Charles Nolan
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America as a “White Christian Culture”

1/21/2019

10 Comments

 
​One of the major seeming contradictions in the contemporary national meltdown over immigration is the insistence by some that America’s identity as a “White Christian Culture” is being corrupted and threatened by a constant influx of non-white non-believers. Those on the other side of the debate, citing the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth about charity toward all people, sees this position as anything but Christian. The answer to this seeming contradiction is actually very simple if you look at the facts. “American Christianity” has little or nothing to do with the Jewish preacher who faced down a lynch mob two thousand years ago to save a woman caught having sex with a man she wasn’t married to.
 
          To start with the obvious, Jesus wasn’t white. He was a Semite. He was of the same race as Mohammed, Albert Einstein, Osama Bin Laden and all those Muslims we’re trying to keep out. The only white people Jesus ever met were the Italians who executed him. He never heard a word of English in his life. In fact, anything we would recognize as English didn’t exist during his time. By the time Christianity came to America, in this case the thirteen original British colonies, it was twice removed from its Palestinian origins.
 
First Remove:
 
          Christianity started out as a small Jewish sect centered around Judea and Galilee, but very quickly took off as an international religion of the poor, who were, even more than now, the vast majority of mankind. It was the first religion to jump tribal/national boundaries. As Christianity spread through the Greco-Roman world, it took on many of the mythological and philosophic underpinnings of the existing cultures. The most significant of these underpinnings was the idea of Jesus as divine. In the Greco-Roman religious world, demigods were plentiful. In the Jewish religious world such an idea would have been incomprehensible. God was one, an invisible spirit, who could not even be depicted artistically - remember the commandment against “graven images”. The idea that he would impregnate a physical woman would have been blasphemy.  The apostle Paul, a Jewish Roman citizen who never actually met Jesus in the flesh, is credited with fusing these two traditions into the “pregnancy by the holy spirit” that became the core of the Christian tradition.
 
          The destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70 AD effectively put an end to the original Jewish version of Christianity. Alexandria and Rome became the centers of Influence among the numerous Gentile-driven sects that replaced it. In 325 AD or thereabouts, the Roman emperor Constantine, recognizing that the spread of this new religion was a threat to the State/Church union that supported his empire, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. But in return for that, he insisted that the various local sects organize their divergent regional beliefs into a consistent body of dogma. The resulting Council of Nicea effectively created the Catholic Church, with Rome as its center of influence.
 
          For the next 1,200 years, the Catholic Church for all practical purposes was Christianity, with the Popes, the vast majority of whom were, unsurprisingly, Italian, exercising a high level of international influence that both supported and competed with the existing secular Governments. The fact that the Church outlasted the Roman Empire might be seen as Jesus’ revenge, but the fact of the matter is that the wealthy and dogma-driven Church that emerged had little in common with a penniless Jewish carpenter executed for stirring up the common people.
 
Second Remove:
 
          In 1517, Martin Luther, the real father of American Christianity, wrote his “95 Theses” in Latin, protesting what he saw as abuses in the Catholic Church. The printing press, which had been invented less than 100 years before, allowed his objections, after being translated from Latin to German, to be widely distributed among the newly literate populations of Germany and Austria. The resulting Protestant Reformation was centered in Northern Europe, in opposition to the Italy-based Catholic Church. Luther’s most transformative idea was that the individual rather than the Church was chiefly responsible for his own relationship with God and had the right to both read and interpret the scriptures as he (or she) saw fit. Perhaps Luther’s most important contribution was a translation of the entire Bible from the original Hebrew and Greek into German so that everybody could read it.
 
          Luther’s bible influenced William Tyndale, who lived in Catholic England, to translate the New Testament into English from the Latin version used by Church clerics. His translation was too much influenced by Luther’s ideas for the Catholic Authorities, and he was arrested in Brussels and put to death for heresy. But the damage was done. Henry the Eighth of England was influenced by Tyndale’s earlier writing in his decision to break with the Catholic Church and create the Church of England. Tyndale’s translations became the basis for subsequent English translations culminating with the King James Version in 1611.
 
          The impact of the fact that these events in the religious sphere were occurring just as America was being opened to European colonization cannot be overstated. The thirteen colonies that became the foundation of the United States of America were populated by English Protestants, with a small Catholic population in Maryland (the non-white, non-Christian indigenous population either fled west or were decimated by smallpox).
 
          Luther’s principal of the individual’s right to read, think and choose for himself took fertile soil in the White Americas and culminated in a revolution against English rule that swept aside the very concept of a State religion. When the colonists threw out the King of England they also threw out the Church of England. For the next couple of hundred years, America was a white, Protestant country, the Civil War notwithstanding. Other religions were allowed to practice, but certainly not to run things. As recently as the 1960’s, the biggest obstacle to John F Kennedy’s bid for the presidency was that he was a Catholic. The black population, who had been forcibly converted to Protestant Christianity at the time they were imported for slavery, were kept for the most part illiterate, just as the Church had done with its people before the printing press, and were definitely kept out of the centers of influence.
 
