Interview by George Yancy with Susannah Heschel in Truthout

White Supremacist Christianity Drives Trump's Loyal Mob. We Must Scream It Down. By George Yancy in Truthout

Two months have now passed since mobs of mostly white people descended on the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of November's election, but I am still haunted by images of the mob's racist violence such as the noose that they put on display and the shirt of a white man in the crowd that read, "Camp Auschwitz."

These details were more than symbolic — they point to historically materialized forms of horrific anti-Black and antisemitic racism that continue to be stoked by white supremacist strains of Christianity.

In moments like these I often turn to the work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was one of the leading Jewish theologians and prophetic figures of the 20th century. He was also a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and joined King to march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965.

Rabbi Heschel's writings produce a profound love for those who suffer and a profound sense of outrage against those who perpetuate that suffering. At this moment in U.S. history, as we witness the rise of unabashed white supremacy and the proliferation of lies and mistrust, we desperately need to channel the prophetic urgency and clarity of voices like his.

As we struggle against this violence, we can draw from the deep wellsprings of African American and Jewish prophetic traditions that speak truth to power and counter oppression.

Susannah Heschel "My father said that, "the blood of the innocent cries forever…." Have we all become indifferent bystanders, unable to hear the scream in the night?"

For the full article:   Truthout