Is Christianity to Blame? A Response to TIME Magazine

A recent article published by Time magazine entitled “It’s Time to Stop Giving Christianity a Pass on White Supremacy and Violence” has made waves recently.  The author, Robert Jones, CEO and founder of PRRI, a far-left activist web sites states that “The clear historical record, and contemporary attitudinal data, merit an urgent discussion of white Christian nationalism as a serious and growing threat to our democracy.” However, the entirety of the article primarily addresses White Nationalism and the replacement theory that supposed White nationalists espouse.  Jones must use three degrees of separation to link the ideology of the Buffalo shooter with the racist and ethno-religious ideology of a self-professing Christian that wrote a similar manifesto after a terrorist attack of nearly 100 people at a youth camp in Norway in 2011. The premise of the article is thus: White Nationalism is inextricably linked to Christianity through the history of the Ku Klux Klan, southern racist politicians, and adherents to replacement theory in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.  Jones never goes through the trouble of defining replacement theory, but seems to use it as a catch-all term for those that disagree with a leftist policy on immigration. Interestingly, two paragraphs after espousing the falsity of said replacement theory, Jones drops these statistics, “In short, in the U.S. context, the election, and re-election, of our first Black President coincided with the sea of change of no longer being a majority white Christian nation.” He indicates that Trump’s election then, was a response to seemingly losing that majority.  Echoing the talking points of CNN personality Van Jones when he indicated the election of Donald Trump was a “White-Lash” on the night of the 2016 election. This simplistic view fails to take into consideration the state of the economy in 2016, Hillary Clinton’s poorly run campaign that ignored key states late in the process and an erosion of cultural mores, not based on race. But enough about the Red Herring of the 2016 election, the central claim of the article indicates that Christianity itself is responsible for White Supremacy and Violence. What Jones seeks to do, and ultimately fails, is to link the violence in society, particularly in Buffalo, with Christianity.  This is a heavy lift because in all the instances that Jones mentions, the shooters involved were not self-described religious Christians. In fact, they go out of their way to indicate that they are not Christian in the religious sense. The Washington Post reports that the Buffalo shooter did not “claim to be Christian in a religious sense” and the shooter of a Norwegian youth camp in 2011 had similar sentiments in his own manifesto where he states, “Regarding my personal relationship with God, I guess I’m not an excessively religious man… I am first and foremost a man of logic. However, I am a supporter of a monocultural Christian Europe.” What then, is a monocultural Christian Europe or America?  Well, it is not biblical Christianity in any sense. A correct reading of Paul’s letters would be distinctly at odds with these supposed Christian Nationalists. Scripture celebrates diversity, encourages it, and ultimately is the basis for undoing a millennia of racial superiority ideology.

“… in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all” – Colossians 3:11

Not to mention Galatians 3:28-29, Ephesians 2:14-16, and Ephesians 3:4-6. In Jones’ limited foray into history to bolster his point he also leaves out the undeniable fact that it was Christians that sought to end slavery, segregation, and racism in the first place. Thomas Jefferson tried to implement abolitionist law into the declaration of independence and even the much misunderstood and debated 3/5 compromise was actually a ploy by early American Christians to end slavery through the legal process at the outset of the United States as a nation.  His own research also fails to account for white Christians key in the underground railroad and the Civil Rights movement such as Edgar Chandler. His obfuscation of history is by design. He seeks to denigrate Christianity rather than to zero in on the extremist non-religious

christian

movement that orthodox Christianity rightly abhors. He then indicates that if a Muslim were to carry out the acts of the Christchurch, Norwegian and Buffalo shooters that the entire religion of Islam would be to blame.  I, however, am old enough to remember the #notallmuslims campaign in the wake of multiple terrorist attacks in the mid-2000s.  Even in leaving out extremism, there is a marked difference between the orthodox Christian’s response to supposed Christian terrorist groups such as the Westboro Baptists and the White Nationalist extremist and the general Muslim world’s response to acts of terror carried out by Islamic extremists. Jones also uses a bevy of statistics that supposedly bolster his point. Statistics from his own organization, nonetheless.  It is worth noting that statistics are only as good as the process and the sample group they come from.  I, for one, do not trust an activist group’s statistical methodology. Jones fails to link directly to the statistics he espouses.  Instead, the link goes directly to the PRRI homepage. After looking through the website I found the study. The only question on the survey was the one he mentions in the article, “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” This is not a specific enough question for a good sample size. What does it mean to invade?  What does it mean to replace? Perhaps they did ask more than one question, but therein lies the rub, there is no data currently available to indicate they did. If PRRI really wanted to see how many Christians supported the

great replacement theory,

they could have at least been specific.  Instead, they chose to be as vague as possible. The definition of

replacement theory

is remarkably absent from Jones’ article. There are several different meanings to the term

replacement theory

that must be investigated before claims of conservative Christian support can be substantiated. One version of supposed

replacement

theory has to do with illegal immigration and the supposed “browning of America.” The left, particularly MSNBC and the like, has espoused the phrase

demographics is destiny

for quite some time. Meaning, as the nation’s demographics change so will the political landscape.  The concern on the right, is not so much about race, but about ideological differences and assimilation.  It is primarily a political issue.  The left wants more illegal immigration to guarantee a shift in political power while the right wants less illegal immigration due to the fact that it is, in fact, illegal, and that the cohesiveness of American culture relies on agreeing to a certain set of cultural ideals, namely, the constitution of the United States. However, this version of the theory relies on minorities voting as a monolithic group, but, as Newsweek points out, this is not the case, and the Hispanic and black vote is shifting to the right due to current cultural and political polarization. However, the

