Chauncey DeVega, Salon: "White life" and the Fascist Movement
One of the stops on a student tour of Washington, D.C. which I was helping to chaperone several years ago was the Holocaust Museum. The night before the visit, the students were gathered in a room at our hotel and given a briefing about the experience. Even for many adults, the experience there can be very emotional. The first time I visited, there were several places in the museum where I had to catch my breath, where I couldn't control the tears, and where the thoughts and emotions went everywhere.
During the tour, almost right at the beginning, in fact, looking down into an exhibit where there was footage being shown of Jews being starved, tortured and murdered in a concentration camp, one of the other chaperones, a parent, came up beside me and whispered, "You know, Hitler was right about some things."
I made the mistake of asking. I've never forgotten his response, I wrote it down in my journal.
"He was right about racial unity being a necessary element for national unity and the strengthening and defending of Germany against a Communist insurrection."
When someone starts a sentence out with "You know, Hitler was right..." the warning bells should go off and the red flags should pop up everywhere. They are about to tell you who they are and what they really believe. They are going to side with fascism against democracy, and with a pseudo-Christian, racist perspective against the Christian gospel.
It took me some time to gather my thoughts. The National Holocaust Museum was not the place to continue that conversation. I can only imagine what kind of different experience and impression of the exhibits he was having than I did. I waited until we were back at the hotel, wrote down notes so that I could calmly respond, even though I was shaking, invited him into the room I was sharing with another chaperone, and spent the better part of an hour in a discussion with a guy who had been raised in church, but couldn't distinguish between principles of the Christian gospel, and "what Hitler got right." He was convinced that American prosperity was evidence that the white, European descended population were the new chosen people, destined to take over the government, in order to usher in the second coming of Jesus.
White Christian Nationalism and the White Supremacy that supports it is NOT in the Bible
When I was a kid, probably about 7 or 8 years old, my Sunday school teacher, a very nice, middle aged lady who had grown up in a West Texas oil town, said "There are people who make the Bible say whatever they want it to say," in response to some hypothetical, "but what if..." question someone in the class was asking.
"If you're going to say that you believe the Bible," she would say, "then you need to study it and be able to interpret it correctly." She had done that herself, earning a teaching certificate and also a minor in Biblical studies at the university she attended. And she stood out among everyone else in the church where I grew up because of it. She had much more of a doctrinal and theological background that most other people in the church but was limited to teaching children because she was a woman. But I credit her with inspiring me to also earn a minor in Biblical studies at college, and then, after getting a graduate degree in my career field, to earn a graduate degree from a theological seminary.
So I am an insider, with what I consider to be a good working knowledge of the historical and cultural contexts which are essential for understanding and interpreting the contents of the Bible and Apocrypha, as well as the details of the original languages. I also know that most people who occupy the pews and seats of conservative, Evangelical churches in this country on any given Sunday don't really know very much at all about any of that, and in fact, are far more influenced and driven by their own emotions, personal prejudices and biases, and their political preferences, when it comes to their Christian faith.
In fact, most Christians don't even get very much of their Christian doctrine from their own pastors or their local church. There's a billion dollar Christian media market in this country, and it puts what I call a populist "pseudo-Christianity" out on the bookstore shelves, podcasts and internet. So beliefs are based much more on ideas driven by emotions, "perceived needs," and what sells. It is through these channels where conservative Christianity has crossed paths with the more extreme brand of right wing politics and where most of this ideology is coming from.
Multiple Sources but Similar Themes Lead to the Same Facsist, White Supremacist, Nationalist Result
Robert Jeffress: America was Founded as a Christian Nation but I am not a Christian Nationalist
The most pervasive idea in all of this pseudo-Christian ideology and rhetoric is that "America was founded as a Christian nation." I've put a couple of links in place which give a general idea of what kind of perceptions exist among conservative Christians when that phrase is used. The description of what the article by Joshua Sharp in the Baptist Standard points to as the "first" kind of Christian Nation, one in which Christianity is a pervasive influence, but not a controlling institution, is much more compatible with the principles of Christ's gospel and the church which Jesus established as a "spiritual kingdom."
But that's not the perspective behind what we are seeing develop and intersect with right wing politics. In that perspective, described in the second link by Robert Jeffress, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, a dedicated Trump loyalist and sometimes referenced as "my favorite pastor" by the 45th President, there were those among America's founders who intended to establish a theocratic government, based on biblical theology and commandments, with white, European settlers filling a similar role to the Jewish nation of Israel in the Old Testament.
There were some settlers who came to America with that idea in mind. The English Separatists, who came to Plymouth Colony as the "Pilgrims" and the Puritans who came to Massachusetts Bay were seeking their own religious freedom from the Church of England, but they imposed their own theocratic law, arresting, persecuting and sometimes executing those who dissented. That's what most of the religious-political right means when they talk about America being established as a Christian nation, a society in which Christian practice is enforced by law.
