Last updated 11/22/2024
1. Since a good chunk of conservative Christians are Zionists, they often portray Palestinians as terrorists or as being in the way of Israel. In addition, Zionist Christians should not be considered allies to Jewish people.
See this document for examples.
2. As some have noted in conversations about purity culture, the way many people of color (particularly women) are hypersexualized means they aren't seen as ”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)
Don't Discount Evangelicalism as a Factor in Racist Murder of Asian Spa Workers in Georgia by Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches (March 2021)
Purity Culture is Also About National Purity: Anti-Asian Hate and Purity Culture [Audio] by Bradley Onishi | Religion Dispatches (March 2021, includes both audio and text)
Growing Up Black In the Purity Movement | Jasmine Holmes (January 2018)
White Women's Bodies and the Dilemma of Purity Culture Recovery by Sara Moslener | The Revealer (February 2023)
The Privilege Of Purity | Sarah Over The Moon (January 2013)
3. Many conservative white Christians romanticize ”the good old days”, the 1950's being a popular era. I've heard some give lip service to anti-racism (”I would love to live in the fifties, oh, but the racism was terrible”). But I've yet to see these Christians acknowledge that their whiteness is what makes this a happy fantasy.
Uncritical examples
What the Duck? by Drew Magary | GQ (December 2013, interviews the Robertsons of Duck Dynasty fame, where patriarch Phil briefly comments the Black people he knew in ”Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Louisiana” were perfectly happy)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
None yet
4. Despite the fact that most biblical figures were Middle Eastern, they are often portrayed as white. And when people point out that Jesus wouldn't have been white, some Christians react badly.
Uncritical examples
NEW LOOK FOR JESUS IS MAKEOVER GONE MAD by Kathleen Parker | The Orlando Sentinel (April 2001)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Why do we think Christ was white? by Emily Buchanan | BBC (March 2001)
Conservative Evangelical Eric Metaxas, Doing Twitter Theology, Claims 'Jesus Was White' by Eric Vanden Eykel | Religion Dispatches (July 2020)
Helping Students See White Jesus by Nathan Luis Cartagena | Anxious Bench (November 2023)
5. Because many Christians believe non-Christians are doomed to hell, they demonize and misrepresent other religions. As a result, most religions associated with non-white people are portrayed as evil and misguided. This includes but is not limited to Buddhism, Islam, voodoo, and many religions practiced by indigenous peoples.
Uncritical examples
Buddhism by Dr. Thane Hutcherson Ury | Answers In Genesis (January 2017)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
The Traitor | Chick Publications (1990 tract about Hinduism)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
My Long and Winding Road to Catholicism &ndash Part 3 | Russell Newquist (May 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Crazy Wolf | Chick Publications (2009 tract attacking Native Americans)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
The Tycoon | Chick Publications
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
About the Hypocrisy of Fellow Christians and Making Demons of Other Faiths | Awesomely Luvvie (August 2020)
Christians of Color Are Rejecting ”Colonial Christianity” and Reclaiming Ancestral Spiritualities by Deborah Jian Lee | Religion Dispatches (January 2018)
Why Is It Called Santería? | AboutSanteria
A Few Things Writers Should Know About The Occult | springhole.net (November 2020)
America and the ”Heathen”: How we set ourselves apart from ”sh**hole countries” by Kathryn Joyce | Salon (July 2022)
”When Helping Hurts” (I wanted to like this book but it didn't work out) | Tell me why the world is weird (January 2024)
6. The nuclear family model that right wing Christians idolize is tied up in white people's fear of no longer being the majority. There's also conservative Christians' emphasis on (white) people reproducing in order to keep the (white) population from dropping.
