The Gospel Against Racism: Resisting Cultural Violence and Reclaiming Prophetic Faith
Defining Racism and Its Contemporary Manifestations
Rev. Dr. Napoleon Harris, V
Racism is not merely individual prejudice or interpersonal hostility. It is a system of advantage based on race, a complex web of institutional practices, cultural narratives, and power dynamics that consistently privilege whiteness while disadvantaging and dehumanizing people of color, particularly Black Americans. Racism operates through both overt discrimination and subtle cultural scripts that normalize white dominance-and Black inferiority as the natural order of things.
Contemporary conservative media figures and movements have become masterful at perpetuating racist tropes while maintaining plausible deniability. Modern proponents of racism frequently deploy what scholars call “colorblind racism”- rhetoric that avoids explicitly racial language while reinforcing racist outcomes and narratives. Some popular news media outlets and social media algorithms have become a primary vehicle for disseminating these narratives to millions of Americans, wrapping warped systematic ideologies in the language of patriotism and traditional values to substantiate ideas of superiority and inferiority.
The “Black-on-Black crime” talking point exemplifies how racist rhetoric operates in contemporary discourse. This phrase, endlessly repeated by both liberal posing and conservative commentators, suggests that Black communities are uniquely violent and that Black people should focus on “their own problems” before addressing systemic racism. This narrative is racist for several reasons: First, it ignores the reality that crime is predominantly intra-racial across all communities. White people commit crimes against white people at similar rates, yet we never hear about “white-on-white crime” as a cultural pathology. The selective focus on Black communities reveals the racist assumption underlying the rhetoric. Second, this narrative erases the historical and structural conditions that concentrate poverty, disinvestment, and violence in specific communities. Redlining, discriminatory lending, educational inequity, mass incarceration, and employment discrimination are not accidents-they are policy choices that have systematically extracted resources from Black communities while criminalizing survival strategies. To discuss violence in Black communities without addressing these systems is to blame the victims of structural violence for their own oppression.
Similarly, the myth of the “absent Black father” serves racist purposes by pathologizing Black families and Black men specifically. Research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that Black fathers who live with their children are the most involved fathers across racial groups in activities like bathing, diapering, feeding, and playing with their children. Even Black fathers who don’t live with their children maintain higher levels of involvement than absent fathers of other races. Yet this myth persists because it serves an ideological function: it allows the perpetrators of injustice to attribute Black disadvantage to cultural dysfunction rather than structural racism. If Black families are “broken,” then poverty and incarceration can be blamed on poor values rather than unjust poor (morally bankrupt) systems. This narrative echoes centuries of racist propaganda designed to justify Black subjugation.
Laura Loomer’s racist attacks on Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and other Black women in public life represent a particularly vicious strain of racism that targets Black women with both racial and gendered violence. These attacks often employ what scholars call “controlling images” stereotypes that justify the mistreatment of Black women by portraying them as angry, aggressive, unintelligent, or undeserving of their positions. Womanist scholars give a special name to the double-edged sword of Black femininity “misogynoir” the hate child of sexism and racism hewn and deployed against Black women. Sadly, when Black women achieve any positions of power and visibility, they become targets for racist backlash precisely because their success challenges the constructs misogynoir rests upon. The vitriol directed at Black women like Senator Jasmine Crockett, Vice President Kamala Harris, and others is designed to delegitimize their authority and send a message that Black women should “know their place.” This is racism operating through the intersection of race and gender- what Kimberlé Crenshaw named “intersectionality.”
Christian nationalism, a sin Dr. McMickle has written at great length about is the ideology that America was founded as a Christian nation and should be governed by a particular interpretation of Christian values. Christian nationalism, despite its seemingly benign nature, is fundamentally racist in both its historical origins and contemporary manifestations. It conflates white American cultural identity with Christianity itself, creating a toxic fusion where loyalty to the nation, traditional racial hierarchies, and faith in Jesus become indistinguishable and “indivisible” for all. Christian nationalism is, however, antithetical to faith in a God who created all humanity in the divine image. The Biblical witness consistently proclaims that God shows no partiality based on ethnicity or nationality. The apostle Peter declared, “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35). Paul wrote that in Christ “there is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Yet Christian nationalism baptizes white American identity as God’s chosen people, positioning white Christian Americans as the true heirs of divine blessing while treating immigrants, Muslims, same sex loving, non-gender norm conforming, and people of color as threats to God’s plan. This is idolatry- the worship of nation and race over the God who transcends all human boundaries.
One of the most insidious forms of racism within Christianity is the demand that Black Christians “bury their Blackness at the cross” and embrace a supposedly race-neutral faith. This twisted, sadistic, self-loathing, misinformed rhetoric captured in phrases like “I’m a Christian before I’m Black” sounds spiritual to the uneducated ear, but it functions as a tool of racial oppression. Here’s why, beloved, because it demands that Black people abandon their particular identity and cultural heritage to conform to whiteness, which is presented as universal and normative. White Christians never have to choose between their faith and their cultural identity because white culture is treated as the default expression of Christianity in America. White worship styles, white theological frameworks, white cultural assumptions are all simply called “Christian” without any racial modifier, while Black expressions of faith are marked as ethnic, particular, and potentially divisive.
