White American Christian

There I was watching YouTube and tuning into a video where a white American Christian was sharing his family story. Coming from the south in Georgia he had an old family bible handed down over generations. In this it listed, in addition to the family members the four slaves and their paid value in dollars. The gentleman then went on to share his research into how his family originally acquired the land. His family got free of charge 200 acres of prime farming land, as the Cherokee were forcibly removed and sent on the trail of tears by Georgians. This was in contravention of agreed treaties by the federal government. This is the history of the United States, stealing the land from the Indigenous owners and then, enslaving black Africans to work that land.

White Supremacy In America

This video was about the roots of white supremacy in America and its association with Christians. These God fearing folk were fine with owning slaves. They were fine with stealing land from Indians – after all they were just savages. How do these people and their descendants think that African Americans and Native Americans are going to feel about them and their actions? Why do many Christians think that Christianity only applies to them and their white skinned kind? This conditional application of Christian principles is shallow and convenient.

Jesus of Nazareth definitely didn’t have blue eyes and white skin.

White Christianity In America

Really it calls the entire religion into question. The ease with which people adapt the Christian faith to their interests and concerns makes a mockery of the whole thing. Universality of faith is a ridiculous proposition under the reality of this kind of appropriation. Indeed, religious scholars like Dr Richard Carrier are questioning the ancient evidence when it comes to the very existence of Jesus of Nazareth. It is looking increasingly likely that Christianity was an invention from the very start without a real central character called Jesus at its core. This lack of primary credibility may explain how the religion has been so, often, misused by vested interests over its journey.

The Cultural Dimension Of Belief

All religions are fundamentally cultural phenomena. They are not really about Gods and Angels and Demons. They are about belief and other human things. Did the southern Baptist slave owners really think that their Jesus would have been on board with their slave holdings on moral grounds? The distortions of the faith are large and they invariably suit the pragmatic needs of the flock. Christianity is Judaism lite to begin with. An invented cult or a franchise extension. The Gospels of Mark, Mathew, Luke, and John are anonymous later literary creations purporting to be accounts of the life of Jesus. They bear no verifiable historicity. Their content is never mentioned in Paul’s epistles. All later ancient sources referring to Jesus of Nazareth have been found to be fake and the work of Christian apologists. It is a sorry business if judged in terms of truth and integrity.

Children are brought up on the stories of the bible and, thus, adult critical faculties are skipped. Fairy tales and the allegorical stories in the new testament are of a similar order.

Morality & Belief In Supernatural Stuff

This is where we find ourselves in a scientific age in the 21C. Large chunks of the population have been schooled by religions promoting belief in gods, angels, and demons. They carve out their niche in the education system based on their inculcation of morality via a divine source. A belief in their God is supposed to foster better behaviour and knowing what is right and wrong. Good and evil are tagged as the foundational poles to determine this understanding. Belief in a supernatural invisible entity overseeing all life is the price paid for this supposed moral superiority.

Christians Killing & Enslaving Indians

Despite this the genocide of Indigenous populations went ahead around the globe, even after more than a millennia and a half of subjugation to Christian beliefs. Slavery, of course, never went away and in fact went into industrialised overdrive under European colonialism. Meanwhile, the clergy and empire were hand in glove in their imperialistic expansion. In the Americas religious missionaries had their own slaves to work within their missions. Native Indians were enslaved to work the fields and mines. They were worked to death in many instances in the tens of millions. The Europeans brought diseases like small pox with them, which also wiped out millions and millions of First Nations inhabitants globally.

In The Caribbean when all the Indians were dead the Europeans brought in African slaves to keep on doing the work. This was genocide on a grand scale. Christianity went on preaching its moral superiority through this period.

Economics & Slavery

The economy of the new world was founded on the mass exploitation of Indian and African slaves. However, this is rarely mentioned these days. No, it is all about our scientific cleverness and technological inventiveness. Few if any ask about where the money came from to fund this technology in the first place. Inconvenient truths are discarded like information not in tune with the Christian story was by those in charge of keeping such things. Christianity defined the very calendar we keep today. All books to be published in the Middle Ages had to be passed fit by the Church. The Christian faith was not like it is today back then. Oh no, it was a very different beast. History is written by the victors – I am sure you have heard that before. He who controls history defines how we think about the world.

History & Christianity

Historian Tom Holland, Dominion: The Making Of The Western Mind, remembers his great aunt sweetly. Never underestimate the impact upon a young child’s mind and heart of love and nurture. Her love of God and her love of young Tom coalesced into one for him. Tom got tired of rejecting this as he aged. We all soften and return to formative influences as we get into old age. I enjoyed Tom Holland’s book but not its conclusion – I disagree whole heartedly with it. Scholars profess to be immune to the natural brain washing which occurs in childhood. However, we are all human beings first and foremost.

The white American Christian stands on the precipice of a new history. One that is no longer largely controlled by white skinned Christians to the exclusion of all other views. Donald Trump would like to lead his followers back to the promised land and make America great again. What this means for the majority of Americans, as Trump has never received the most votes, is frighteningly unclear. The leader who boasts support from right wing extremist groups and billionaires is a cult figure in the US. Trump is a compulsive liar and fraud. Despite this white Christian nationalists back Trump. The moral ground in America has never been more shaky. Perhaps, in reality it has always been thus. A country stolen from the Indians and built on the back of enslaved Africans cannot hold its head up high. There have always been a lot of unsavoury Americans looking out for number one. Most of them are white and Christian.

“Bart Bonikowski, associate professor of sociology and politics at New York University, spoke of how Christian nationalism in the United States is exclusionary and nostalgic, seeing the nation as going downhill and needing to be recaptured by people who see themselves at its rightful owners — possibly through authoritarian means. And while the phenomenon can take different forms in other countries, Bonikowski said the mechanism behind the movements can be quite similar. He said white Christian nationalists take advantage of preexisting societal cleavages to mobilize supporters, channeling their fears into resentments.

Opportunistic politicians come along and consolidate inchoate fears into an overall crisis, Bonikowski said. They argue that everything people see as going wrong with the country is part of the same problem, which can be blamed on non-Christians.”

• (https://isps.yale.edu/news/blog/2022/10/understanding-white-christian-nationalism)

Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom. 

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