Preface: The Weekly Reflection posted below this preface was written shortly before news broke of the murder of Charlie Kirk. He was an important figure in the MAGA movement and an evangelical Christian. While I disagreed with much of what he promoted politically and religiously, this senseless act of violence must be denounced as having no place in the life of our nation or the Church. Please pray for his family and friends as well as for the national will to address the root causes of the epidemic of gun violence. For any of us, regardless of political perspective, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, let us recommit to practicing the nonviolent self-sacrificial love taught and embodied by our Lord.
This past Saturday, I attended a worship service for racial healing in Richmond, VA. One of the speakers, my friend and colleauge David Bailey, made the following comment that resonated deeply with me, “When you rewrite history, you rewire identity.” With that in mind, I want to share two videos posted below. The first one focuses on a huge KKK march in Washington, DC in August 1925. It was not a clandestine night march but a public spectacle down Pennsylvania Avenue in which thousands of people marched in their white Klan robes carrying American flags. They proudly proclaimed white supremacy, American nativism, and evangelical Christianity. The major white Washington newspapers applauded the Klan marchers for their “good natured humanity” and “dignity.” Yet an editorial in a Black newspaper saw through the facade and rightly called the march, “a striking and vivid indication that a movement is on foot to unite all the most vicious possibilities of bigotry, class hatred, and race prejudice…” We look back 100 years later and wonder, how did the Klan become a mainstream organization that openly and proudly marched down the most prominent avenue in our nation’s capitol? Part of the answer is that for most Americans history had been rewritten to center whiteness and downplay the struggles, contributions, and achievments of people of color.
One hundred years later, the ongoing efforts to rewrite history are still rewiring our identity. The second video posted below is from the recent National Convervatism Conference in Washington, DC. One of the speakers was Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO). In response to the question, what is an American?, he said:
“These are the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out of Europe’s shores to baptize a new world in their ancient faith…It belongs to us, it’s our birthright, it’s our heritage, our destiny. If American is everything and everyone, then it is nothing and no one at all.”
Here is a contemporary version of rewriting history to center whiteness, American nativism, and evangelical Christianity. It threatens to rewire our national identify in ways that ignore or minimize the place of people of color and people of other religions in the actual history of our nation. This brand of Christian nationalism is a distortion of both the Christian gospel and the founding principles of our nation. Yet will we recognize and resist this kind of dog whistle that is now as loud as a bull horn? The integrity of both Christianity and our nation are at stake.