The Church, specifically white, masculine, evangelical Christianity, has been a driving force behind colonialism, white supremacy, and Christian nationalism. The church has sought to erase any and all culture that does not align with its beliefs sought to hold power over women, force Black, Indigenous, and other people of color to assimilate, and excommunicate the LGBTQIA+ community.
This same Church claims to follow the teachings of Jesus, but if you ask me, I don’t think the Church today looks very much like Jesus at all. In fact, most Christians are more like the Pharisees - making up rules to exclude others, casting judgments - and less like the people Jesus spent his time with.
This same Church claims to follow the teachings of Jesus, but if you ask me, I don’t think the Church today looks very much like Jesus at all. In fact, most Christians are more like the Pharisees - making up rules to exclude others, casting judgments - and less like the people Jesus spent his time with.
Growing Up Southern Baptist
When I was a kid, the church was about community. I thought of the people within this community as family. I was young and unaware of the inner workings, the hierarchy, the patriarchy. I just enjoyed the Easter egg hunts and church dinners and tried to be kind - like Jesus. Wasn’t that the point? To be like Jesus?
As I got older, my rose-colored glasses began to lose their rosy innocence. I witnessed more clicks form among adults than among the middle school and high school-aged youth. I witnessed gossip and exclusion, judgment, and discrimination. I saw people hurt by the very church that was supposed to be their safe place.
I began to see disparities between what I knew about Jesus and what I saw from the people of the Church. Jesus said everyone belongs. The Church says everyone belongs, as long as they look and act like us. Jesus said love your neighbor. The Church says love your neighbor if they look and act like you - convert them if they don’t.
As I got older, my rose-colored glasses began to lose their rosy innocence. I witnessed more clicks form among adults than among the middle school and high school-aged youth. I witnessed gossip and exclusion, judgment, and discrimination. I saw people hurt by the very church that was supposed to be their safe place.
I began to see disparities between what I knew about Jesus and what I saw from the people of the Church. Jesus said everyone belongs. The Church says everyone belongs, as long as they look and act like us. Jesus said love your neighbor. The Church says love your neighbor if they look and act like you - convert them if they don’t.
This was painful to recognize as a young teen. The church I had trusted and given so much of myself to had let me down. But, rather than finding the silver lining as I got older, I only found more to be disappointed by.
Patriarchy
As I grew from a young and shy adolescent into an awkward teen trying to find where I fit in the world, I was once again let down by the Church that taught me to be afraid and ashamed of my body. The Church that taught me my place in the world as a woman.
“Woman - always be submissive to the men in your lives.”
“Woman - you are not a leader, your place is with the children or in the kitchen.”
“Woman - your bodies are cursed.”
“Woman - you will lead men astray.”
“Woman - dress modestly, but be attractive.”
“Woman - you are not a leader, your place is with the children or in the kitchen.”
“Woman - your bodies are cursed.”
“Woman - you will lead men astray.”
“Woman - dress modestly, but be attractive.”
All of these were messages frequently spoken or implied. Coupled with the atrocities of purity culture, promise rings, and I Kissed Dating Goodbye - women are silenced. Women struggle silently through body shame and eating disorders. Because, if you talk about it, you get some half-assed answer like, “You are perfect in God’s eyes.”
Women struggle silently through a changing body. Because our mothers and grandmothers were taught that it is taboo to talk about.
Women struggle silently through sexual abuse. Because, if you tell your story, you will be asked what you were wearing. Because purity culture teaches that we aren’t worthy if we aren’t pure.
These are the messages molding and shaping young women of the Church. These are the messages that have kept me and so many others silent. The sacred feminine is not welcome within the white, male, warrior god theology. I love what Richard Rohr has to say on this subject, “Feminine power is deeply relational and symbolic - and thus transformative - in ways that men cannot control or even understand. I suspect that is why we fear it so much.”
Women struggle silently through a changing body. Because our mothers and grandmothers were taught that it is taboo to talk about.
Women struggle silently through sexual abuse. Because, if you tell your story, you will be asked what you were wearing. Because purity culture teaches that we aren’t worthy if we aren’t pure.
These are the messages molding and shaping young women of the Church. These are the messages that have kept me and so many others silent. The sacred feminine is not welcome within the white, male, warrior god theology. I love what Richard Rohr has to say on this subject, “Feminine power is deeply relational and symbolic - and thus transformative - in ways that men cannot control or even understand. I suspect that is why we fear it so much.”
