How Americans Have Traded Christianity for the False God of White Nationalism
In the recent weeks, I have seen pastors — PASTORS — on social media say that Breonna Taylor’s death is not lamentable because of the person with whom she was entangled. That America should return to household voting and wives should defer their votes to their husbands. That systemic racism is an anti-Christian myth. That if one does not vote for Donald Trump, one cannot call oneself a Christian.
It is endlessly maddening to me that American traditionalism has conflated Christianity with these kinds of views. When I see instances of people who teach and profess Jesus making these kinds of claims, I wonder if they are studying the same Scriptures as I am.
I wonder what they do with the Jesus who sat with the woman at the well and told her that she had a future and a purpose. I wonder what they do with the Mosaic laws that told the Israelites to welcome the refugee and always take care to defend the oppressed. I wonder what they think of the Apostle Paul when he told Peter that his display of prejudice toward Gentiles in order to maintain power with the Jews was antithetical to the gospel.
I wonder how they can base any hope or assurance in the resurrection of Jesus when it was women who first shared the news. Women with questionable pasts and no social standing broke the story that they hold as their salvation.
Christian nationalism is a false god. It’s a distortion of truth that saves no one and hurts everyone. It has to stop.
We have to stop treating Christianity as a platform for our white male power grabs. We have to stop using it as a weapon that tells others that they don’t matter.
The Kingdom of God is not the Handmaid’s Tale. It’s the land of milk and honey where there is no oppression or marginalized class. There is no abuse of power. There is no white supremacy or patriarchy or fear of “other.” There are no political power plays. There is not death, but life to the very fullest.
Author Sarah Bessey puts it like this in her book Jesus Feminist:
“The Kingdom of God is a pearl of great price. It’s the yeast in homemade bread, rising only after a good thumping, warm and alive. It’s the smallest seed of a shrub, and it’s a mighty oak of righteousness. It’s the treasure in the empty field; it’s worth selling everything to own — your entertainment, your 401(k) or your registered retirement savings plan, your home, your comfort, the sand where you stick your head, your last word, your right answers, your safe and predictable nice little life centered on avoiding heartbreak or inconvenience to your schedule.
But we’ve traded it for the American Dream. We’ve taken it and warped it and made it into something heavy and scary and impossible to penetrate. But Jesus said if we come with him, it’ll be light and we can be bold and he’ll break through on our behalf.
If you’ve been hurt by the Church, I’m sorry. Spiritual trauma and abuse is a very real topic that doesn’t get talked about enough (read: at all). Pride and shame keep the darkness in the dark. I believe your pain and I empathize with it. I’ll never be able to promise you that the Church won’t hurt you again. But I can promise — truly put my life on it — that Jesus will not fail you. He cannot help but be faithful. He doesn’t invite you in to shame or condemn you. He invites you into love and joy and purpose and life.
If you’re uninterested in religion, I hear you. We haven’t done a great job of making it appealing. It actually makes me sick to know there are people whose only perspective of Christianity is the one that uses God as a veil for white nationalism. If I didn’t know Jesus of Nazareth, I’d want nothing to do with it either. I’m just sorry. I’m sorry that you’ve only seen the Bible as a weapon of anger and religion as a mask for hate. I don’t really know what else to say, but I’m sorry that we have failed you.
If you’re a Christian, I humbly implore us all to lead with love. Revelation 2 says of the church in Ephesus, “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
We might have our theology all in order. We might have a solid understanding of legality and moral standards and social capital. We might be really hard workers and we might care about right and wrong. But, Church, if we’ve lost our love, we have sold our souls.
If we’ve lost our love, chances are we ran off with our values and left Jesus at the door.
Jesus. The brown man from Nazareth who was a social outcast and a refugee. Who spent his days with sex workers and sick people. Who defied social norms and identified with the last and least. Who took on the nature of a servant and traded glory for shame in the name of love. Who sees me in all my mess and says, “I’m for you.”
You can keep your conservative norms and political power. I’m sticking with him.