The demand for racial colorblindness asks Black Christians to forget their history of slavery, lynching, discrimination, and ongoing injustice- the things that have shaped and continue to shape our existence in this country. In order to pretend that race doesn’t matter when our very bodies are racialized every day. Color blind Christianity is truly blind to Black existence and Black suffering (the same could be said of other ethnicities). It asks us to prioritize the comfort of white Christians over the reality of our own experiences. This is not unity; it is assimilation to whiteness dressed in theological language. Moreover, this theology contradicts Scripture itself. The God of the Bible introduces God’s self as a Divine Presence and reality ancestrally stating “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6). God repeatedly commands the Israelites to remember their history, their ancestors, their particular story of slavery and liberation. They were to teach their children to write these memories on their doorposts, to tie them as symbols on their hands and foreheads (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). God forbade them to forget who they were and where they came from. Our Lord and Savior Jesus himself was situated within a particular culture with distinct customs, rituals, and collective memory. He did not preach a colorblind, cultureless faith but rather called people to faithfulness within their specific historical context. Since God values particular identities and cultural memories in Scripture, and since God made those identities and cultural expressions, then the demand that Black Christians erase their Blackness is not biblical- it is a tool of white supremacy.
Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones have provided crucial insight into how white supremacy operates through cultural norms and organizational practices that feel natural and normal to those immersed in them. White supremacy culture includes characteristics like perfectionism, a sense of urgency, defensiveness, quantity over quality, worship of the written word, individualism, the belief that there’s only one right way, and power hoarding. We’ve explored these and others in our Pastor’s Bible Study (I promise, Antioch, I do my best teaching at that Bible Study 😊). We’ve discussed how culture is like water to fish- invisible to those swimming in it yet shaping every aspect of their existence. White supremacy culture has so thoroughly shaped American Christianity that many Christians cannot distinguish between their faith and the cultural assumptions that we’ve been given. We genuinely believe that our particular expressions of theology, worship, and church practice are simply “biblical” rather than culturally conditioned. This cultural conditioning shapes even theology itself. The theologians we read, the questions we think to ask, the problems we prioritize, the interpretive frameworks we use- all of these are influenced by culture. When theology is done primarily by white scholars in white institutions addressing white concerns, it produces theology that serves white interests, even when the theologians believe they’re simply pursuing truth. This is why Christian nationalism, a tool of white supremacy champions a Christ-less Christianity- Christian in name only, counterfeit.
Racism is relentless and pervasive. New Testament scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan describe how Jesus confronted “domination systems” the interlocking political, economic, and religious structures that concentrated power and wealth in the hands of elites while exploiting and oppressing the majority. These systems justified themselves through ideology that portrayed the existing order as natural, divinely ordained, and necessary. Peace researcher Johann Galtung developed a framework for understanding violence that includes three types: direct violence (physical harm), structural violence (social structures that harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs), and cultural violence (aspects of culture that legitimize direct and structural violence). Cultural violence is particularly important for understanding racism because it explains how violence becomes normalized and invisible. When cultural narratives portray Black people as dangerous, lazy, or intellectually inferior, they create the ideological foundation that justifies structural violence (discriminatory policies, unequal resource distribution) and direct violence (police brutality, hate crimes). American Christianity has often provided the fodder for cultural violence and more than that, it’s been the public announcement system that broadcasts cultural violence across the airwaves of America’s conscience to legitimize and substantiate racial oppression. Historically, the Bible was used to justify slavery. Theological arguments were developed to explain why Black people were cursed by God to serve white people. Even after slavery ended, racism-stained Christianity was mobilized to justify segregation, to oppose civil rights, and to maintain white dominance. Today, the same patterns continue as Christianity is weaponized to support policies and politicians that harm Black communities.
The 2025 film Sinners offers a powerful metaphor for understanding how both Christian nationalism and certain expressions of Christianity operate. In the movie, vampires force a false unity on all they infect with their bite, a unity achieved through coercion and domination, not genuine communion or community. Similarly, the church in the film uses the same coercive tactics, revealing how religious institutions can mirror the very evil they claim to oppose. The film brilliantly captures the violence of Christian nationalism, which seeks to impose a singular vision of American Christian identity on everyone through political power and cultural dominance. It also captures the violence of demanding that Black Christians “bury their Blackness” and conform to white cultural Christianity. Both are forms of coerced unity that destroy particularity and diversity in the name of oneness. Much like vampires- it’s evil. God is opposed to both the night-walking extremism of Christian nationalism and the day-walking extremism of anti-Blackness. These are not peripheral political disagreements, they are theological heresies that deny the fundamental truth that all people are made in God’s image and that God’s love extends to all people without partiality. The God revealed in Jesus Christ does not coerce uniformity or a calloused colorblindness that ignores Black existence, God in Christ, celebrates differences with uniformed unflinching love and acceptance.