Uncritical examples
James Dobson: Why Children Are a National Blessing | Christianity Today (April 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Commentary
The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values by Audrey Clare Farley | Religion And Politics (May 2021)
James Dobson's flawed take on population decline (no.1: We're not in decline) by Tobin Grant | Religion News Service (April 2016)
From the Archive: Missing: The 'Right' Babies by Kathryn Joyce | The Nation (March 2008)
The Religious and Anti-Chinese Roots of ”Replacement” Theory by Kathryn Gin Lum | Religion & Politics (July 2022)
CEP: The First Disappointment | The Ace Theist (April 2014)
Guest Post: Children, Marriage and Family Expectations | asexy beast (May 2011)
The Long History of the Anti-Abortion Movement's Links to White Supremacists by Alex DiBranco | The Nation (February 2020)
'We Now Have A Lot To Look At': Florida Republican Says He's Encouraged By Alabama Abortion Law by Jacquelyn Martin | WLRN (May 2019)
Single Mothers, Sex, and Christian Nationalism by Bradley Onishi | The Revealer (December 2022)
7. Many Christians have a negative and bigoted view of LGBT+ people. This and their longstanding support of colonialism has erased culture-specific genders.
Please note that people of these genders may not be comfortable defining themselves as LGBT+ because of how it assumes they have to define themselves according to colonialist standards.
Uncritical examples
None yet
Commentary
Navajo Nation's LGBTQ Pride Event Celebrates A Return To The Culture's History by Cayla Nimmo | National Public Radio (July 2019)
[video] What Does ”Two-Spirit” Mean? | InQueery | them. (December 2018)
8. Indigenous cultures are frequently treated as harboring demons or otherwise depraved and needing to be Christianized.
Uncritical examples
AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL GROUNDS AND BATTLEGROUNDS | Demon Buster
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Crazy Wolf | Chick Publications (2009 tract attacking Native Americans)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Spellbound? by Jack T. Chick (1978, this is a tract about how all rock music is supposedly demonic and connects it to African tribal music)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Bryan Fischer: Native Americans Morally Disqualified Themselves From the Land | Rightly Concerned (February 2011)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Warren Throckmorton's blog
DREAM CATCHER | Demon Buster
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Stereotype of the Month Entry (3/12/02) | Blue Corn Comics
Bryan Fischer prefers European depravity to the native kind | Warren Throckmorton (February 2011)
9. There have been a number of Christians opposed to interracial romance as recently as the 2010's.
Uncritical examples
INTEGRATION IS GENOCIDE! by Gerald L. K. Smith | The Cross And Flag
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Racial Confusion | Stuff Fundies Like (July 2011, documents a letter from Bob Jones III on why he thought interracial relationships were immoral)
Bob Jones, Mark Driscoll, and C.J. Mahaney | Are Women Human? (July 2011, further discusses above post)
Faith, Hope and Racial Disparity : As Multicultural Marriages Increase, Churches Confront a Call for Greater Sensitivity by Itabari Njeri | Los Angeles Times (August 1989)
Kinism | Wikipedia
How to be a Sneaky Racist for Fun and Profit | Stuff Fundies Like (July 2014)
10. A lot of conservative Christians have bought into the racist canard that brown immigrants are destroying America. Mexicans and Middle Eastern people are among the most common scapegoats.
See here for examples
11. Many white Christians don't see racism as something the Church needs to address, and believe it's about individual bad actors or something that can be solved through accepting Jesus.
Uncritical examples
The Gospel Coalition's Thabiti Anyabwile: A Descent into Racial/Theological Incongruity and Liberalism | The Pedestrian Christian (August 2014, also makes some rather awful statements about slavery)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Commentary
Where Billy Graham 'missed the mark' by John Blake | CNN (February 2018, includes a racial slur)
12. In talking about historical Christian theologians who participated in horrific racism and violence, many modern day Christians try to act like you can easily separate these people's racism from the ”good” points of their beliefs. That's if they even acknowledge the horrors their favorite past Christians committed.
