Conservative Black Evangelicalism 🤝 White Supremacy

All of us, or none of us.

Aug 29, 2024

Welcome to This Black-Ass Life! This week, we want to talk about the white supremacist roots of conservative evangelicalism and how that hurts our Black asses.

l. The Facts

First, let’s talk about the word “evangelical,” which is as complicated and complex as it comes. But generally, it’s understood through the “Bebbington quadrilateral,” which highlights key beliefs: Biblicism (Bible as ultimate authority), Crucicentrism (focus on Jesus’ crucifixion), Conversionism (being “born again”), and Activism (putting faith into action).

Like everything we talk about at This Black Ass Life HQ, before there was an America, there were Black evangelicals.
- In the 1700s, Protestantism spread among enslaved Black people, leading to the formation of Black-led denominations like the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church (1816) and the AME Zion Church (1821). In the antebellum South, these were sacred spaces for worship and support.
- Post-Civil War, Black people established the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (1870) and the National Baptist Convention (1880), which grew rapidly after newly freed Black people left white-dominated churches to form congregations that emphasized both a biblically-based faith and social justice.
- During the Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s), Black evangelical activists saw their faith as intertwined with the struggle for racial justice. White evangelical churches actively resisted the movements or remained silent because of course.
- Since then, Black evangelical leaders have increasingly questioned their place within predominantly white evangelical institutions like the Southern Baptist Convention due to their reluctance to confront a racist past and laughable attempts at diversity.
This is all to say that White evangelicalism has its roots DEEP in white supremacy, while alongside it, Black evangelism grew to counter it. White supremacists used Christianity to establish and sustain slavery, found the KKK, and fought back HARD against justice-oriented movements from abolition through the Capitol Riots and beyond.
- Did y’all know even the Quakers shamed and ostracized abolitionist Benjamin Lay, who died isolated from his community, because of his anti-slavery beliefs?

Why does it matter?

Given Black evangelicalism grew as a counter to its white equivalent, you would think the two factions couldn’t be more different. Yet, that’s not exactly the case.
Yes, there are centuries of racism powering white evangelicalism, but many of their doctrines, especially around the notion of sexual morality, are very present in Black evangelical circles. It might not look exactly the same in practice, but both Black and white evangelicals for example, love policing young women and emphasizing purity culture around their “virtue.” Never mind that purity culture ultimately maintains power for white Christian nationalism by “protecting” white women, white womanhood, and the children they produce
The same goes for treatment of people who are LGBTQ+ and people who are disabled in evangelical spaces.
Conservative Black evangelicals can’t have it both ways. You can’t call out the racism and Christian nationalism among white evangelicals, and then be ten toes down with them on homophobia, sexism, and ableism. We are either building toward a beloved community where ALL of God’s children are safe, cared for, and welcomed, or we are not.

What can my Black ass do?

Every day, we learn about the racist as-hell roots of the things around us. Remember to give yourself grace as you examine why you do what you do.
All of us, or none of us.

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II. Other Things

Black-ass happenings.

The most unsettling list of look-alikes.
Maxwell’s Tiny Desk is here.
Naomi Osaka has her first top-10 win in 4 years (and looked fantastic doing it).
This transitioned from a living nightmare to a spiritual campaign ad.
What a sweet friendship Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles (who is back on TikTok) share.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the fashion icon you are.