Dominionism Rising: a Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight by Frederick Clarkson
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Christian Ethics Today A Journal of Christian Ethics Volume 24, Number 3 Aggregate Issue 102 Summer 2016 “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” Isaiah 40:3; John 1:23 Confessions of a White Supremacist by Pat Anderson, editor.....................2 In Defense of Red Letter Christianity by Tony Campolo ..............................3 Dominionism Rising: A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight by Frederick Clarkson .....4 The Deadliest Sin by Fisher Humphreys ..............................................................................12 A Pastor’s Plea to Love Our Muslim Neighbors by Chris George ....15 The Last Trump? By Roger Griffin .............................................................................................17 Patriots Who Kneel by Marv Knox ........................................................................................19 GOD DRAMA: Fifteen Years Later…By Wendell Griffen ..................................21 Clergy for a New Drug Policy by Martin E. Marty ..................................................24 I Broke Up With The Conservative Evangelical Project by Brian D. McLaren .....25 Trump’s “Truthful Hyperbole” & Christianity’s “Money Cult” by Gary Moore .................28 Incoming...Letters to the Editor ................................................................................31 Confessions of a White Supremacist By Patrick Anderson, editor was born and raised in the milieu never in South Carolina, or of us bury it better than others, I of white supremacy. I cannot Georgia, or Tennessee. I remember but I see little in our American life remember ever hearing the term times when I was the only white that gives evidence of a “post-racial explicitly, but the superiority of white contestant in the indoor 600, or era” or a “colorblind” society. people was implicitly understood and when our mile relay team was the The life experiences we have had assumed. In a segregated world devoid only white entrant in the universi- in the white world are unlike the of dark skinned people, where non- ty division of the Penn Relays. Just life experiences in the non-white white persons were never encountered before the command to “runners, world. This is true today as much socially, my whiteness was more than take your marks” we shook hands as it was in my childhood. just evident. It was pervasive, “nor- and expressed insincere “good I have never been denied a job mal,” and majoritarian. My mother luck” utterances before a race. I because of my skin color. Banks and grandmother occasionally uti- remember sharing mutual con- or mortgage companies or real lized the services of a black house- gratulations and “good race” affir- estate agencies have never red-lined keeper, the church my father pastored mations after races, even embraces my housing options or otherwise employed a black custodian, but other and exchanges of sweat. Track is determined where I could live or than those persons my world was an uncomplicated sport in many purchase property. Access to doc- white. The schools I attended were ways. Whoever gets to the finish tors and health care has never been all white; our church was all white; line first, wins. I remember think- a problem for me. I have never our neighborhood was all white. The ing how much the same we were, been followed around by a store city parks where I played ball were all how skin color mattered not at security guard. No one from my white. The public swimming pool was all when speed was the separation family was ever enslaved, lynched, all white. between us. Whoever gets there beaten. My family name was not My grandchildren roll their eyes first, wins. taken and a new one assigned. when they hear me talk about that After college the milieu of my I can walk, drive, stand, talk, strange, colorless world in which life changed. I worked in the laugh, be angry, and otherwise I lived. Yet even they now live in juvenile justice system alongside function without ever wondering a resurging environment, even African American and Latino if I will be killed by a cop. I have in the community of faith, that caseworkers. I attended for a while always lived that way. My family expresses explicit and complicit a Spanish language church. I members have lived that way. My paeans of white superiority. They developed close friendships with children and grandchildren live that hear white folks say “we want our non-white persons. Today I like way. The people with whom I rou- country back,” “why don’t they to consider myself as “colorblind,” tinely socialize live that way. How teach values in school,” “build a non-biased, and consider African can I claim not to be “superior?” wall,” “too many people who don’t Americans and Latinos as some of The police do not see me as sus- look like us are doing stuff,” “law my best friends. My racial aware- picious, or