When Race Becomes Our Faith: The Religion of Whiteness

Martin Luther King Day brought forth many events in Santa Barbara, some of which I have already covered. But this event by the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara may have been the most transformative for me.

The talk was “When Race Becomes Our Faith: The Religion of Whiteness”. A variant of the title of a book by the speaker: Michael Emerson of Rice University.

The basic idea is that many people who think Christianity is the center of everything in their life in fact have a different religion operating on them. A religion of “whiteness”. Careful research showed that this religion supersedes the Bible when there is a conflict between these belief systems.

Emerson’s book (with Glenn E. Bracey II) is “The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith”. He explained that the book is based on their research studies. Especially the Race, Religion, and Justice Project. (RJUC)

The studies showed that there is a branch of Christianity that is all about race. And that racial injustice is “fuel” that is sustaining this alternative religion.

Emerson noted that race has become “religionized”. Race itself has become a faith for many people. This causes deep damage and trauma. We saw it in Minneapolis (where he was speaking from).

Emerson defines and uses the term “Practicing Christian”. Three things define them:

1. They say “I am a Christian”
2. They say “My faith is very important to me.”
3. They attend worship at least monthly

When race becomes our faith does it matter? He has identified about seven different ways.

First, it shapes how people will interpret scriptures. They surveyed about 3,000 Americans. They first asked them: “Should the Bible be used to determine what is right or wrong?”

About half of Americans say yes. It must be noted that the US is truly an outlier in the Christian world. My European friends are shocked by the extreme religiosity of American Christians.

Emerson went on to explain that only those who answered yes in the survey got the next four questions. They took verses or phrases from the Bible. They were given the actual quote and told where the quote is from. Then it was restated in plain English.

The first question came from Deuteronomy 24:14 where God gave the Israelites laws to follow. Notably, that foreigners must be protected from injustice.

The question offers this statement: “Therefore, it is good to have laws to protect foreigners from being treated unjustly.”

They could respond with a scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.

The second question comes from Nehemiah 1:6 clarified to: “Therefore it is good to confess sins committed by me, my nation and my ancestors.”

The third question from Acts 6:1-7 was “Therefore, it is good to listen to the complaints of ethnic minority groups and empower leaders within those minority groups to correct injustice.”

The fourth question from Ephesians 4:29 comes from the Apostle Paul asking people not to use unwholesome words.

The first three questions are about benefiting outside groups or confessing sin of our own group. The fourth question was a “control” question in the study.

The study had too few Asian and Native Americans for good statistics. Other groups were represented well. To the first three questions, the majority of Blacks and Hispanics strongly agreed. Only 1/3 of Practicing White Christians agreed.

Remember that all of these people said that the Bible always must be used to guide one’s decisions.

There was no racial or ethnic difference on the control question. [I find this surprising now, given Trump’s frequent use of “unwholesome” language!]

On the question of whether the US has been oppressive to minorities 75% of Blacks and 60% of Hispanics agreed. Less than 40% of whites agreed.

The survey asked if generations of slavery and discrimination made it difficult for Blacks to work their way out of the lower class. A majority of all groups agreed. But 60% of white Practicing Christians disagreed.

There were nine questions about discrimination that he merged into one for the talk: “Do you think that [minority groups] are treated less fairly in hiring, pay, promotions, housing/mortgages and in the criminal justice system?”

The majority of Asians, Blacks and Hispanics (Christian or not) agreed. Half of non-Christian whites agreed.

But one group stands alone: 2/3 of White Practicing Christians (WPCs) disagreed. They saw no unfair treatment of minorities at all!

Do racial minorities use racism as an excuse for economic inequalities? The majority of all groups disagree. Except one: 70% of WPCs agreed with the statement.

Emerson talked of the Racial Prejudice Index. This combined 15 questions such as “I am fearful of other races.” The highest scoring group by far: WPCs. This is not explained by other factors, including age, gender, geographical location, education level. Or even political affiliation! It was entirely about what he is calling this WPC religion.

This also affects how people see remedies going forward. “Should people from minority groups work their way up without any special favors?” The majority of all groups of color disagree. Half of non-Christian whites agree. But over 2/3 of WPCs agree.

Only the majority of WPCs hold these views:

“The American way of life needs protecting from foreign influences.”

“We should have stricter limits on the number of legal immigrants.”

“Some cultures have inherently better morals.”

And 2/3 of WPCs did not think that race relations would be improved by teaching about race in church. What do they think is the answer? “The best way to improve race relations is by converting everyone to Christianity.”

They would not be satisfied if people convert to other versions of Christianity. It has to be their version!

Then he got into the really interesting part about race. WPCs were more than twice as likely as other whites to say that “Being white is extremely important to how they think about themselves.” To say “They often feel the need to defend their racial group.” And “It is acceptable for whites to have more wealth than others.”

“When race becomes our faith, it even shapes how we feel.” People were offered a list of negative and positive emotion words. They were then offered phrases and asked to choose emotion words to go with those phrases.

“White Privilege” evoked more positive emotions among WPCs than among other groups.

Terms like these provoked negative emotions from WPCs to the point of anger: Black Power, Social Justice, Undocumented Immigrants, Reparations.

Offered the chance to write in their own words, they included words like “bullshit”. Even though they had already agreed about unwholesome words being bad to use.

Emerson notes that PWCs are so different from other whites and from other Christians that it constitutes its own religion. He notes that the Old Testament warns against false religions, yet isn’t that what this Religion of Whiteness really is?

What is this Religion of Whiteness (ROW)?