Jesus was a first-century Palestinian Jew who lived within a culture that was forbidden to forget who they were- who they had been and who they belonged to. The Jewish people maintained elaborate rituals, customs, and practices designed to preserve collective memory and cultural identity. Their entire religious calendar was structured around remembering: Passover to remember the Exodus, Sukkot to remember wilderness wandering, Purim to remember deliverance from genocide. God introduced God’s divine self to Moses through relationship and ancestry: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” This is a God who values particular relationships, specific histories, and embodied identities. God commanded the Israelites to remember, to teach their children, to create physical reminders of their identity and covenant relationship. If Jesus, the Word made flesh, God incarnate- came into a culture that valued remembrance and particular identity, then the demand that Christians forget their cultural identities and histories is not following Jesus. It is, in fact, rejecting the very pattern of God’s revelation.
Antioch, I hope by now I’ve made a case for us to become even more voracious consumers of our own ancestral authentic spirituality and Biblical faith because many of the champions of American Christianity have passed down a faith that is unbiblical, incomplete, and often antithetical to the way of Jesus. Popular American Christianity stresses mouthing belief in Jesus but never mirroring the behavior of Jesus. It teaches and talks about Jesus endlessly but rarely addresses what Jesus actually taught and talked about. Jesus’ central proclamation was the Kingdom of God- what scholars translate as the “Reign of God” or God’s shalom. This Kingdom is characterized by peace, but not merely the absence of conflict. It is shalom, wholeness, right relationships, justice, the restoration of all things to their intended purpose. Jesus announced that this Kingdom was breaking into history, that God’s righteousness (God’s right-ordering of the world) was becoming reality. The Kingdom of God that Jesus preached demanded the dismantling of domination systems, the centering of the marginalized, economic redistribution, and the recognition of human dignity across all social boundaries. Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, touched lepers, elevated women, blessed children, and proclaimed good news to the poor. Jesus’ way was one of radical love, costly discipleship, and confrontation with oppressive powers. Yet American Christianity has often distorted this message beyond recognition. It has created a faith focused on personal salvation, individual piety, and escape from this world rather than the transformation of this world. It has allied itself as champion of empire rather than challenging empire. It has blessed wealth accumulation rather than calling for economic justice and condemning greed as idolatry (Colossians 3:5). It has maintained racial hierarchies rather than breaking them down.
This brings me to Sunday’s message- Jesus warned that there are two paths, but only one leads to life. The narrow gate and difficult road lead to life, while the wide gate and easy road lead to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14). He went further, declaring that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23).
This is a very informative passage. Jesus asserts that many will call Him Lord, will do impressive religious works in His name, will appear to be devoted followers and yet He will declare that He never knew them because they are lawless/workers of iniquity, literally “ones who live in opposition to God’s law”. What is this law? Jesus made it abundantly clear: “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).
And later again Jesus reiterates “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). The law is loving God and neighbor, treating others as we wish to be treated, and it is fundamentally juxtaposed to racism. Racism dehumanizes people created in God’s image. It treats neighbors as threats rather than as beloved. It does to others what we would never want done to ourselves. To participate in racism while claiming to follow Jesus is to be among those who call Him “Lord, Lord” while living lawlessly.
Following Jesus is not about correct doctrine alone. Right belief must manifest itself in right behavior because following Jesus means living according to His law of love. It means pursuing the Kingdom of God, that shalom, that right-ordering of the world where justice flows like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5:24). Thus, beloved, we must govern ourselves accordingly. The path of life requires us to resist both the obvious violence of white supremacy and the subtle violence of cultural Christianity that asks Black people to abandon their God-given identity. It requires us to reject Christian nationalism as idolatry and to embrace a faith that remembers, honors particular identities, and that works for justice. Like the Israelites who tied reminders to their hands and foreheads, we must refuse to forget. We must remember the Middle Passage and Emmett Till, Tulsa and Selma, Tamir Rice, and Breonna Taylor. We must remember because remembering is holy work, because God commands it, because forgetting allows oppression to continue unchallenged. We must persist in participating in authentic spirituality, the kind that transforms lives and communities, that challenges power and elevates the lowly, real religion that binds us a reality beyond us, discipleship that costs us something and demands the best of everything we have to give to God in love for others. We must distinguish this costly discipleship from the cheap grace of American civil religion that baptizes nationalism and blesses injustice.
Because this is the Way! No, it is not the way of cultural Christianity that mirrors the values of white supremacy, or the way of Christian nationalism that worships American power. It is the Way, the way of Jesus- the One who proclaimed the Kingdom, challenged the domination systems of His day, gave His life rather than compromise the truth of God’s radical, all inclusive, liberating, justice-seeking love. And, beloved, the choice before us is clear: the wide road of comfortable religion that requires no transformation, or the narrow path of authentic discipleship that leads to life. May we have the courage to choose the way of Jesus, to love as He loved, to pursue justice as He pursued justice, and to build the beloved community where all of God’s children are valued, honored, and free- Beloved, this is not merely political work or social activism, nor is it being “too political”-this is the Gospel itself. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is the way to life. This is God’s Way.