For the past eight to 10 months, I’ve drawn comfort and inspsiration, in the root sense of the word, from a podcast featuring historian Kristin Du Mez of Calvin University and three other scholars of religion. They collaborate on a (more-or-less) weekly podcast called the Convocation Unscripted, where they speak about “religion and its intersection with culture, history, and politics in America.” They also have a Substack magazine — Du Mez’ contribution is called CONNECTIONS.
Du Mez (pronounced du-MAY) is best known for her book Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. She and the others joined forces in 2024 for a “Faith and Democracy Tour”of mainline churches in which they urged audiences to stand up against what they see as the creeping authoritariaism of Donald Trump and his brand of white Christian nationalist populism.
“We also each take our own Christian faith seriously and are deeply concerned about the future of both democracy and Christianity in the U.S.,” they say in a prospectus on YouTube.
Especially since Trump won a second term as president, the Convocation Unscripted dialog has been like a breath of fresh air, at least to me.
The other scholars are Diana Butler Bass, an Episcopalian author of devotional books; sociologist Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute; and Jemar Tusby, author of Color of Compromise:The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. It can feel lonely and isolated out here, with Trump dominating the day-to-day news cycle, and their weekly podcasts are a reminder that some of us who identify as Christians are still committed to social justice and freedom of thought in a pluralistic, democratic society.Listening to them, I feel like I can breathe again.
But Kristin Du Mez stopped me dead in my tracks the other day with an observation in her Substack dated Sept. 4. She began by quoting Chris Armitage, a writer and former ag development specialisL She said:
[Arnitage’s] title was jarring: “We live in a Fascist nation, what now?” The opening lines were equally bracing:
“I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%.
Once they win elections, it’s already too late.”
Jarring enough for you?
Based on what I’ve seen of Du Mez, she’s a careful scholar (even though her book title, Jesus and John Wayne, is a little edgy). She teaches at Calvin, a Christian Reformed university in Grand Rapids, but she’s not one of those dour, predestinarian Calvinists of popular stereotype. She likes to try to find a little hope in the bleakest of news events at the intersection of faith, culture and politics — not an easy task in Trump’s America.
So her reaction to Armitage’s pronouncement struck me as typical. She tried to find some hope in it, but she also looked at the evidence:
Armitage may be right. Maybe it’s too late. History doesn’t repeat, but it does rhyme. But again, it’s also full of surprises.
All of which I have to agree with. As Du Mez says in a slightly different context, “Historians tend to be a pessimistic bunch.” But, yes, history does in fact rhyme, And the Trump regime does show distinctly fascistic patterns of behavior. And my own background as a historian (MA, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, with a thesis on monetary policy in colonial New Jersey) makes me suspect Du Mez and Armitage are right on target.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying Trump is Hitler. Not even Mussolini. There are certain stylistic resemblances with Il Duce, but I doubt the people around Trump could make the trains run on time. (Nor did Mussolini.) I’m thinking more in terms of a down-home wannabe dictatorship along lines of Huey Long, Sinclair Lewis’ tinpot evangelist Elmer Gantry and George Corley Wallace. (Be sure to watch the linked video clips, and you’ll see what I mean.)
With a big dose of Jim Crow. Except now we’re discriminating against all Black and brown people, especially Latinos.Trump’s weaponization of immigration law is thoroughly enmeshed with white supremacy, racial profiling and discrimination against people who don’t look like straight white males.
Does this amount to a fascist takeover of the federal government? I never could have imagined it even nine months ago, but I’m afraid we’re already there. Jim Crow is back in most of its essentials. (Joined maybe by his pal Señor Cuervo?) Armitage makes the case rather convincingly. But, like Du Mez, he holds out at least a little hope:
The Supreme Court declared Trump above the law. He’s threatening to arrest political opponents. He’s already sent the FBI after elected officials when they haven’t committed crimes. Congress is his. Most state governments are his. Billionaire oligarchs openly coordinate with him. The window slammed shut.