actual

replacement theory

espoused by the Buffalo and Norwegian shooters has little to do with immigration and political tactics at all.  This version of the

replacement theory

is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that believes a secret cabal of Jewish elites is seeking to exact a white genocide through such pursuits as immigration and even interracial marriage. It has very little to do with conservative politics and much to do with racial superiority. Not a single person I know on the Christian right believes or espouses this theory, however, those that argue against illegal immigration for the reasons listed in the previous paragraph are often lumped in with this despicable ideology. Recognizing demographical shifts is not the same as the

great replacement theory

and conflating the two is either ignorant at best or malevolent at worst. It is also difficult to take Jones’ outrage seriously when his organization advocates for the killing of minority babies through abortion.  The claims that conservative Christians seek white superiority by maintaining the majority is undermined by the fact that these same Christians would seek to save tens of thousands of black and brown babies from being slaughtered in the womb.  Why would they want to do that if they sought to maintain a majority? The fact that most conservative Christians refuse to bow the knee to the left’s war on cultural and institutional norms established by a Judeo-Christian ethic is enough to make them a target of derision. The charges are baseless, and even Jones struggles to make a coherent and cohesive connection between Christianity in general and the acts of admitted non-Christians acting on racist and anti-Christian ideologies. I will be the first to admit that there is an unfortunate history of Christians using scripture to undergird despicable practices such as slavery and white superiority, but that is not the dominant historical or scriptural tradition of the church. Rebecca McLaughlin puts it well:

“The fact that Christianity has been a multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic movement since its inception does not excuse the ways Westerners have abused Christian identity to crush other cultures…

if you care about diversity, don’t dismiss Christianity: it is the most diverse, multiethnic, and multicultural movement in all of history.”

Jones’ effort to place violence at the feet of Christianity fails on multiple levels but it was made immediately absurd when a Chinese nationalist committed a similar act of terrorism on a Taiwanese congregation. Somehow, this shooting, though it happened within days of the Buffalo shooting, did not elicit a similar reaction piece from Jones concerning Chinese nationalism, though it is more like the Buffalo shooting than Jones would care to admit. Another shooting, this one in Uvalde, Texas, also highlights Jones’ ridiculous inflammatory rhetoric. A disturbed Hispanic man takes his demented mind to the doors of school and heartlessly murders children while Police struggle to respond, driving the death toll over 20. Who do we blame for this violence? I understand the driving need to find someone to blame amidst tragedy, but we must be honest about our assessment in doing so.  Christianity is

actually

a bulwark against these evil privations!  The Christian worldview is supposed to be salt (preservation) and light (exposure) (Matthew 5:13-16) in a world full of darkness and madness.  Jones’ opinion that Christianity is to blame is a chilling charge in a world that is seemingly intent on plunging itself deeper into darkness looking for a light it sought to extinguish long ago. As Stephen Hopgood has indicted, “The ground of human rights is crumbling beneath us.” While we, as a culture, are desperately clinging to the “right” to murder our own children in the womb, give toddlers puberty blockers, and elevate drag queen and trans culture as idols of self-actualization, we are creating an undercurrent of hopeless, isolated, narcissistic, and nihilistic young people.  This will only continue to lead to destruction.

Christianity is not the problem.  It is the answer.

Not some bastardized ethno-centric version of it, but the true gospel given exclusively through Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. None of these supposed White Christian Nationalist shooters were, in fact, Christians.  The lie that they were, and the lie that most Christians believe the same as them, hinders people that need hope from hearing the truth. We must continue to push back against these narratives, preach the gospel unashamedly, and deal with the cultural blowback as it is sure to come.  Now is not the time to acquiesce.  It is the time to be bold in our defense of Christianity.  After all, it is the only hope of humankind.

Notes

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/trumps-road-to-victory/507203/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/05/20/white-christian-nationalism-buffalo-abortion/ https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/0801/Norway-attacks-Was-Breivik-a-Christian-terrorist https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians+3%3A11&version=NASB1995 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians%203%3A28-29%2CEphesians%202%3A14-16%2CEphesians%203%3A4-6&version=NASB https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/declaration-independence-and-debate-over-slavery/ https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/understanding-the-three-fifths-compromise/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Chandler_(minister)#:~:text=Praeger%2C%201959).-,Chicago%20and%20civil%20rights,the%20Chicago%20civil%20rights%20movement. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2006/05/23/where-terrorism-finds-support-in-the-muslim-world/ https://www.prri.org/spotlight/replacement-theory-is-not-a-fringe-theory/ https://www.reddit.com/r/stupidpol/comments/uv8m0f/demographics_is_destiny/ https://www.newsweek.com/its-not-just-hispanics-democrats-are-losing-black-vote-opinion-1702581 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/what-is-the-great-replacement-what-are-its-origins-2022-05-16/ McLaughlin, Rebecca,

Confronting Christianity,

Crossway, S.I., 2019, pp. 45 https://www.npr.org/2022/05/17/1099404111/taiwan-president-condemns-california-shooting https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/05/27/us/texas-school-shooting https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205%3A13-16&version=NIV Stephen Hopgood,

The Endtimes of Human Rights

(Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013).