White Supremacy
Everything always rests on power. Patriarchal Christianity teaches women to be submissive under the guise of God’s word because, if women aren’t beneath them, men lose power.
This power dynamic has not only been used against women, though. It has been used against every person and culture that does not fit into the primarily white, masculine hierarchy that parades itself as Christianity.
Again, under the guise of God’s word, Christian nationalist and white supremacist stole land from and tried desperately to erase the culture of Native Americans, forcing tribes onto reservations and stealing children away from their families to be assimilated in boarding schools. Anywho resisted were murdered. And, thus, Native Americans were silenced.
This same group stole African Americans away from their homeland, forcing them into slavery and assimilation, all the while claiming it is their god-given right to own another human being. And, thus, Black people were silenced.
Under the guise of this white, male warrior god, colonialism was birthed.
This power dynamic has not only been used against women, though. It has been used against every person and culture that does not fit into the primarily white, masculine hierarchy that parades itself as Christianity.
Again, under the guise of God’s word, Christian nationalist and white supremacist stole land from and tried desperately to erase the culture of Native Americans, forcing tribes onto reservations and stealing children away from their families to be assimilated in boarding schools. Anywho resisted were murdered. And, thus, Native Americans were silenced.
This same group stole African Americans away from their homeland, forcing them into slavery and assimilation, all the while claiming it is their god-given right to own another human being. And, thus, Black people were silenced.
Under the guise of this white, male warrior god, colonialism was birthed.
Colonialism
This was not just a then issue. These white, Christian nationalist ideas are still pervasive in the Church today. The Church, especially the evangelical church, still encourages and empowers colonialism - the erasure of other peoples and cultures.
The Church has made colonialism its mission, claiming the purpose to be saving souls from hell and accomplishing The Great Commission - to spread the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation. This may be genuine for some, but for most, I believe it still rests on power.
White Christianity feels threatened when other people try to make space for themselves in this world, or when people fight to take back the space that belonged to them in the first place. This fear is a fear of losing power. Not a fear of losing souls.
Colonialism was always a way to control and hold power over other people groups. Christianity cannot ignore this fact and continue to claim they are doing the work of God.
The Church has made colonialism its mission, claiming the purpose to be saving souls from hell and accomplishing The Great Commission - to spread the gospel to every tribe, tongue and nation. This may be genuine for some, but for most, I believe it still rests on power.
White Christianity feels threatened when other people try to make space for themselves in this world, or when people fight to take back the space that belonged to them in the first place. This fear is a fear of losing power. Not a fear of losing souls.
Colonialism was always a way to control and hold power over other people groups. Christianity cannot ignore this fact and continue to claim they are doing the work of God.
The Cost of Colonialism
The cost of colonialism is the death of what is beautiful, wise, and sacred about the world. The cost of colonialism is the silencing of voices that need to be heard, voices that could heal our communities and the Earth.
The Church has been a driving force. The Church has betrayed the very people Jesus stood beside - taking a radical, Middle Eastern carpenter and turning him into a gun packing, flag-waving, white, American male. As if saying to the rest of the world, if it isn’t white it isn’t worthy. If it isn’t straight, cis, binary, evangelical, and male-led, it isn’t worthy.
But this was not Jesus. Jesus was not white.
Let me say that again. Jesus. Was. Not. White.
Jesus did not silence the minority. He did not gossip or exclude, judge or discriminate. If this is your religion, you may call it Christianity, but you are not following Jesus.
The Church has been a driving force. The Church has betrayed the very people Jesus stood beside - taking a radical, Middle Eastern carpenter and turning him into a gun packing, flag-waving, white, American male. As if saying to the rest of the world, if it isn’t white it isn’t worthy. If it isn’t straight, cis, binary, evangelical, and male-led, it isn’t worthy.
But this was not Jesus. Jesus was not white.
Let me say that again. Jesus. Was. Not. White.
Jesus did not silence the minority. He did not gossip or exclude, judge or discriminate. If this is your religion, you may call it Christianity, but you are not following Jesus.
The Change We Need
Mechtild of Magdeburg said, “The day of my spiritual awakening was the day I saw and knew I saw all things in God and God in all things.” Church, this is the change we need. There is no room for the kind of hate and ignorance you have manifested. There is no room for your white, male warrior god. This god is an imposter, a construct created so you can keep your power over others. And that power has nothing to do with Jesus.
Stop hiding your oppression behind the mask of spreading the Gospel and sharing the love of Christ. You're not fooling anyone, but yourselves.