Author: American Christians Must Accept Responsibility for White Supremacy

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American Christians must accept their religions’ responsibility for legitimizing white supremacy, or there will be no dismantling centuries of discrimination against Black people, says a noted social scientist and author.

Robert P. Jones, founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), draws that disquieting conclusion in his new book, “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.” Dr. Jones summarized his findings during the online presentation of the annual Rutgers University Lecture on Religion and Humanities Sept. 22.

A Mississippi native, Dr. Jones earned a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a doctorate from United Methodist-related Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. In the past two decades, he has become a noted authority on religion in America through his polling and research organization.

His previous book, “The End of White Christian America,” centered on interpreting the demographics of the United States based on PRRI surveys. During the Rutgers lecture, Dr. Jones described his latest book as a blend of social science, history and memoir that “tells the hidden story of white supremacy in American Christianity.”

His lifelong church activity provided a lens through which he evaluated the social data collected by his organization, Dr. Jones said. This combination led him to hard conclusions about American religion and white supremacy that many U.S. Christians will find difficult to accept.

Nonetheless, Dr. Jones asserted unequivocally that mainline Protestant denominations including The United Methodist Church bear central responsibility for “legitimizing” a hierarchical worldview in which white people are considered inherently at the top of the social structure, Dr. Jones said.

“American Christianity isn’t just complacent or complicit in white supremacy,” Dr. Jones said. “American religion is responsible for creating the white power structure that enabled racism.”

Theologies that sprang up during the 20th century have played a significant role in today’s discrimination, Dr. Jones noted. Primary among these has been the reduction of Christianity to “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.” That idea has been enshrined in the ubiquitous painting, “Head of Christ,” by Warner Sallman.

“The Sallman painting of a light-skinned Jesus is actually a Scandinavian image, but it suited the idea of ‘taking Jesus into your heart’,” Dr. Jones said. “What if Jesus were a dark-skinned, coarse-haired Middle Eastern Jesus? Who would want to take THAT guy into your heart?”

White Christians’ reluctance to learn and talk honestly about their religions’ part in American racism stands in the way of dismantling discrimination, he said. While Christians often idealize their faith, “the reality is that American Christianity is what Christians do on the ground,” Dr. Jones said.

Many white Christians equate racism with extremism, not realizing that the action or lack of action by “ordinary” Christians has been the foundation of white supremacy, according to Dr. Jones. As an example, he cited an encounter with his parents after he sent them his completed manuscript for “White Too Long.”

“I was in elementary school when Jackson (Mississippi) was integrated,” Dr. Jones said. “I don’t remember hearing a single sermon, or a single Sunday school class, about civil rights or integration.”

When his parents read his unpublished manuscript, however, it elicited more stories about the era, he said. Among the stories they told him was the effort by Medgar Evers, the state NAACP coordinator at the time, to integrate churches in Jackson. Dr. Jones’ parents told him that their Southern Baptist church stationed its deacons outside the sanctuary to keep Blacks from Sunday worship. (Mr. Evers was shot to death in the carport of his home in 1963).

“In other words, they used the deacons as bouncers to keep out Black people,” Dr. Jones said.

During the 90-minute Rutgers lecture, Dr. Jones went over details about the demographic changes in the United States that have moved it from being a white-majority population of 58 percent in 2008 to a 47 percent white segment in 2016. The longtime WASP stereotype (“White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) has declined, he said.

“White supremacy is a problem of identity,” Dr. Jones said. “Donald Trump tapped into that anxiety in 2016, which is why we got the election results we did.”

Dr. Jones said he resisted suggestions from colleagues to create a “12-step program” for eliminating racism because the problem is far too complex for such a simple approach. Unless White Christians are willing to acknowledge their religion’s role in creating white supremacy through both theologies and actions, “there can be no reformation,” he said.

Once a church owns up to the truth of its history, the next steps will be for Christians to uncover their own racial prejudices and begin to get over them. This effort will prove hard, Dr. Jones said, because most white people are shocked to discover how ingrained their racism is.

“White evangelicals who take the racism index test typically score 8 out of 10,” Dr. Jones said. “United Methodists score somewhat lower, 7 out of 10. Non-Christian whites typically score 4 out of 10 and Blacks score 2 out of 10.”

One way for white Christians to overcome their racism is to build relationships with people of color, Dr. Jones said. “There’s a real dearth of relationships in America today.”

Least helpful are official statements from denominations, Dr. Jones said. “Statements have admirable admonitions, but they never get down to the people in the pews.”

Despite the upsetting findings of “White Too Long,” Dr. Jones said that recent events, including the passionate reactions of white people to the deaths of people such as Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, have given him hope.

“The examples in the book are over a year old,” Dr. Jones explained. “No one could have predicted what has happened this year. For example, when I was last in Richmond, Virginia, you could see five Confederate monuments on the city square. They were testimonies to white supremacy. Now four of those five monuments are gone.”

Americans are living through “a moment of reckoning” about the country’s racism, but it will be a “long slog” until white Christians “exorcize white supremacy out of our DNA,” Dr. Jones said.

“This is a ripe moment,” he said. “We must bear witness, cast light into the shadows of our past. We must tell the truth with courage and love. If we do, we can end our racial nightmare.”

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.