A review by katymul
Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--And What Comes Next by Bradley Onishi

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

This book doesn't have the hook that Jesus & John Wayne or the spiritual cloak of The 7 Deadly Sins of Christian Nationalism, so I suspect it might be less of a seller. However, what it does have is a clear-eyed sense of a movement at war with progress, equity, and even justice. The fact that this movement has not just hijacked the religion I grew up in but in fact came out of that religion has been the project of years for me to reckon with. There is an unblinking quality to this book that stops just short of a true call to arms to fight against rising fascism (perhaps Onishi figures that that is implied?). It's just soft enough that I can imagine hearing its message even when I had just started my journey to deconstruct Christianity. At my current place unraveling the programming, I appreciate it's clear-eyed and unambiguous view.