True religious liberty, which separates the authority of the state from any religious authority or institution, and which does not require any specific religious practice or belief in order for citizens to vote or participate in representative democracy, was an influence of the Enlightenment, not Protestant Christanity. And the establishment clause of the first amendment, which defines the separation of church and state, was the result of one of those dissenting, and heavily persecuted religious groups in America, the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, appealing to Thomas Jefferson's sense of Enlightenment reasoning and Deist convictions to create a constitution under which they, and every other American, would be completely free from any religious persecution or requirement of law.
That's what the founders agreed upon, and established, not a "Christian nation."
The Most Misquoted, Misinterpreted Passage in the Bible
When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people, who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14, NRSV
The passage from the Old Testament which I cited above, 2 Chronicles 7:14, is one of the single most misquoted and misapplied sentence fragments in the Bible. Because the verse divisions, which have nothing to do with the original text, this sentence fragment is cited and applied without any reference at all to the history and context in which it was originally made. I cannot tell you how many sermons I have heard in which a shouting, pulpit pounding, wailing preacher has declared that all of the problems we have as a nation would be resolved if the Christians in this country would just stand up and do the right thing, and "turn this nation back to God."
First of all, 2 Chronicles 7:14 is not even a complete sentence, it is a sentence fragment that is attached to the whole concept that is being addressed. It is part of a narrative that God is giving to Solomon at the time that the first Temple in Jerusalem is being dedicated. It is a prophetic message to the nation of Israel, which was a theocracy. Solomon was the nation's anointed King, and so, in a theocratic government, acted as God's agent to the nation. It is not an open promise to any country in the world that happens to have a majority of people claiming to be Christian among its population.
God does not make this kind of promise, does not bestow any kind of mantle of the "chosen", or offer any other nation or country the opportunity to be a theocracy. The new covenant, which is described multiple times in both testaments as being superior to the old one, is between God and individual human beings who respond to the gospel in repentance, by faith in Jesus. They are the new "chosen," not a specific nation, but the church, the "ecclesia," made up of people of all races, ethnicities and cultures. There is no reference anywhere that even hints at some kind of extra favor or benefit or blessing from God based on the percentage of a nation's citizens who have converted to Christian faith. This message was from God to Solomon for Israel. That's it. It contains no promise to any other nation or country based on some kind of perceived "righteousness" based on how many Christians it has, or how influential they are in its secular government.
A Realistic and Honest Evaluation of History Which We Should Know
American Christianity, in virtually all of its various expressions, from the dominant Protestant faiths and denominations, to the Catholics, the Orthodox, all of its independent churches and even branches off the tree that are considered cults, like Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, enjoy unprecedented, unrestricted religious liberty, unlike Christians in almost any other part of the world. We have no state church and complete separation which our government supports by extending a tax-exempt status to church income and assets, property, and even into some of its business ventures, labelled "ministries", which earn income for the churches.
For most of the history of this country, white Protestants enjoyed a privileged and favored status with virtually unrestricted access everywhere, including the public education system. It was, in fact, so thoroughly influenced by Protestants, who held most of the teaching and administrative positions, determined the content of curriculum and opened the door to campus access for evangelization, that the Catholic dioceses across the country founded their own educational system in order to protect their kids from being converted.
What most Christian leaders are whining about when they complain about the "growing religious persecution" in this country is actually just a re-adjustment of what was once extended privilege that was really a violation of the establishment clause, and a growing recognition that the rights of those who belong to religions other than Christianity are infringed because of bigotry and discrimination.
The Constitution of the United States gave religious liberty to the citizens of this country in a way that very few other nations or people in the world had ever experienced. Set free by the separation of church and state, churches in the United States were free to preach the gospel of Christ, conduct church services without government supervision or regulation, establish ministries, including colleges and grade schools which were often the only source of education in many places, and carry out the great commission of the gospel of Christ, Matthew 28:18-20.
And it thrived. Christianity is, without a doubt, the single most pervasive influence in American culture and society across 245 years of history. And there is no other nation in the world that is as influenced by Christianity as the United States of America. It is the kind of "Christian nation" that Joshua Sharp describes in his first example in the piece in the Baptist Standard.
But all of that is being severely disrupted at this intersection of conservative Christianity with right wing politics. As much as the threat of some of the ideology is to democracy, it is also a threat to true Christian faith and practice under religious liberty. Churches are being torn apart and people are leaving. Pastors, under pressure from politically engaged church members are being pressured to preach political perspectives from the pulpit, change core doctrinal beliefs to match partisan political positions and display loyalty to politicians instead of to the gospel of Christ. These influences are causing churches to become apostate and preach heresy. When a politician tries to convince Christians to abandon basic, core principles of Christ's gospel, like turning the other cheek, or loving enemies, replacing it with violence against those who dissent, they've stepped outside the boundaries of the Christian faith.
Fascism and Christianity that is defined by the gospel of Jesus, are incompatible. Christianity transcends politics. Fascism denies the very grace of God that is at the core of the Christian gospel. Or, at least, the Christian gospel that has not been infiltrated by heresy.
This isn't just a far right fringe movement anymore. It has infiltrated much of the conservative Evangelical branch of the church and through their involvement, the Republican Party. Get familiar with it, it is the political reality of our day. And it underlines the importance of the necessity to vote in every election.
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*taken from a quote by Maya Angelou
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