A system of beliefs and practices that venerates whiteness while declaring profane all things not associated with whiteness. Millions of our fellow Americans subscribe to this ROW.

What do these people think whiteness means? It is like being a supporter of a sports team. A feeling of oneness with this group.

Religions have sacred symbols. Emerson notes these three for the ROW:

1. White Jesus
2. Merging of the Cross and the American Flag
3. Firearms

Emerson offered some graphic images to illustrate this!

When ROW people were shown images of a brown-skinned Jesus they said this was “heretical” and it made them angry. Or it made them laugh.

The cross and the flag literally become one in a photo Emerson shared. And several Republican elected officials have sent out Christmas greetings featuring family members with guns.

Emerson showed a t-shirt reading: Family, Faith, Friends, Flag, Firearms. Five things you don’t mess with.

There are many more images combining these things. Including Jesus with a MAGA hat.

Emerson listed six beliefs of the ROW:

1. Commitment to Whiteness – Its superiority, its benefits, its power, its ordained blessing from God.
2. God is on the side of the Dominant Group – the world’s winners. (Forget all that stuff you heard about Jesus caring about the least among us.)
3. Whiteness is Universal – It is normative and unseen. Jesus is universal. Jesus is white. Therefore the universal is white and white is universal. Emerson identified this as the most important ROW belief.
4. White understandings, theology, values and actions don’t even need to be called white because they are the default. All others are inferior and niche.
5. White Nationalism – A fusion of Christian symbols with American civic life. American identity is White identity. These people even just held a rally in Minneapolis to affirm this point.
6. Doctrine of Black Inferiority – and assumed “otherness” of all other groups. Blacks are uniquely singled out this way. Emerson noted that Black and White are the bookends and the rest falls in between.

Here are ROW Five Practices:

1. Highly selective use of Bible quotes
2. Epistemology of ignorance. How we come to not know. Emerson gave this example: The question of whether the US has a race problem. 78% of Practicing Black Christians say yes. Only 38% of Practicing White Christians say yes.

   That was in 2019. After the 2020 George Floyd murder? The numbers shifted to be even more divergent. To 87% and 30%, respectively.

   Only PWCs saw this decrease.

3. Veneration of the Sacred Symbols
4. Actively Protect Whiteness
5. Opposing Christians of Color who do not subscribe to the ROW. Because race is more important than Christianity.

Emerson ended his talk noting that there are actually two ROW groups:

1. The White Veil Group. They have a veil over their eyes. They just don’t see whiteness or white privilege. They defend the ROW by denial. This is 75% of ROWers.
2. The White Might Group. They see whiteness everywhere. They see themselves as victims. They see themselves as the defenders of whiteness. They are 25% of ROWers. These are the ones who are willing to storm the Capitol or sign up for ICE. These are the younger ROWers.

Emerson said that ROW is a roadblock to progress in the US. It has to be recognized and addressed if we ever hope for racial justice.

Emerson compared our current situation with using GPS. We have not just lost our way. We have forgotten where we were going. We need to decide who we are and who we are not.

Emerson then took questions. First was from Marian, asking if WPCs think Jesus was Jewish. Emerson laughed. He said the WPCs admit Jesus was from that area that is Israel. But they have a hard time saying he was an actual Jewish man. Because they are so attached to saying the Jesus was white. He suggested ROWers may think that back then people in that area looked more white.

Emerson was asked to say more about the situation in Minneapolis. He noted that there are far more ICE agents than police officers.

Trump hates Walz as a consequence of the 2024 election. Trump is looking to pick a fight there and it just keeps getting worse. People being disappeared. Smashing car windows and phones.

Emerson also questioned whether blowing whistles and horns is helpful. He said ICE has adapted to it. They use it to stoke their anger and ramp up their violence.

Wayne asked about ROW gender. ROW is mostly male, but less than you might think.

Tonya asked about the “combing” of Renee Good: Trump and right wing media searching (combing data) for anything to discredit her. Noting that Good was white.

Emerson explained that in the ROW theology, some white people refuse to follow ROW and they must be demonized, shunned and ridiculed.

He watched Fox the night Good was murdered. They focused on her being lesbian to “other” her. You have to be white and you have to be ROW for ROW acceptance.

Ali noted that ROW has a clear goal. What is our goal?

Emerson: ROW wants an undiverse society. Our goal is a diverse, pluralistic society. As in “E Pluribus Unum”.

Judy Flattery talked about Katherine Stewart’s presentation on Christian Nationalism.

Emerson noted this has been brewing since our founding. You had to be a white person of good moral character to be an American Christian.

Judy Flattery asked about church demographics. Emerson agreed that liberal churches are losing members. Leaving the evangelicals as the winners. For them, white, Republican and Christian are all the same.

Ron asked how basic anti-Semitism is to ROW. Emerson said there is an inherent conflict with this. ROW is very pro-Israel, because Israel is necessary for Jesus to return. But they don’t like actual Jewish people or the religion.

Is ROW happening in Europe? The book “Godless Crusade” is about this. Yes, ROW is rising in Europe, but the European Christian leaders oppose it. Whereas in the US many Christian leaders support it.

Tonya brought up the “Groypers”. Nick Fuentes is a leader. He is a self-proclaimed “incel”. He is very pro-Trump, but feels Trump is not hateful enough. Fuentes wants Trump and the Christian Nationalists to hate Israel.

Judy Flattery asked how Emerson grew up. He said he grew up in conservative Christianity in an all white world. He went through a big change as he moved to Black neighborhoods in Chicago, Houston and Minneapolis.

For more information about upcoming events with the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara or to become a member, please go to https://www.sbhumanists.org/