Christianity Today continues its theologically obstreperous ways, accusing white Christians of being inherent racists who commit acts of spiritual violence against black people by voting GOP and suggesting Democrat voters don’t have a biblical worldview.
The offending article is by Dr. Christiana Edmondson, an anti-racist advocate (the irony of such a title will become quickly apparent) who co-hosts the Truth Tables Podcast with two other allegedly Christian women. Incidentally, the other co-hosts, Michelle Higgins and Ekimini Uwan, are both pro-choice, with Higgins routinely posting support for Planned Parenthood.
So clearly, they take issues of systematic violence and racism seriously.
The thesis of her post is simple: “White Christians” have a faith that is corrupted by racism in a way that a “Black Christian’s” faith is not, to the point that inherent in a White Christian’s faith is the built-in justification to commit terrible acts of murder against black people.
Furthermore, White Christians express their racism by voting for the Republican Party, which happens to be an act of implicit racism and overt spiritual violence against black people. This violence is magnified when we say things like “The Republican platform is more in line with a biblical worldview” and “the Democrat platform promotes theft, pro-abortion-, pro-homosexuality, pro-transgenderism, inclusive sex-education for children which affirms sexual perversion, men in women’s washrooms, socialism, and a host of others unbiblical positions, and an as a result their platform is not compatible with biblical Christianity and Christians should not vote for it.”
Saying those two things might as well be the spiritual equivalent of a celestial curb stomp, crunching the teeth and sending bone splinters into the brains of woke Christians planning on voting for Biden.
Truthfully, the whole article is an excretable, gangrenous cauldron of the worst excesses of woke TGC, ERLC, and #BigEva put together, sprinkled with a little Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory Rhetoric for that extra bitter kick. She writes:
The so-called shared faith of white Christians and black Christians does not guard against violence toward the Emmett Tills, Tamir Rices, or George Floyds of society… [Editor’s Note. Emmet Till was a 14-year-old black kid who was falsely accused by a white woman of hitting on her in 1955. As a result, a group of white men kidnapped him from his home, tortured and killed him, and then were found not guilty in a sham trial. Till’s Mother, Mamie, chose to have an open casket at the funeral, showing off her son’s disfigurement, an act which helped to galvanize national attention against racism and acted as an impetus for many anti-racism organizations gaining power and prominence. ]
White Christianity’s very design exists to maintain false piety and sear the consciences of white people against the oppression and exploitation of blacks….
Spiritual violence abusively castes people within our systems but also in our imaginations and social media feeds with name-calling such as ‘heretic’ or ‘unbeliever.’
Edmondson takes particular exception with Mohler’s statement that voting for the Republican party is most in line with a “Christian worldview.” In this case, she takes him to task for the necessary implication that people (particularly black Christian women) who vote for the Democrats don’t have a biblical worldview when it comes to voting. She writes:
Spiritual violence against black Americans in the political sphere means disparaging and minimizing the faith of black Christians.
As president of the flagship seminary for the largest Christian denomination in the United States, [Mohler’s] religious endorsement of a highly controversial president known for racist and sexist rhetoric and actions mattered significantly…
My concern, while subtle, knocks at the door of spiritual violence. By saying one’s ‘Christian worldview’ leads to reelecting Donald Trump in 2020, Mohler asserts that faithful Christian theology applied to politics must draw the same political conclusions as most white conservative Christian men in this country.
She continues with the disparagements:
Black women report some of the highest levels of Bible study, charitable giving, authoritative views on Scripture, amount of time praying, and church attendance. But because of their political and theological misalignment with Trump and Republican agendas, they are deemed by default biblically ignorant, and at worst, heretics, cultural Marxists, and whatever new term works to caricature and discredit those holding a differing view. Welcome to politically motivated spiritual violence.
Edmonson notes that “Despite claiming loyalty to the same Jesus, divergent “Christian worldviews” historically produce on one hand people like George Whitefield and Johnathan Edwards and people like Stacey Abrams on the other (or other Christians like Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, etc.).
The view that people like Stacey Abrams and Nancy Pelosi are Christians makes sense from her understanding, as Edmondson has already demonstrated that being actively pro-choice isn’t a deal breaker when it comes to someone’s “Christian” faith. Wannabe governors can be “Christians” and be pro-abortion and pro-LGBT at the same time, and there will be no discrepancy of conflict present.
Yet, from Edmonson’s perspective, the act of us saying that the mighty woman of God known as Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams is not a Christian is by necessity an act of spiritual violence against her, an act we commit because we have this White Christian Skin that is driving us to violence.
Most people, I imagine, watched in horror the recent footage of the unarmed black men killed in 2020…However, the horrors of 2020, coupled with the trauma-cementing psychological and spiritual violence of news networks popular to white “conservative Christians,” discredit each victim.
She finishes her article, however, with an appeal to White Christians to stop being so intrinsically violent, and to have a heart, and be more like black Christians who are dedicated to anti-racism, empathy, and repair.
The necessary violence of racism is combated by the nonviolent and steadfast resistance of black Christians, which reminds all of us who we are designed to be. White Christians, will your shared humanity and Christianity move you from violence and violence-denying to the nonviolence of empathy, solidarity, and repair?
Thank you, Christianity Today. You have really outdone yourself with this one.
