In The Souls of Black Folk and other essays, Du Bois condemned “white religion” as an “utter failure.” “A nation’s religion is its life, and as such white Christianity is a miserable failure.” He could not reconcile white Christianity with the Gospels’ portrayal of Jesus. For Du Bois, true Christianity was defined by “the life and teaching of Jesus of Nazareth and the Golden Rule.” The white church’s treatment of blacks was “sadly at variance with this doctrine.” “It . . . assiduously ‘preaches Christ crucified’ in prayer meeting patios, and crucifies ‘niggers’ in unrelenting daily life.”[21]
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