W.E.B. Du Bois explained the contradictions among Christian nations as explained by James H. Cone in the book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Cone along with Ralph Ginbergs explains the hypocrisy of the nation as it progressed through the years with many lynching taking place on church grounds.

“The church aided and abetted the Negro slave trade; the church was the bulwark of American slavery; and the church today is the strongest seat of racial and color prejudice. If one hundred of the best and purest colored folk of the United States should seek to apply for membership in any white church in this land tomorrow, 999 out of every 1,000 ministers would lie to keep them out. They would not only do this, but would openly brazenly defend their actions as worthy of followers of Jesus Christ.”