Even though on the surface, racism seems to be in direct opposition to the tenets of Christianity, white evangelical Christians cling the most tightly to racism.
That is because it allows them imminent redemption and, therefore, eternal purity. To them, nothing they do causes permanent harm or is unforgivable. That is also why them hearing anything about the oppression they cause immediately calls them to recoil and accuse those whom they oppressor of perpetuating and living in their victimhood. That is why they have a problem with generational trauma, they are only able to feel enough to be forgiven. They think that rescuing us from conditions they caused is fine to mention, but mentioning what we were rescued from is not. That is why there is more concern for white feelings being hurt by mentioning racism than the people that racism actually affects. If some nice white people saved Black people from some not-so-nice other white people and they both used the same book as their guide, then, of course, they’re going to be on the side of the nice white people, even if they have an updated version of the not-so-nice white ones.
Their religion is their shield.
It is a protection from seeing their own evils. As far as they are concerned, no matter the infraction, they are still made in God’s image. From early on, European royalty had one leg in white supremacy and one in the church and still managed to run just fine. The Divine Right to rule is an ideology that posited that royals were essentially ordained by God as the ruling class, it was his decree, and all in the land should follow. It also called for the European powers that be to go around the world, spread the gospel and civilize/domesticate/subjugate the savages and brutes, giving them the bible while we take the land.
The Bible admonishes the bad slave owner and praises the good slave, but the problem is there is still a slave in the scenario. A guidebook for life that still condones the subjugation of others cannot truly value anything other than a caste system rooted in some exercised form of inequality.
Chattel slavery was directly linked to both race and religion. There is an incredible amount of cruelty necessary in order to perpetuate slavery. Their cruelty was forgivable because it was sanctioned by God. Smoothing out the savages would sometimes have to happen by a rough hand, and that included using some as an example for others to not step out of line via extreme torture. But no matter how cruel, it was indeed good for the slave who needed to be tamed.
Masters were doing the Lord’s work.
Far-right evangelicals will sit and deny the social programs which keep the same babies fed whom they fought so hard to be born. Far-right evangelicals are against learning about a history that was so gruesome that now they are more worried it gets repeated out loud than it gets repeated in real life (I mean, it can’t be slaves that are the issue, seeing that the Bible talks about being a good one.) Far-right evangelicals think it is perfectly fine to take displaced humans even farther away from their homes and dump them on someone’s front lawn as a political stunt. The Far-right has burned crosses in the front yards of Black families. Imagine the redemption you think you are entitled to that you would burn your own religious effigies just so that you can terrorize a Black family. Far-right evangelicals preach sermons of love and acceptance, then stand across the street shouting at people attending a funeral or kick their own child out of the house because they may be day. Even still, with all that lock of logic, a religion that allows its worshippers to be better than others simply by existing. Simply by birthright and being good without having to actually do good is always going to make its worshippers feel like there is little required in being a good person.
It is built in and inherent. It’s part of their divine right. It is why evangelicals cannot let go of their guns (even at the expense of their own children), and he who has the strongest ability to destroy others makes the rules.
Guns maintain their status quo because the one with the ability to destroy the most is the one with the ability to write the most and has the right to be better without having to do something of value. All of their wrongs are righted with their belief system, which is ironic for the religion whose main tenet is that its worshippers are repaying the sins of the father, being so staunchly against reparations.
Essentially, all of their sins are forgiven if they just believe enough; and the thing about believing things that are not true is that you have to start denying things that are true in order to do that.
