Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey spent years studying race and Christianity in America. What they found is hard to dismiss.
Their argument is that racism isn’t simply something that has infected American Christianity. For many white Christians, whiteness itself has become sacred.
It tells us who belongs. Who should be in charge. Whose suffering matters. What America is supposed to look like. And what must be defended when that order begins to change.
That’s what Michael and Glenn call the religion of whiteness.
We talk about Black Christians who entered multiracial churches believing they had found Christian community, only to discover what happened when George Floyd was murdered and the people sitting beside them on Sunday seemed unable, or unwilling, to see what they saw.
We also talk about Trump, MAGA, Christian nationalism, slavery, masculinity, power, and what Michael and Glenn call “opportunity hoarding.”
And I finally ask the question underneath all of this:
Can this actually be changed?
I’m not sure there’s a comforting answer.
LINKS
https://www.villanova.edu/university/experts/expert-detail.html?expert=glenn.bracey
https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/michael-o-emerson
