The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism
A Call to Action (Religion in the Modern World)
In this book, Carter Heyward shows how American Christians have played a major role in building and securing structures of injustice in American life. She contends that, especially since the end of World War Two, American Christianity too often has been co-opted by a white Christian nationalist agenda. And now, turbulent tides of white supremacy, blatant assaults on women’s reproductive freedoms and threats to basic human rights for gender and sexual minorities, the widening gulf between rich and poor in an unregulated capitalist economy, and a world on fire, under water, and being savaged at least partly by human greed — all point to a world crying out for Christians and others to teach, preach, and build movements of liberation and healing.
We must be clear, Heyward insists, there is no place for white Christian nationalism in Christianity, and there is no good place for white Christian nationalism in America. These twin realizations provided the spark for this book. White Christian Nationalism has no good points. It cannot provide “one side” of a political argument because it is rooted in hatred, divisiveness, and violence. It can never be a truly moral path for followers of Jesus, whether more conservative or more liberal in their traditions.
White Christian nationalism is an inherently destructive movement both spiritually and politically. With historic roots in the demonization of Jews, Blacks, and other racially and ethnically “darker” people, white Christian nationalism also fiercely resists the liberation of women and of gay, lesbian, and trans people. Needless to say, white Christian nationalism is dead set against abortion, many forms of birth control, all same-sex marriage, and all manifestations of non-binary and trans gender identities.
Moreover, and more immediately, white Christian nationalism is hellbent on destroying the democratic foundations of America because white Christian nationalism cannot tolerate the full participation – including voting — by African Americans, Hispanics, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and other people of color, or by the ethnically and racially diverse coalitions of voters, or by political liberals, who tend to constitute today’s Democratic Party. It is easier to dismiss us as “socialists,” “elitists,” “unpatriotic,” “haters of America,” and even as “pedophiles” than to imagine finding ways of building this nation together, we the people, all of us together. “Imagine,” John Lennon sang. Heyward calls us to imagine.
Because most Christians cherish our faith traditions’ roots in God’s love for all humankind and creation, white Christian nationalism is an assault on Jesus as a brother and Christic figure who taught his followers to love their neighbors as themselves. This book explores this spiritual dynamic with its biblical roots.
For Heyward, this is an urgent moment. We are in an emergency situation. What is happening right before our eyes in America is not normal. It is evil. Right now, she insists, is no time for the silence of Christians or other Americans committed to liberty and justice for all. The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism is a “call to action.” Heyward implores her readers to speak up now, collectively and individually. She urges her sisters, brothers, and siblings to break the silence too long associated with many American churches, especially mainstream and liberal Protestant churches.
Reviews
What’s most impressive about this book is Carter Heyward’s ability to document and expose—without mincing words—White Christian nationalism as our country’s true original sin. Heyward never shouts in this lucid and timely book. — Pedro A. Sandín-Fremaint, author of And Yet… A Faith Journey
Carter Heyward’s books are all works of consequence. But this one stands out as the harvest of a lifetime of wisdom. There is extraordinary historical depth (the sins of white Christian nationalism go way back) that is matched to corresponding breadth (the full range of our corporate lives) and a probing exposition of biblical and Christian faith. Not least, she offers action-focused responses to each deadly sin. I’m already making a list of those I will give this book as an urgent read. — Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
Carter Heyward sounds the alarm. Seven deadly sins are leading us down the road to “Christofascism,” the dangerous merging of right-wing Christianity and autocracy. But fear not, those who have been brutalized by narrow, individualistic views of sin. These seven deadly sins are those of white supremacy, misogyny or the lust for omnipotence and the like and they are set in their true context. But Heyward does not leave you with just the theological diagnosis. The latter part of the book gives the tools we need to help stop it. An absolute tour de force! — Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, president emerita and professor emerita, Chicago Theological Seminary
About the Author
The Rev. Dr. Carter Heyward is an American feminist theologian and priest in the Episcopal Church, the province of the worldwide Anglican Communion in the United States. In 1974, she was one of the Philadelphia Eleven, eleven women whose ordinations eventually paved the way for the recognition of women as priests in the Episcopal Church in 1976. Heyward is the author of eleven books, her most recent Tears of Christopena: Mystical Musings on Grief, Evil, and Godding and She Flies On: A White Christian Debutante Wakes Up.