          Since the 1960’s, this “White Christian Culture” has taken some serious hits, with the election of a Catholic President, the insistence on equal civil rights and education for minorities,  and culminating with the election of a half white, half black president. Although Barak Obama was a Protestant, the same push back that kept trying to prove he wasn’t an American also kept insisting he was secretly a Muslim.
 
So Here We Are:
 
          Those who are trying to cling to a “White Christian” national identity are clinging to a Christianity that the Carpenter of Nazareth could not have imagined, far less endorsed. Those who think that the true American ideal is an acceptance of all races and religions on every level of society also look to statements attributed to Jesus for their moral underpinnings.
 
          The question of our national identity is one we will have to answer for ourselves. Jesus, who never once in his life heard himself called by that name, has nothing to do with it.
 
          Anyone wishing to fact check any of the above has only to boot up their Google.
 
          We’re on our own.

 
         
 
           
 
         
10 Comments
Bern Duval
1/22/2019 04:39:27 am

Well written, Charles, and very persuasive. The label of "Christian" or the attempt to enlist a religious figure or leader on the side of one's position is just a tactic for enhancement or validity. I agree with you that our national identity, if there is such a thing, is something that we fashion irrespective of labels. I think that where the rubber meets the road is not so much in the identification of values, wisdom, or principles, but rather in their interpretation or application. Take, for example, the abortion issue. Both sides take kindness, love, and compassion as their guiding stars. Even more confounding are the economic philosophies of communism and socialism on the one hand and capitalism on the other. One could easily argue that communism and socialism are much more compatible with the Christian ideal than capitalism, especially with the extreme wealth disparity that it has produced today. But that's because our culture tilts toward working and earning rather than sharing and social responsibility. One of the consequences of being a melting pot is that we mistrust the motives and beliefs of others not like ourselves. One positive note - I think the American culture has generally over the decades moved to higher or more refined levels of human wisdom and action, and generally to principles contained in venerable religious traditions - whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, and so forth. These principles even morph in laws and constitutions. I think the arc is positive, despite the noise all around us. So we have made great strides in so many areas and we should pause to consider these as shaping the identity of who we are.

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Charles Nolan link
1/22/2019 05:31:08 am

Well put, Bernie. There may be hope for America yet.

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Colin Pettorsson
2/4/2019 02:16:10 pm

Brudder Charles...not surprisingly some different views from here....isn't it limiting to pose the border conflict as one between a "White Christian Culture" vs those animated by Christian teachings?...perhaps that is not intended since you use such qualifiers as "some" and "one" of the seeming contradictions?! But still I find myself somewhat confused by "some" of the statements that follow. For example, "American Christianity" has little or nothing to do with the Jewish preacher... a sweeping statement! But, apart from the differences of complexion, linguistic, etc. I think that in substance, these Christian religions bear great similarity to the founder, in what really matters, i.e., their teachings, witness and charitable works of service - and most especially to the poor and disadvantaged...other statements that seem curious...are you suggesting that Catholic beliefs such as the Virgin Birth are (merely) derivative, i.e., based on mythological underpinnings of existing cultures? And therefore not necessarily true?....a number of the early Church Fathers (from Ignatius to Terrtullian) attest to this teaching long before it became codified as doctrine, irrespective of its resemblance to myth. And of course it is asserted/believed as true of an historic person, not of some figure of legend...another, St Paul is in no way associated with the virgin birth as far as I can gather: he did not even mention it! Constantine, while making Christianity legal, did not make it the official religion of the empire?! The Church was first referred to as Catholic by St Ignatius of Antioch and as is obvious form his letters exhibited remarkable unity of belief and practice already in the second century....again "dogma-driven, naturally sounds pejorative, especially when opposed to the "penniless, Jewish carpenter". But this carpenter, aside from being a champion of the poor, also seemed to be greatly concerned about moral truth..."Go and SIN NO MORE" "If you so much as look at a person with lust you have (in effect?) committed adultery" Recall how he dealt with the money-changers and his startlingly strong comments to Peter "get behind me Satan....) and toward those who scandalize the "little ones" "it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck...."Tyndale's "crime" was not for English translation but rather for spreading heresy and he was convicted by secular authority not by the Church although in those days as you know there was more integration than separation of the two entities...but to the conclusion, and I guess, the theme, being pro legal immigration is imo not, strictly speaking a white christian issue. It has more to do with fairness to all communities, those locally impacted as well as all those biding their time legally, and finally the imo legitimate issue of all the "bad people" infiltrating, the recent historically major drug bust in Nogales as a prime example...

