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From Megyn Kelly's claim that Jesus is white to former President Trump's claim that he is the "chosen one" or the "King of Israel," there is serious trouble in paradise. Contemporary manifestations of white Christian nationalism are deeply entangled in political issues from women's political rights over their own bodies to the rejection of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Carrying Christian signs and crosses, protestors at the Capitol insurrection on January 6th were not only fighting with a sense of white nationalist duty but fighting with a religious zeal, making this a pressing moment in the current time to which this volume speaks.
This edited collection invites scholars share frustration, anger, interrogation, and conceptual clarity with readers regarding this toxic form of Christianity that fights not in the name of love, but in the name of political domination and out of deep fear and hatred. Attention is also brought to Christianity's counter-voice, one predicated upon love, and its effectiveness to resist not just deep political pro-white forces at work, but also its capacity to focus emphasis upon Christian love. The text is designed to speak to the contemporary moment with respect to the explicit and implicit ways in which white nationalism and white Christianity continue to be entangled and reinforce one another. Contributors are asked to articulate what is behind this racially, politically, ideologically, psychically charged whiteness of Christianity in the US, and to articulate what is beyond the whiteness of Christianity for both Christians and non-Christians alike concerned with the rise of white Christian nationalism.
List of contents
Foreword by J. Kameron Carter
Introduction by George Yancy
Introduction by Bill Bywater
Opening Poem
Mary Magdalene Sings
Becky Thompson
White Christians and the U.S. Corporate Warrior StateMark Lewis Taylor
White Mob LogicKaren Teel
The "Promised Land" in Christian Nationalist Rhetoric: The Persistent Vision of Christianity as a Religion of Conquest Brock Bahler
Discipleship or Duplicity? A Christian "No" to white Christian NationalismAnna Floerke Scheid
White Christians Warring against Democracy: A Long HistoryJoe Feagin
The Pedagogy of Hegemony: A History of Christian Nationalism's Narrative Wars and School Dominance
Todd M. Mealy
Who do you say that I am? Laurie Cassidy
The Theological Irony of White Christian Nationalism: A View from the SouthLeah Kalmanson
Christian Churches in North America and the Imperatives of the Dialogue of Action Toward Restitution and Restorative Justice for Blacks, Latinos/Latinx, and Native AmericansMarinus Chijioke Iwuchukwu
Legitimate Political Discourse": January 6th and the Brutality of White TheodicyBiko Mandela Gray
Philosophical Ends and Theological Beginnings: The Logos, the Nigger, and Whiteness in American Christianity
Timothy Golden
Misogyny and the Stench of White Supremacist ChristianityTraci C. West
"Where Is the Love?": Christian Nationalism and the Politics of ExclusionKathy Glass
The Life and Death of Queen Elizabeth II: Defender of the Faith, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and Manifestation of the White Colonial GazeKimberley Ducey
"The Order" of the Day: Lessons, Philosophical and Otherwise, from Childhood at the Heart of American Christian NationalismJames Garrison
Victims of the Cross: Violence and Apocalyptic Discourse in Christian NationalismSheldon George
White Solidarity on Campus and The Sin of NeutralityElisabeth Vasko
Can White Christian Nationalists and Donald Trump Be Overcome?Josiah Ulysses Young III
Revolution and the Soul of White ChristianityDean J. Johnson
The Hidden White Flesh of White Christian Nationalism: Anthropological Docetism and the Forging of Idols
José Francisco Morales Torres
On White Christian ViolenceAnthony Paul Smith
Closing Poem
ORIGINAL SIN
Michael Simms
Index
About the Contributors
About the author
George Yancy is the author, editor, and co-editor of over 20 books, including Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America. He is known for his influential essays and interviews in the New York Times' philosophy column, The Stone. Yancy lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is professor of philosophy at Emory University.
Bill Bywater is emeritus professor of philosophy at Allegheny College. He has published in aesthetics and media studies including a book on the English art critic Clive Bell. His most recent work on social justice, education and democracy can be found in edited volumes by Solymosi and Schook, by Hanes and Weisman, by Yancy, and by Ducey, Headley, and Feagin as well as an interview with Noelle McAfee in the Kettering Review. He is a pragmatist in the tradition of John Dewey.
J. Kameron Carter is professor of religious studies, English, and African American studies at Indiana University Bloomington. He is co-director of Indiana University's Center for Religion and the Human. He is author of Race: A Theological Account, The Anarchy of Black Religion: A Mystic Song, and The Religion of Whiteness: An Apocalyptic Lyric.
