White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in
By Robert P Jones
Jones, religious scholar and founder of the Public Religious Research Institute (PRRO) opens his argument with examples from the late 19th century that seem more like accounts from before the Civil War. Rev Dr Basil Manly Sr, who helped wrest the new Southern Baptist denomination for the regular Baptists in 1845 over the issue of slavery, was found of the Southern Baptist Seminary and became a prominent voice justifying slavery. Even into the 1960s, southern governors and local media defended segregation. Many churches refused to admit blacks. (Martin Luther King Jr's son, MLK3, was denied admission to Atlanta's Lovett School, affiliated with the Episcopal Church, in 1963.)
Disturbingly, Frederick Douglass wrote that, "...being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me... Religious slaveholders are the worst... the meanest, the basest, the most cruel and cowardly." (p 88)
After losing the Civil war, many confederate Christians compared their lot to biblical figures who were wrongly imprisoned (e.g., Paul) or even to the crucifixion...assuming their cause would triumph in the end. Yet, I was surprised to read that most monuments to white supremacy (e.g., statues of Lee, Davis, Jackson) were erected not after the Civil War but in the mid 20th century - as a reaction to black civil rights.
Jones especially cites the Scofield Reference Bible for a massage shift in interpretation. Scofield, a confederate veteran, asserts that the world is evil [true!] and beyond redemption. Social justice is therefore futile, and the only focus should be on saving souls and discipleship. Scofield believes Jesus thus died not for a cause or for humankind, but for each individual. The key ministry is "letting Jesus come into your heart" and not worry and about institutions (e.g., slavery, racism, segregation) as they are beyond redemption. This perspective thus frees me from working to establish justice and equality. [I don't see a black and white - no pun intended - dichotomy as Jones asserts. I believe the two aims can work in tandem. The more we grow to be like Jesus, the greater should be our concern for others in need.]
According to the PRRI's research, the probability of Christian affiliation with racist attitudes is strongest where those groups are most culturally dominant. Thus, although racism is thought to be strongest in the south, Catholics and mainline Protestants are not off the hood for racist attitudes. Jones ends his book with stories of a few churches that are trying to reconcile their past with justice today, but clearly much work remains.
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