{"id":34757,"date":"2017-06-27T13:30:30","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T17:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=34757"},"modified":"2017-06-27T13:30:30","modified_gmt":"2017-06-27T17:30:30","slug":"christian-nationalism-white-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/06\/27\/christian-nationalism-white-nationalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian nationalism and white nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Kelly J. Baker studied one of the darker corners of American history, writing Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK\u2019s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930.<\/em><\/a> Baker wishes this was simply the\u00a0esoteric specialty of a historian, but her topic of study remains disturbingly relevant today. She\u2019s written about that continuing relevance in a Religion & Culture<\/em> forum piece, \u201cThe Artifacts of White Supremacy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

An important element in that essay\u00a0is Baker\u2019s focus on the Klan\u2019s idea of \u201c100-percent Americanism.\u201d It\u2019s strikingly similar to what Robert P. Jones talks about as the current backlash against \u201cThe End of White Christian America.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 It\u2019s white supremacy, but an idea of white supremacy that was inextricable from\u00a0a desire for religious hegemony. It wasn\u2019t just white supremacy but always a white Christian<\/em>\u00a0supremacy. Not just white nationalism, but white Christian<\/em> nationalism.<\/p>\n

Christian nationalism remains widespread and popular among American white evangelicals \u2014 see, for example, \u201cWhat Was Being Worshiped Yesterday at First Baptist Church in Dallas?<\/a>\u201d Most of the religious right figures who enthusiastically speak of America as a \u201cChristian nation\u201d would not want to be seen as explicitly endorsing the idea that it is a white<\/em> Christian nation. But I\u2019m not sure that America ever has seen, or ever could see, a form of Christian nationalism that wasn\u2019t also implicitly white Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Baker\u2019s essay explores the use and meaning of the American flag as a core symbol for the Ku Klux Klan. She includes numerous flowery tributes to Old Glory written by prominent Klansmen of the early 20th century. \u201cWe love Jesus because He shed his blood for us, and we love the Flag because it represents the blood shed for our freedom.\u201d That\u2019s from a 1926 article in the Klan newspaper the Kourier<\/em>. It could just as easily have been from Robert Jeffress\u2019 \u201cFreedom Sunday\u201d message in Dallas this week.<\/p>\n

\"RedWhiteBlue\"<\/p>\n

Religion & Culture<\/em> just posted a supportive response to Baker\u2019s essay, from religious historian Randall J. Stephens, \u201cThe Klan, White Christianity, and the Past and Present<\/a>.\u201d Stephens adds some fascinating, if depressing, detail about the mutual support and accommodation between the Klan of the 1920s and more \u201cmainstream\u201d white evangelical culture:<\/p>\n

In the 1920s, America\u2019s most famous crusading fundamentalist, Billy Sunday, made some efforts to keep his distance from the Klan. But Klansmen tended to see the revivalist as a kindred spirit. Without cozying up too much to the organization, Sunday found ways to praise the robed terrorists. Other traveling preachers like Bob Jones, Alma White, B. B. Crimm, Charlie Taylor, and Raymond T. Richey lauded the white supremacist groups in their sermons and publications. Billy Sunday\u2019s ardent prohibitionism, biblical literalism, and nativism made him particularly attractive in the eyes of Klan members. In 1922 a South Bend, Indiana, newspaper cracked a bleak joke about their mutual affection. \u201cDown in West Virginia the other day,\u201d an editor noted, the Klan \u201cslipped Billy Sunday the sum of $200. With Sunday\u2019s O.K., that ought to put the K.K.K. in good standing with old St. Peter.\u201d Sunday returned the favor with kind words about Klansmen who lent a hand in police vice raids. The revivalist would accept other larger-than-average donations from the Klan at revivals in Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana between 1922 and 1925. In Richmond, Indiana, Klansmen showed up to give him their donation decked out in all their full regalia. Fittingly, in 1923 a Klan-supporting editor in Texas rhapsodized: \u201cI find the preachers of the Protestant faith almost solid for the Klan and its ideals, with here and there an isolated minister \u2026 who will line up with the Catholics in their fight on Protestantism, but that kind of preacher is persona non grata in most every congregation in Texas.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe Billy Sunday was so focused on his crusade against drink and \u201cvice\u201d that he was willing to accept support for it from anywhere. Maybe he just liked\u00a0money. Maybe he thought it was possible to take that money or\u00a0accept that support without fundamentally altering the \u201cgospel\u201d he was attempting to preach. But it wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Stephens\u2019 essay also includes the image on the left, above, of the sheet music for the Klan hymn \u201cThe Bright Fiery Cross,\u201d which was sung to the tune of \u201cThe Old Rugged Cross,\u201d and which was copyrighted by Homer Rodeheaver \u2014 the famous musical evangelist who toured with Sunday. I\u2019ve placed it next to a picture of the \u201cChristian flag,\u201d because the resemblance was so striking.<\/p>\n

At my private, fundamentalist Christian school growing up, we began each day by pledging our allegiance to both the American and the Christian flags. The American-flag pledge you likely know, with its inspiring crescendo of \u201cliberty and justice for all.\u201d The ending of the pledge to the Christian flag was similar, with a notable difference: \u201cwith life and liberty to all who believe<\/em>.\u201d Not to all, but just to all who believe. And not to all who believe just anything, either, but only to those who believe the right things.<\/p>\n

There often seems to be an unspoken similar limit and qualification in the creepy, performative ritual of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. There\u2019s the suggestion that its\u00a0promise of \u201cliberty and justice for all\u201d doesn\u2019t apply to 100 percent of Americans, but only to those who are 100-percent American \u2014 white, Protestant Christians.<\/p>\n

I think Robert P. Jones is right that we\u2019re witnessing a dramatic backlash over the prospect of the end of \u201cwhite Christian America.\u201d That backlash is fueled, Jones argues, by those who cannot imagine an America that is not also pre-eminently white and Christian. I suspect that such people also cannot imagine a Christianity that is not also white and \u201c100-percent American.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelly J. Baker studied one of the darker corners of American history, writing Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK\u2019s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930. Baker wishes this was simply the\u00a0esoteric specialty of a historian, but her topic of study remains disturbingly relevant today. She\u2019s written about that continuing relevance in a Religion & Culture […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13,129,158,28],"class_list":["post-34757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","tag-church-state","tag-history","tag-racism","tag-religious-right"],"yoast_head":"\nChristian nationalism and white nationalism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kelly J. 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Baker studied one of the darker corners of American history, writing Gospel According to the Klan: The KKK's Appeal to Protestant America,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/06\/27\/christian-nationalism-white-nationalism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-06-27T17:30:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2017\/06\/RedWhiteBlue.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/06\/27\/christian-nationalism-white-nationalism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2017\/06\/27\/christian-nationalism-white-nationalism\/\",\"name\":\"Christian nationalism and white nationalism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-06-27T17:30:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-06-27T17:30:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Kelly J. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Christian nationalism and white nationalism","description":"Kelly J. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}