So let’s stop pretending we’re in the “prevention” phase and start talking about what you do when fascists already control the institutions but haven’t fully consolidated power yet. Because historically, nobody’s been here before, not like this.
Armitage sketches in several scenarios, but they’re all macro level. The “blue” states might get together in regional compacts. The United Nations might intervene. California might work out a deal with Canada. And so on, and so on. Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows?
I’m more interested when Kristin Du Mez’ asks what we can do now. Armitage argues on a macro level, but I don’t live on the macro level. Very few of us do. Even Du Mez, who spent the better part of 2024 trying to turn out the vote against Trump and his brand of white Christian nationalism, found the effort exhausting. Plus it took her away from working on her next book. In her Substack piece, headlined, “How Should We Then Live?,” she writes:
The second time Trump won the presidency, I thought it might be time to step back. The time to warn was past. Now it was time for others to step up: activists, protestors, even pastors.
But what if I was wrong? What if it wasn’t too late?
I reluctantly stepped back in. I had briefly pulled back from public speaking, but I decided to accept invitations again. I weighed quitting our podcast, but we decided to re-up. In the early months, I kept waiting for the spark—the spark that would ignite a counter-movement.
She’s still waiting. In the same Substack, she says she hasn’t given up hope. “History is full of surprises.” But she offers some advice on how we should live, in a time of nascent fascism. I like it because she leaves the macro level:
[…] I’ve found myself focusing not just on prevention, which seems overwhelming if not impossible, but also on how we go forward into what lies ahead. Few individuals can single-handedly shape outcomes on a national level. Trying to do so quickly leads to despair, burnout, and apathy.
In other words, she focuses on the here and now. (I won’t call it “micro.” I think it’s more important than that.) Du Mez has more questions than answers. But I like that, too. Maybe we’re in a time for questions. She continues:
But all of us can work to live well and do better in whatever circumstances unfold around us. Every day we have choices to make. In the days ahead, we may be faced with new choices. Do we comply? Do we resist? Do we speak loudly? Do we work quietly? Do we accept the advantages that may come our way at the cost of others who are paying the price? How do we prepare ourselves to make decisions like these?
Du Mez doesn’t attempt to answer these questions in this piece, other than to recommend For Such a Time as This, an “emergency devotional” by theologian Hanna Reiches that includes “reflections on historical precedents including the Confessing Church’s resistance to Nazi Germany” and other times of crisis. But she drops a strong hint when she says:
When I was asked to endorse the book, I technically wasn’t taking on any more endorsements until I finished my own manuscript, but Reichel’s editor hooked me with this line: “It’s like Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, but for Christians.” I caved. Then, I read the manuscript in one sitting. It is exactly the right thing.
Du Mez mentions Snyder frequently. Now at the University of Toronto, he is best known perhaps for his advice on how everyday citizens can resist tyranny. Most prominently, “Do not obey in advance.” In March, when Trump’s drift toward actual tyranny was becoming abundantly clear, Du Mez devoted a Substack column to Snyder’s advice.
But sometimes it’s enough just to ask the right questions. I’d say that’s exactly what Du Mez is doing as summer turns into fall and we continue our lurch into a type of down-home tyranny that’s deeply embedded in American culture.
Links and Citations
Christopher Armitage, “I researched every attempt to stop fascism in history. The success rate is 0%,” Existential Republic, Substack, Aug. 13, 2025 https://substack.com/@chrisarmitage1/p-170847027.
Joseph Coohill, “Mussolini Didn’t Make the Trains Run on Time,” Professor Buzzkill, Jan 10, 2022 https://professorbuzzkill.com/2022/01/10/mussolini-didnt-make-the-trains-run-on-time/.
KristinDdu Mez, “Be as courageous as you can,” Connections, Substack, March 30, 2025 https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/be-as-courageous-as-you-can.
__________. “How Should We Then Live?,” Connections, Substack, Sept. 4, 2025 https://kristindumez.substack.com/p/how-should-we-then-live.
[Uplinked Sept. 15, 2025[-
Ordinary Time 