We are in a time of reckoning in America. There can be no rush to repair until the truth is revealed, and it’s far past time that we recognize what we are experiencing in the Divided States of America is Christian nationalism.
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More specifically, this is white Christian nationalism — white supremacy cloaked in the garment of religion.
Christianity has been used since the founding of this nation to uphold the trinity of whiteness, wealth and power. The current occupant of the White House was elected a second time with major support from white Christians, several of whom who are appalled at the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
Their anger is not because Good and Pretti were Christians, but because they were white. There have been numerous Black and brown folks who have been harmed or killed in ICE custody, but it took two white people getting killed to spur outrage from a nation that is infamous for state-sanctioned violence.
There have been messages sent out to Black clergy asking why we have not been forthcoming in the fight against ICE. It is not that we have been silent and not involved in the struggle…it’s that we are waiting for our white colleagues to stand up and to address the root cause of the problems we are facing in this nation.
The religious right has an identity problem while the “left” has a visibility problem. It made sense when Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. admonished the white clergy in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail: “So here we are moving toward the exit of the twentieth century with a religious community largely adjusted to the status quo, standing as a tail-light behind other community agencies rather than a headlight leading men to higher levels of justice.”
I am grateful for the witness and work of Minister JaNae Bates Imari, co executive director for ISAIAH. Minister Imari organized thousands for the Day of Truth and Freedom which included over 100 faith leaders being arrested at the Minneapolis- St. Paul Airport for standing up for the least of these. This included many of our white colleagues from across the nation.
I hope that this will not just be a moment, but momentum towards the building of a movement against white Christian nationalism.
Rev. Erica N. Williams is Designated Associate Pastor at Plymouth United Church of Christ in Seattle. She is is a distinguished theologian, social justice organizer and public intellectual whose work sits at the intersection of faith, activism, and social transformation.
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