Buzz Words, White Christian Nationalism and the Secret Power of Immigration Issues

   

Buzz Words, White Christian Nationalism and the Secret Power of Immigration Issues

In God We (MAGA) Do Not Really Trust

The New Testament preaches tolerance, brotherly love (with “brother” widely defined) and eschews racism, bias and ethnic hatred. And yet somehow, racist autocrats – from Hitler to the bulwark of the underlying white supremacists backing the MAGA immigration policies – rely on the Bible to support their unbridled hatred of non-Western European immigrants and religious minorities, particularly Jews. Vast pools of white evangelicals hear sermons with severe political rhetoric embracing racist exclusionary mandates aimed at keeping white Christians as America’s sole legitimate power base. Democracy does not work for racists when they are in a minority.

As I have blogged with hard evidence, not only are undocumented immigrants much less likely to commit crimes than the general population, but crime in general is in serious decline across the land. MAGA, with only anecdotal examples, says quite the opposite. I have also postulated the increase in costs as hard-working undocumented immigrants are purged from the nation. Where US citizens will even accept the menial work these immigrants perform, the mandated increase in their “American” wage rates has sent and will continue to send inflationary costs soaring. And yet, in a nation built by immigrants, this exclusionary, discriminatory rhetoric is now the essential anchor for the Republican universe of their basic values. This is only a recent trend!

The rubric of racism is buried in the nascent political vocabulary. “Diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) bans, “replacement” theory and using “woke” to describe educational practices that accurately teach about slavery, the Trail of Tears, Jim Crow and current discrimination issues are the “sanitized” racist descriptors used by white supremacists to make their toxic message acceptable to their base and prospective voters. It’s in the 2025 Project, 900 pages of rightwing orthodoxy written substantially by former Trump White House advisors (which suddenly, Trump “knows nothing about”) and in MAGA platforms behind their election efforts everywhere. And it equally necessary for MAGA supporters to make sure there is no legislation that just might create a meaningful solution to our “border crisis.” They need the issue to rail against.

“Finish the wall,” they call, in brilliant defiance of the express words the New Testament describes as Jesus’ mandates against racism and sitting in harsh judgment of others. “So when they continued asking him, He lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” John 8:7 (King James version of the Bible). I have always found it difficult to believe how self-described “good Christians” could embrace white supremacy under color of God, rummaging through the Bible as if it were a pick-and-choose menu. Jesus himself was hardly “white,” with a skin tone significantly darker than his Roman oppressors.

So, I wondered where, in the evangelical universe, there might be pastors who preach what the Bible actually says. And indeed, I found what I was looking for in the July 22nd edition of Baptist News Global in a piece written by Kristen Thomason, a freelance writer with a background in media studies and production who has worked with national and international religious organizations and for public television. The pastors’ messages she cites, that support a true interpretation of the Bible, are refreshing and hopeful.

“The second night of the Republican National Convention focused on the party’s No. 1 issue — immigration… Donald Trump scuttled a bipartisan Senate bill on immigration and border security just so he could campaign on the immigration crisis at America’s southern border. And now, immigration permeates every plank of the Republican platform…

“‘Because Christian nationalism is largely premised on the hierarchical nature of race, as a social construct, it is directly aligned with white supremacy. Christian nationalism is about the preservation of power that has historically belonged to white Protestants,’ said Jay Augustine, senior pastor at St. Joseph AME Church, in Durham, N.C, and a member of the consulting faculty at Duke Divinity School.

“A Public Religion Research Institute survey revealed that unlike most Americans, adherents of Christian nationalism have a negative view of immigrants. For example, 81% of white Christian nationalists believe in the Great Replacement Theory, a conspiracy promoted by far-right extremists who claim immigrants of color are invading primarily white countries and replacing their ‘cultural background’ with an ‘ethnic one.’… ‘As America has grown more diverse, tolerance for that diversity has waned among those who believe white Christians should be in charge.’…

“With much less creativity than Plato’s Republic or Thomas Moore’s Utopia, Stephen Wolfe muses in his book on the ideal Christian nationalist state. In that America, citizens are organized by place and ethnicity, which he refers to as ‘volkgeist,’ a sentiment similar to the foundational Nazi ideology of a racially pure ‘volk.’.. The norms and customs he has in mind are, of course, those held dear by conservative white Christian Protestants. Punitive action against those ‘behaving arrogantly’ or possessing a ‘dominating spirit’ skirts dangerously close to the coded adjective ‘uppity’ of the Jim Crow era, an accusation punishable by lynching…Seeing such subtexts in Stephen Wolfe’s language is reinforced by the company he keeps. Wolfe cohosts the Ars Politica podcast with white supremacist Thomas Achord. His publisher, Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson, is a self-described ‘paleo-Confederate.’”

For Jews supporting MAGA evangelical extremists, they quietly avoid discussing their reasons for this seeming anomaly: under their interpretation of the Bible, the Second Coming of Christ, as well as the Rapture that will instantly transport “true believers” to heaven, are predicated on the “final war,” Armageddon, which will emanate with a powerful Israel battling other infidels in the Middle East. By the way, Jews do not survive the Rapture and definitely do not go to a heaven they do not believe in anyway. And while those undocumented border crossers are actually mostly practicing Roman Catholics, “papists” are not considered true believers by these MAGA Christians.

So, watch the buzz words noted above. People who utter them really do not believe they are racists, but what would you call people who believe that minorities of color are so inherently inferior, notwithstanding those facing dire poverty and bad schools (where they can attend), that the only way they can succeed is through minority bootstrapping DEI programs. Even Trump’s nomination acceptance speech suggested that those undocumented border crossers were taking away jobs from Black and Hispanic Americans. Seriously.

Just look at the significant number of elected Republicans in Congress and in state governments who refer to Kamala Harris (whose parentage is Jamaican/South Asian) as the “DEI candidate.” These biases are deeply un-Christian and violate human values, values that prevent war… as opposed to those biases that foment armed conflict. Unfortunately, there are too many of the latter in America today.

I’m Peter Dekom, and just being conscious of the use of those racist, ethnic and religious slurs that fly in the face of everything American… and threat democracy itself.