St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park, Los Angeles
[The Episcopal News] A Sunday afternoon forum focused on countering white Christian nationalism is set for 2 – 4 p.m. on July 9 at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park, hosted by the diocesan Program Group on Ecumenical and Interfaith Life.
All are welcome; advance registration is requested here.
The program – titled “From Swords to Plowshares: Our need to address White Christian nationalism” and planned by diocesan interfaith ministers-in-residence Sable Manson, Tasneem Noor, and Tahil Sharma – will be framed by remarks offered by Bishop John Harvey Taylor of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, Bishop Brenda Bos of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Southwest California Synod, and Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, retired bishop of the United Methodist Church’s California-Pacific Conference.
Forum planners recommend that attendees read Pamela Cooper White’s 2022 book The Psychology of Christian Nationalism: Why People Are Drawn In and How to Talk Across the Divide. The author has been invited to address the forum.
Program objectives, set by the diocese’s interfaith ministers and program group members, include:
- Creating a deeper understanding of what white Christian nationalism is, the different ways in which it materializes, and why it is pervasive and important to address;
- Empowering people to realize different roles to play in combating white Christian nationalism;
- Activating people to see white Christian nationalism as an issue requiring attention and diligent action;
- Providing people with tools to understand that addressing white Christian nationalism is not attacking their faith but addressing the weapon hijacking Christianity.
Further information will follow in upcoming issues of The Episcopal News Update.