say one to the other at and order,” ness expanded in the years of the a traffic stop “He’s a bad looking Furman University where I Civil Rights Movement. dude.” My existence is never con- attended on a track scholarship But the separations between sidered threatening or subversive. was all white until the first African myself and even my closest non- No policeman has ever said “Step American student was admit- white friends cannot be merely out of the car. Put your hands on ted my senior year. In college my brushed aside. President Obama the roof and spread your legs.” encounters with non-white people recently referred to the “implicit My African American friends expanded because our track team racial bias” which exists in the have never lived the way I have competed on a national stage, so I police subculture. He could have lived. They never will. You, I, and raced many black runners in track made a much broader claim, for most other people know this, deep meets in New York, Philadelphia, we white folks all share a deep and down. ■ Louisville, Miami, and Detroit… defining sense of superiority. Some 2 • Summer 2016 • chriStian ethicS today In Defense of Red Letter Christianity by Tony Campolo ords, say experts on language, gain who differed with either their prescribed red letters to love our enemies, He probably Wtheir meaning by how they are used theology or designated lifestyle. meant we shouldn’t kill them. And when within the social context that employs Given these realities, it is not surprising He called for radical sacrificial giving to the them. As a case in point, many theologi- that many Christians no longer wanted poor, as He did in Mark 10, we believe that cally orthodox Christians during the first to assume the label “fundamentalist” for Jesus was serious. half of the 20th century had no problem themselves. Instead, many prominent We think that what Jesus spelled out in using the label “fundamentalist” to define Christian leaders, such as Billy Graham and the Sermon on the Mount is superior to themselves. That label, however, gradually Carl Henry (the editor of Christianity Today any ethic we find in the Old Testament. became associated with connotations which magazine) increasingly identified them- We say this because Jesus declares it to be many found undesirable. selves as “evangelicals.” so, especially in Matthew 5. What he has Following the famous 1925 Scopes Sadly, as of late, this new title gradually to say in that chapter about such things as trial in Tennessee, which made rejecting has taken on negative connotations in the divorce, retaliation toward those who have Darwin’s theory of evolution a defining secular media. As evangelicals increasingly hurt us, and anger, proves to be a higher commitment in most fundamentalist came to be identified on television and standard for us to live by than even what circles, those who had used the label, were in newspapers as being Christians who the Hebrew prophets had to say. viewed as anti-scientific, and even anti are against gays and lesbians, questioning There are those who try to discredit our intellectual. much about the movement for women’s movement by suggesting that we negate As time went on, fundamentalists increas- rights, against non-Anglo immigrants and those other parts of the Bible apart from ingly came to be viewed as Christians who being anti-Muslim, the label “evangelical” the red letters. Nothing could be further embraced a pietistic lifestyle marked by became increasingly problematic for many from the truth. We believe that the rest of strong opposition to using any kind of Christians. Nowhere is this more obvious the Bible points to Jesus and, like the early alcoholic beverage, dancing and, in extreme than in the rhetoric during the political church, under the guidance of the Holy cases, going to the movies, and even the use campaigns of 2016. Spirit, we find the nature and mission of of “make-up” by women. A few years ago, Jim Wallis of Sojourners Jesus spelled out throughout the entire More important, among fundamentalists, magazine called together a group of mostly Hebrew Bible. Beyond that, we believe that there was widespread affirmation of the young Christian leaders who faced the the rest of the Bible can be understood only theology of John Nelson Darby, commonly question as to whether or not the name insofar as it is read through the eyes of the referred to as dispensationalism. This “evangelical” had lost its meaning for us. Jesus revealed in the red letters. theology was popularized via the Scofield We were still Christians who believed in the Red Letter Christians have very few Reference Bible, which had footnotes doctrines of the Apostle’s Creed, declared problems with the theology of evangeli- that explained Bible verses in accord with that salvation comes via surrendering to the cals. Our problems are with the identity Darby’s beliefs, and became a standard text spiritual presence of the resurrected Christ, they have established and the politics they for fundamentalists.