American Christianity and white racism

Robert P. Jones makes an important observation about how the internal, individualistic emphasis of Protestant fundamentalism can be exploited by political demagogues to mobilize their support for social policies that in some cases are the opposite of what any remotely honest Christian attitude toward others would be. On the other hand, that particular aspect of Protestant fundamentalism doesn't necessarily in itself make its adherents more receptive to white racist attitudes.

In an interview for the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal with Regina Munch, Baptizing White Supremacy, Jones observes:

One of the consequences of the emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus is that it is so hyper-individualistic - an internal, psychological, and emotional kind of connection to God. When the beginning and the end of religion is seen in that kind of relationship, what gets screened out are social injustices and systemic injustices, particularly around race. It becomes a way for white Evangelicals in particular to feel very comfortable with their own personal religion in a way that’s very disconnected from any claims about inequality or injustice by their African-American brothers and sisters. It falls on deaf ears because it’s considered outside the realm of what’s most central to being Christian. [my emphasis]

He continues with this point:

This idea of purity and innocence I think is the biggest stumbling block. It’s personal, right? If some of the best parts about ourselves have been formed by the church, how can it also be true that some of these awful things in our history are true? I just think those two things can be true at the same time. If we white Christians want to hold on to and pass down the good to our children and grandchildren, I think there’s no way to do that without seriously wrestling with the bad and doing everything we can to put a sharp and bright light on it so that we can excise it, so that we’re handing less of a muddled mess down to the next generation. [my emphasis]

Jones certainly isn't the first person with a Southern Baptist background to make such an observation. The singer-songwriter Kate Campbell, who is the daughter a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, dramatized the point in a song inspired by an actual case of a snake-hanling Pentecostal minister who attempted to murder his wife by rattlesnake bite. Signs Following (Snake Song) 08/05/2014:

The closing lines of the last verse:

And somewhere on Sand Mountain
A woman needs no proof
That evil can lie so close to truth

Such sects have someetimes been called Snakebite Baptists, but Pentecostals are not Baptist. Although Pentecostal religion can often promote extreme individualism of the kind Jones desribes, too.

But as Jones also explains in the interview, Christian white supremacy is not exclusive to Protestant fundamentalism. He cities a study in which white American Catholics and white non-fundam,entalist Protestant shows similar levels of anti-black prejudice. Mainstream Protestantism and the Catholic Church generally place less reliance on subjective, mystical experience of the kind Protestant fundamentalism stresses. It has always been a major different between Protestant and Catholic theology that Catholicism postulates a number of mediations between God and humanity: priests, bishops, cardinals, saints, angels. But that study suggests that the degree of mystical thinking involved doesn't necessarily directly affect how susceptible American Christians are to white racist ideas.

Jones notes that "the people who aren’t shocked about these numbers are African-American Christians."

Obviously, American Christians, including whites, have also drawn more left-leaning social-activist and antiwar lessons. William Jennings Bryan is a fmous example: a radical social reformer, antiwar - but also (sadly) notorious for his fundamentalist anti-evolution stance.

Still, since respect for empirical facts in the world is also a personal and social skill that has political relevance. So the degree of otherworldly thinking a person indulges can have a significant effect on their views of political issues. So when a Christian fundamentalist religious position leads someone to an ideologically anti-science outlook - a position common to fundamentalists but not to mainstream Protestants or Catholics - that also undermines the kind of critical thinking skills that make people less easily susceptible to political demagoguery.

And since demagoguery depends heavily on exploiting fear and on polarizing good in-groups against threatening out-groups - or, more specifically, narrative constructions of such groups - presumably Christians who are committed to versions of the faith that stress a punishing God and the exclusive virtue of their denomination or sect would be more vulnerable to rightwing political demagoguery.