Uncritical examples
Removing Names: Deep Cleansing? by Tom Nettles | Founders Ministries (August 2020)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
Commentary
An Open Letter to Dr. Al Mohler and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Board of Trustees Regarding Honoring the Founding Slaveholders | Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr. (July 2020)
James Petigru Boyce, ”An Ultra Pro-Slavery Man”: A Response to Dr. Tom Nettles | Wm. Dwight McKissic, Sr. (August 2020)
Tearing Down Evangelical Icons: Why Penn’s Decision to Remove George Whitefield Statue May Be Good for American Evangelicalism by Peter Y. Choi | Religion Dispatches (July 2020)
Bad Reputation: The right subject, the wrong question | slacktivist (February 2019)
This is not good news. This is not salvation. | slacktivist (June 2014)
Baptist white supremacy and Luther's anti-Semitism | slacktivist (June 2015)
13. White Christians have referred to ethnic churches and attempts to address racial issues as ”divisive”.
Uncritical examples
A Progressive Race Narrative (Part 2) | Public Theology (January 2022, mostly does this through the ”both sides are to blame” angle)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Jesus Was Divisive: A Black Pastor's Message To White Christians by Isabella Rosario | National Public Radio (June 2020)
More about race and racism in Christian spaces
Fundraising for Kyle Rittenhouse Reveals American Christianity's White Supremacy Problem by Andrew L. Seidel | Religion Dispatches (September 2020)
Sin Problems and Skin Problems | Austin Channing Brown (October 2015)
Alex McFarland: 'The Number One Reason For Racism Is Belief In Evolution' by Kyle Mantyla | Right Wing Watch (May 2015)
Conservative Christian: Racism is Caused by Teaching Evolution by Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist (May 2015)
Antiracism starts for white Christians: Do's and Don'ts | UM News (January 2021)
Evangelicals and Race by Jim Wallis | Race Matters (March-April 1997)
Captive Audience: A Black Woman's Reflection on the Sparrow Conference by DeeDee Roe | The Witness (April 2019)
The Creation Museum on Race | Sarah Over The Moon (March 2015)
Myth: Palestinian Christians Are Leaving Due To Palestinian Muslims And The PA | Decolonize Palestine
This North Carolina church used to be multiracial. Then came Jan. 6 by Yonat Shimron | Religion News Service (April 2023)
A New Study on Evangelical Voters Ignores Racism by Daniel José Camacho | Sojourners (October 2018)
American Mythology | Austin Channing Brown (April 2015)
Stereotype of the Month Entry (7/26/01) | Blue Corn Comics
Subtle (And Sometimes Not So Subtle) Bigotry | Stuff Fundies Like (February 2010)
Stereotype of the Month Entry (8/21/01) | Blue Corn Comics
"For All. . . A Non-Segregated Society" by Martin Luther King Jr. (February 1957)
News Flash: Christian Supporters of Kenosha Killer are Christians by Chrissy Stroop | Religion Dispatches (September 2020)
Cultural Christianity, Christian Appropriation, and Derailment | Writing With Color (February 2020)
Fear Is a Bad Teacher by David Neuhaus | Commonweal (February 2022, discusses how western Christians and politicians distort the situation Middle Eastern Christians are in)
Essay: God Save Us From the ”Bad Days” of White Men by Mona Eltahawy | Feminist Giant (March 2021, discusses violence against women and racism that enables it)
'Inerrancy' and the 1611 Project | slacktivist (February 2022)
Biblical Inerrancy's Long History as an Evangelical Activist for White Patriarchy by Stephen Young | Religion Dispatches (February 2022)
God & Race: Upheaval by Liz Chang | Asian American Women On Leaderships (June 2021)
Accelerated Christian Education's Ugly History of Racism by Jonny Scaramanga | Homeschoolers Anonymous (November 2014)
Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. (April 1963, this states his disappointment with white churches and with white moderates in general)
Woke war: How social justice and CRT became heresy for evangelicals by Bob Smietana | Religion News Service (February 2022)
Montana pastor Jordan Hall admits fabricating story about transgender Native American lobbyist by Darrell Erhrlick | Great Falls Tribune (May 2022)
Further reading
What Is Orientalism? A Stereotyped, Colonialist Vision of Asian Cultures by Namrata Verghese | Teen Vogue (October 2021)
Where ”replacement theory” comes from – and why it refuses to go away by Fabiola Cineas | Vox (May 2022)
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