Last updated 9/1/2024
1. When racial segregation in America was a major political issue in the sixties, guess who by and large defended it? The answer is white people, and white Christians weren't an exception.
Uncritical examples
Segregation and the Kingdom of God by E. Earle Ellis | Christianity Today (March 1957, the online version is only an excerpt with the rest behind a paywall)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
A Review of Black Monday by Judge Tom P. Brady (October 1954)
Archived on the University of South California's website
Commentary
White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity by Tom Gjelten | National Public Radio (July 2020)
Critical Race Theory is Just the Latest Battle – 'The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy' by Christopher D. Cantwell | Religion Dispatches (July 2021)
2. Go back a little further, and you'll find arguments that slavery was ordained by God, or that it wasn't something churches needed to concern themselves with.
Uncritical examples
The church and slavery by James Henley Thornwell
The church and slavery | Confederate Shop
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Cotton is King and The Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject (published in 1860)
Archived on Project Gutenberg
Commentary
”What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass | archived on Teaching American History (originally from July 1852)
Preserved on Teaching American History and BlackPast
Presbyterians and Slavery by James Moorhead | Princeton And Slavery (discusses the different attitudes towards slavery within the church)
”What, then, is the Church?”: The Perpetuation of Racial Injustice and the Failure of Repair at Columbia Seminary in the Antebellum United States by William Yoo | Columbia Theological Seminary
How Christian Slaveholders Used the Bible to Justify Slavery by Noel Rae | Time (February 2018)
White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity by Tom Gjelten | National Public Radio (July 2020)
3. You know how most Christians used to loathe rock music (and how some still do)? This started because rock and roll in its early days was associated with Black people. Some Christians have explicitly connected rock and roll to African tribal music in order to portray it as evil.
Ironically, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the inventor of rock and roll, was a Christian and a gospel singer.
Uncritical examples
Spellbound? by Jack T. Chick (1978, this is a tract about how all rock music is supposedly demonic)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Bible Guidelines For Christian Music | Dial-the-Truth Ministries (earliest archive is from August 2000, scroll to CHRISTIAN MUSIC SHOULD FEED THE SPIRIT – NOT THE FLESH for the explicit racism)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
On my way to the promised land | slacktivist (February 2014)
4. Black people, especially women, may be assumed to not be sexually ”pure”.
Uncritical examples
Premarital Sex and Our Love Affair with Bad Stats by Kevin DeYoung | The Gospel Coalition (December 2011)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Opinion: Purity culture disproportionately affects women of color by Logan Anderson | Reveille (February 2015)
Gender, race, and the cult of true womanhood | Are Women Human? (November 2011, this is the final post in a series that examines how racism plays into gender roles)
Growing Up Black In the Purity Movement | Jasmine Holmes (January 2018)
The Privilege Of Purity | Sarah Over The Moon (January 2013)
5. Every so often, there comes a meme or billboard saying the most common cause of death in Black communities is abortion. Not only are they reiterating the ”black-on-black crime” argument, they rarely address the issues Black children and families face
Uncritical examples
Planned Parenthood's Racist Motives by Rebecca Hagelin | Family Talk (May 2017)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
”You do know more black babies are aborted than born alive” by Gideon | Twitter (September 2021)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
The Evangelical Obsession With Black Abortion | Tori Williams Douglass (April 2018)
The Missionary Movement To 'Save' Black Babies by Akiba Solomon | Rewire News Group (May 2013)
Our history | #TRUST BLACK WOMEN
Whitewashing reproductive rights: How black activists get erased by Renee Bracey Sherman | Salon (February 2014)
