“The next day” sounds better than “ the day after,” don’t you think? The voting is behind us, but all the races are not yet decided. Even the control of the Senate or the House is not clear as of early the next day. What happens going forward? And going forward is our goal.
My morning email brought the word of the day – Democracy: a government of the people, by the people, for the people, as Abraham Lincoln phrased it. More than many people anticipated, democracy “won” yesterday. We are still divided. Most races were very close, and some may not be decided for several weeks – but no single party dominated. That’s democracy in action.
What now? Yesterday I voted. Today I speak out – and keep on learning.
At 1:30 pm ET today, I will attend a webinar sponsored on “Countering Christian Nationalism,” sponsored by Faithful America. Nine prominent faith leaders and issue experts will discuss providing a true Christian show of force for democracy and will respond to Christian Nationalism’s role in the election, demand that every vote be counted, and talk about what comes next. (Register here if it’s not yet happened, and find the video if it has.)
Tonight at 6:30 pm ET, I will present a workshop on Christian Nationalism: Freedom, Faith, and Family at the Batavia Presbyterian Church. It will be streamed on Facebook Live on the church’s page, and the video will be accessible later. In part, we will discuss my experience at the Reawaken America Tour event in Batavia in August. If you’ve missed my posts reporting on that event, you can find them here on my blog.
Today is launch day for Imagine: a learning community working together to build a better world. You can find tonight’s presentation as an extended course with a range of resources: Introduction to Christian Nationalism: What Can We Do? Imagine community members will also find a growing “library” of interviews, resources, and weekly updates on what’s happening in our world and with this movement. (Membership is only $10/month.)
For more than 15 years – since I taught a seminar on the dangers of the religious right, I have kept learning, doing the research, following the growing power of the movement. I don’t share their “biblical worldview,” and I don’t want to live in the authoritarian world they are working to build. I imagine a world very different – one with compassion and empathy and working for a restorative justice for all people.
Will you join me on this journey? Imagine the world you want, and learn how to build it, working with other people who imagine the same kind of world.
Jimmy Reader 
Thanks for all you are doing, Jimmy.
Jimmy, I’ve recently learned about and been following Rachel Maddow’s “Ultra” podcast series, outlining a serious attempt in the early 1940s by various Christian, anti-Semitic, and pro-Nazi groups to overthrow the US government. They had help from the German government, and it’s scary to think how well-prepared they seemed to be. In fact, they bombed 4 munitions factories in the U.S. Ironically, our democracy may have been saved by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which mobilized the U.S. into a more united, anti-Axis mode.
Are you familiar with this?
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra
Rebecca
You are invited to visit my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.johnson.cyber.salon https://www.facebook.com/rebecca.johnson.cyber.salon
striving for honest, factful, and respectful discussions and helping to bend the arc toward justice
You look around and you see a world that is impenetrable, that cannot be made sense of. You either raise your fist or you say ‘Hallelujah.’ I try to do both.
– Leonard Cohen
Thank you, Rebecca. … I had heard about her new podcast but had not accessed it yet. Thanks for giving me the link. I will listen and then add it to the Resources section of new Imagine site.