Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians
Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com
Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Journal Founding: August 2, 2012
Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year
Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed
Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access
Fees: None (Free)
Volume Numbering: 11
Issue Numbering: 3
Section: B
Theme Type: Idea
Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”
Theme Part: 28
Formal Sub-Theme: None.
Individual Publication Date: August 15, 2023
Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2023
Author(s): James Haught
Author(s) Bio: James A. Haught, syndicated by PeaceVoice, was the longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette and had been the editor emeritus since 2015. He was thought to have been the first investigative reporter in West Virginia. He won two dozen national newswriting awards and was author of 12 books and 150 magazine essays. He was also a senior editor of Free Inquiry magazine and was writer-in-residence for the United Coalition of Reason. He died on Sunday, July 23, at the age of 91.
Word Count: 556
Image Credit: None
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*
Keywords: bigotry, Blacks, churchless, Confederates, Evangelicals, James Haught, racialism, racism, Whites, white Christians.
Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians
Racism is much stronger among America’s white Christians than among churchless whites — and it always has been. That’s the message of a new book by social analyst Robert Jones, head of the Public Religion Research Institute.
White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity contends that white churches didn’t merely adapt the nation’s surrounding racism, but actually fostered it, locking it into the culture. That’s why white Christians currently display a lot more prejudice than non-Christians.
Here’s a sample from the book: Public Religion Research Institute pollsters asked thousands of people whether police killings of unarmed Black men are mere “isolated incidents” or if they reveal deep-rooted hostility to African-Americans. Among white evangelicals — the heart of the Republican Party — 71 percent chose “isolated incidents.” But just 38 percent of churchless whites agreed.
Another example: Some 86 percent of white evangelicals think the Confederate flag is “more a symbol of Southern pride than of racism,” but only 41 percent of unaffiliated whites share that view.
When Public Religion Research Institute interviewers read the statement “Generations of slavery and discrimination have created conditions that make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower class,” churchless whites agreed at a much higher rate than white Christians did.
Obviously, white Americans who don’t attend church are much more sympathetic to downtrodden minorities than white Christians are.
Jones grew up a Southern Baptist and studied at a Southern Baptist seminary before he awakened to the entrenched racism engulfing him. Now he is combating it.
Personally speaking, when I grew up in the 1940s, racism was absolute in America. Blacks were treated as inferior. They were forced to live in squalid ghettos, forbidden to enter all-white restaurants, hotels, theaters, pools, parks, clubs, schools, neighborhoods, jobs and the rest of white society. White supremacy steeped America so much that it seemed normal.
I became an adolescent newspaper reporter in the early 1950s, when the civil rights movement barely had begun. In a staff meeting, our editor vowed that our paper never would print “n—– weddings.” Later, under a new publisher, the paper became a fierce crusader for integration and equality.
The private lake where I lived had bylaws requiring members to be “white Christians,” excluding Jews, too. When I filed a proposal to admit minorities, leaders panicked and canceled the annual meeting. But the lake eventually integrated. (Technically, I didn’t fit the Christian requirement, either, because I was a renegade Unitarian.)
At that time, I didn’t notice that white churches fostered segregation any more than all other elements of society did. But I defer to the greater knowledge of Jones, who has spent his life studying this field.
Jones created a “racism index” based on his book’s survey results to identify which groups are most bigoted. White evangelicals scored highest at 78 percent. Irreligious whites rated 42 percent. He told CNN:
“President Trump, who has put white supremacy front and center, has brought these issues from just barely below the surface into plain view. . . .White Christians have inherited a worldview that has Christians on top of other religions, men over women, whites over blacks.”
Religious, racial and sexist bigotry seem to be flourishing together in the minds of white evangelicals.
This piece is adapted from an Aug. 3, 2020, column written for Daylight Atheism at Patheos.
Bibliography
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Footnotes
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Citations
American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Haught J. Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians. August 2023; 11(3). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry
American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Haught, J. (2023, August 15). Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians. In-Sight Publishing. 11(3). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry.
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): HAUGHT, J. Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 11, n. 3, 2023.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Haught, James. 2023. “Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 3 (Summer). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry.
Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Haught, J “Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 11, no. 3 (August 2023).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry.
Harvard: Haught, J. (2023) ‘Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 11(3). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry>.
Harvard (Australian): Haught, J 2023, ‘Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 11, no. 3, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry>.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Haught, James. “Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.11, no. 3, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry.
Vancouver/ICMJE: James H. Racial bigotry is rampant among White Christians [Internet]. 2023 Aug; 11(3). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/racial-bigotry.
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