6. Anti-abortion Christians have also compared abortion to Transatlantic slavery.
Uncritical examples
12 Ways God-Rejecters Murder, Attack, & Abuse Children | Biblical Evidence For Catholicism With Dave Armstrong (July 2023)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Developing a whole-life, pro-life ethic in our churches by Josh Howerton | The Ethics And Religious Liberty Commission (June 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary:
None yet
7. Many right-wing Christians like to argue in favor of ”bathroom bills” targeting trans people, keeping same-gender marriage from being recognized, and the legal ability to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. These have similarities to pro-segregation arguments that portrayed Black people sharing public spaces with white people or interracial romance as something that would lead to terrible consequences.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
When Black People Were Not ”Ladies” or ”Men” by Andre E. Johnson | Rhetoric Race and Religion (April 2016)
The Politics of Transphobia by Cristan Williams | TransAdvocate
When 'Religious Liberty' Was Used To Justify Racism Instead Of Homophobia by Ian Millhiser | ThinkProgress (February 2014)
Protecting Bigotry as "Sincere Religious Belief" | TransFusion (August 2019)
The Anti-Trans Bathroom Nightmare Has Its Roots in Racial Segregation by Gillian Frank | Slate (November 2015)
8. Conservative Christians often believe that one should obey the laws of one's country. So oftentimes, they assume that if police are violent towards you, you brought it on yourself. You can imagine how this has worked out for Black victims of police violence.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
The Day I Learned White Christians Hate Me by Tori Williams Douglas (originally posted August 2017)
Available on the author's website, Graysight, and Not Your Mission Field
9. The evangelical pro-life movement came about due to Christian leaders in America looking for a way to get political support after segregation fell out of public favor.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
The Anti-Abortion Movement Was Always Built on Lies by Laura Bassett | GQ (May 2020)
The Real Origins of the Religious Right by Randall Balmer | Politico (May 2014)
'Throughline' Traces Evangelicals' History On The Abortion Issue by Rund Abdelfatah | National Public Radio (June 2019)
10. When talking about problems facing African-American families, white Christians often fall back on stereotypes such as the Absent Black Father and the Welfare Queen.
Uncritical examples
Black and White Problems | Daly Report (November 2010)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Gender, race, and the cult of true womanhood | Are Women Human? (November 2011, this is the final post in a series that examines how racism plays into gender roles)
11. Some Christians believe in ”the curse of Ham”. This is a notion that Noah's son Ham was punished for his sin by being made Black and his descendants were Africans.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Curse of Ham | Rational Wiki
More about antiblackness in Christian spaces
Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. (This states his disappointment with white churches and with white moderates in general)
Sin Problems and Skin Problems | Austin Channing Brown (October 2015)
Why James H. Cone's Liberation Theology Matters More Than Ever by Daniel Jose Camacho | Religion Dispatches (June 2015)
Reagan, Racism, and Transphobia at Colorado Christian University Anti-Abortion Event by Heidi Beetle | Colorado Times Recorder (August 2022)
Jesus Wasn't A Slut-Shamer or How Conservative Theology Harms Black Women by Dr. Brittney Cooper | Crunk Feminist Collective (June 2014)
Resolution On the Lost Cause Theory of the Civil War – SBC 2021 | Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr. (May 2021)
Can a Right-Wing Promise Keepers Keep Its Promise of Racial Reconciliation? | Footnotes By Jemar Tisby (August 2024)
Jesus Was Divisive: A Black Pastor's Message To White Christians by Isabella Rosario | National Public Radio (June 2020)
American Mythology | Austin Channing Brown (April 2015)
Prominent Southern Baptists are dropping 'Southern' name amid racial unrest by Sarah Pulliam Bailey | The Washington Post (September 2020)
Accelerated Christian Education's Ugly History of Racism by Jonny Scaramanga | Homeschoolers Anonymous (November 2014)
Church of England says it knew of slavery links as fund is set up to address 'shameful' past | NBC News (January 2023)
It's OK to Question White Evangelicals Adopting Black Kids by Stacey Patton | Dame Magazine (January 2019)
Stop Policing My Language | Tori Williams Douglass (March 2019)
Baptist white supremacy and Luther's anti-Semitism | slacktivist (June 2015)
Black, White, and Born Again: How Race Affects Opinions Among Evangelicals by Diana Orcés, Ph.D. | Public Religion Research Institute (February 2021)
Charlie Dates counters John MacArthur's declaration that MLK 'was not a Christian' by Adelle M. Banks and Bob Smietana | Religion News Service (March 2024)
Maximalists for Love by Jemar Tisby, PhD (November 2022)
Further information
Black Women's Health Imperative Expresses Concern Over Supreme Court Nominees | Black Women's Health Imperative (July 2018, addresses the reproductive rights of black women, including abortion)
Mother of girl featured in shocking anti-abortion billboard is outraged by ad: 'I want an apology' by Erin Einhorn and Rich Schapiro | New York Daily News (February 2011)
International Adoption and the White Savior Industrial Complex | No White Saviors (September 2019)
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