No one could deny that Trump had been a playboy; he’d bragged about it too often thru the 80s & 90s. But Graham, Jeffress, Paula White & Falwell, Jr. told evangelicals he was a changed man. They admonished us to remember Christ’s teachings about forgiveness.
Read 4 tweets
May 3, 2018
I gather w/ folks in our neighborhood to pray every morning. I spent years working on @CommonPrayer & am glad to be part of a global family that sings the unending hymn of God’s praise. But I will not #pray4unity in America today.
I know many faithful people volunteer to organize these events, but the National Day of Prayer exploits their best intentions to whitewash the sin & injustice of people who have worked to divide America. 2/
In the 80s, as corporate interests invested in redefining liberty as freedom from government, they realized they could not build a political coalition w/out Christian nationalists. So they invested (among other things) in a National Day of Prayer. 3/
Read 9 tweets

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