My Latest: Cornel West, Christian Socialist

I talked with West about white Christian nationalism and what an authentically prophetic Christian resistance looks like.

Cornel West: The Christian Socialist Running for President - The Nation

West: “Every Christian ought to look good on wood.” That’s Berrigan, brother. You know, “There’s a cross for everyone, there’s a cross for me.” Or, it’s Bonhoeffer’s cross—of discipleship. Jesus says, “Come and die.” Brother King used to say, “The cross is not something that you talk about; it’s something that you die on.” So that’s what Christian discipleship is, if you really want to follow this Palestinian Jew named Jesus, in all of our fallibility, all of our finitude, all of our fallenness, then you got to really look good on wood. Which is to say, you got to be able to know there’s a cross for you to bear.

Dear friends,

As promised last week, here’s my interview for The Nation with Cornel West. I spoke with him on March 30 (for my feature on the Christian left, now available to non-subscribers), more than two months before he announced his presidential candidacy on June 5. Now that he’s running a third-party challenge on the Green Party ticket, our conversation about Christianity and American politics resonates a bit differently.

If you’re someone who believes we need to amplify the authentically prophetic and liberationist alternatives—across the entire religious left—to both white Christian nationalism and mainstream neoliberal religion in America, I hope you’ll share this interview far and wide. And then I hope you’ll vote your conscience in November 2024, and make sure white Christian nationalism stays the hell out of the White House.

Peace,

Wen