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Charles Nolan link
2/6/2019 04:50:01 am

Thanks for weighing in, Colin. I had actually expected more questions of the sort you raised. I purposely went for the big picture. We could argue the details but the wider scope of history is pretty much the way I've broken it down. A major point of all my work, a conviction that gets stronger as I study further, is that human beings are far more motivated by what resonates for us symbolically than by raw fact. The raw fact is that much of what actually happened in the early years of Christianity will never be known to us. Christianity has endured because of elements in the teachings of Jesus that transformed history and still resonate within the human soul. Simply put, we need to put more Jesus into Christianity. And we need to keep the dialogue going. Glad you spoke up.

Reply
Colin Pettorsson
2/6/2019 09:27:33 am

In imitation and emulation of Jesus, I believe the main purpose of life is to empty oneself of self in order to take on the person of Jesus; simply stated, to become as holy (as close to Jesus) as possible. Imo, the teachings of the historical Jesus offer timeless moral ideals, that have sustained the faith through millennia and moved countless millions to selfless lives devoted to Him and in thousands of cases united to Him in the ultimate sacrifice. This may be, in the end, the most persuasive witness to the reality of His life and its impact. I confess to finding more of His imprint in the Christian communities I know of, than not, which it appears may conflict with your point of view?! For example I am always impressed with the "mission" work of countless Protestant denominations! And, closer to "home", I'm invariably impressed with the breadth and depth of service activities at virtually every Catholic Church I've been in any way associated with the last few years. Any parish list of service opportunities these days takes up literally pages! Of course many of these faithful to Jesus and His values may also support border security, including walls where necessary. I don't think they should therefore be painted with the broad brush of anti Christian white nationalism, even though many may be both white and nationalistic. Border security, and its ramifications, is a legitimate debate worth having based on ideas, not ideological labels?! Btw, I recommend reading the letters if St. Ignatius of Antioch, if you haven't already. They were ironically enough pretty much authenticated by a British Protestant scholar. And they are remarkable as they attest to the unity and beliefs of numerous early Christian communities. He addressed many of these on his to journey to his martyrdom in Rome..

Charles Nolan link
2/6/2019 03:02:51 pm

Colin, my argument, as I'm confident you know, is not with Christians attempting to carry out the actual teachings of Jesus and showing it with works of charity. Most Christians are good Christians, just as most people are good people, or we would have wiped ourselves out long ago. My argument is with those who have hijacked Christianity to justify bigotry, protectionism and, ultimately fascism. Fascists crucified Jesus. And I'll have to check out St Ignatius. The name is familiar but my memory cells aren't that good.

Reply
Colin Pettorsson
2/6/2019 03:32:27 pm

St. Ignatius of Antioch (ci 30 - 107).....his letters to many Christian communities in his role as Bishop of Antioch...fascinating, and shows a structure, unity and vibrant faith in Jesus Christ by these early Christian communities. To the extent that you feel these white christian groups are the main opposition to open borders, I would tend to differ as I think such groups are a distinct minority. As to the fascist label, while it must be true of outlier white nationalist groups; being conservative, I'm alarmed at fairly widespread fascist tendencies among groups opposed to Trump: media, academia, antifa, etc., etc....I'm sure you agree that the "right" (or white nationalists, if you prefer) has no corner on such misbehavior?! Btw, Kath and I had cocktails with some visiting neighbors from Vermont, Karl and Mary Trevice. Conversation drifted to music as they are great enthusiasts of all kinds of music; even hosting various sing-alongs in their Vermont home. I talked about our singiong experiences and was stunned to find out they knew who you were. I think they have a pretty close association with Cheryl!!....small world!!

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Charles Nolan link
2/7/2019 06:59:32 pm

Yes, Cheryl is very widely known, both as a performer and because of her role in folk alliance. And intolerance is certainly setting in on all sides. As ever, the extremists are a minority, but a very visible minority. The unsettling thing that has happened in our country is that extremism is resonating with millions of people beyond the core groups, and in some cases using a "Christian" pose to do it, which was the real target of my original blog.

Colin Pettorsson
2/7/2019 07:30:29 pm

"Worthy" targets on both sides naturally. But apart from the extremes there also appears to be a serious cultural divide between libs/conserves, dems/repubs, etc. where compromise is rare; hardened positions (resistance?) more common. For the sake of the country and future generations, I pray for the return of some reasoned discourse and even, compromise....

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Charles Nolan link
2/8/2019 08:43:42 am

Amen to that.

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    Charles Nolan regularly blogs about the ideas expressed in "The Holy Bluff".

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