Every summer, my brothers and I would attend vacation Bible school. We all marched into the sanctuary for opening assembly led by a processional of children holding the American flag, Christian flag and the Bible. In unison we recited the Pledge of Allegiance, the pledge to the Christian flag and the pledge to the Bible. No one thought twice about this powerful yet subtle generational indoctrination.
For years, I believed to be American meant you had to be Christian and to be Christian you must pledge support for your country without waver. I believed my God was first and foremost for America.
Erica Whitaker
In these same Christian spaces where pledges were made to God and country, I discovered other implicit messages spoon-fed to me as child. Because I was born with female body parts, I was to submit to male power. Because I was born as a Caucasian American, I had white power. America has historically used birthright and body type to create an exclusive country club that categorizes people into patriarchal systems.
Birthright has been a method of exclusion to determine who has the rights and privileges of citizenship. It is important to note I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be a Christian. But I will never claim America as a Christian nation. There is a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Check the BJC for more resources on Christian nationalism.
Both the Christian faith and the foundation of our country are rooted in freedom. The Declaration of Independence proclaims liberty for all people. The biblical stories of salvation proclaim God’s liberation for all people.
Christians are called to bring God’s kingdom to earth as it is in heaven. But too often American Christians envision a kingdom of heaven based upon who they include or exclude on earth.
“Too often American Christians envision a kingdom of heaven based upon who they include or exclude on earth.”
It becomes dangerous and downright destructive when government infringes on faith communities or when faith communities use government to create laws and policies based on their personal moral codes. History has taught us this truth.
Remember the Ku Klux Klan and Jim Crow, the Nazi movement and the Holocaust. These are rooted in Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism is a destructive ideology, the core of white supremacy.
The American flag has been used like the image of the alabaster Jesus, a term coined by cultural critic James Baldwin. Jesus wasn’t born American, Christian or with pale pigmentation. White Jesus and the American flag started showing up in places of worship after the American Revolution. In the decades to come, after America got her freedom, freedom in America became restricted to only those classified as white men who strangely looked a whole lot like the image of white American Jesus. The definition of who was a citizen and had the right to vote would not be amended for more than a hundred years. Ironically, the moment liberty was given for some, liberty was taken from many.
America fought for a free democracy just like the Protestants and Anabaptists who sought out religious liberty. Prior to 1776, Baptists were oppressed and imprisoned for their religious beliefs, which included standing against slavery. Like many other denominational groups, Baptists shifted their core convictions when society started supporting them.
Irish immigrants who came over in the 1830s were denied citizenship because they were labeled non-white and non-Christian. Even though their pigmentation was paler than most “whites,” they were labeled black because they were Catholic immigrants. This is one example of many in which citizenship is denied based upon origin of birth and religious affiliation. These laws are formed out of the rouse of protecting freedom, but they only protect the religious and moral beliefs of Christian nationalism.
“Christian nationalism holds not only to privileges of birthright but also body type.”
Christian nationalism holds not only to privileges of birthright but also body type. Christian nationalism gives the image of white, heterosexual male power. Those who visually fit this category are given the power positions in the family, in the church and in government.
Christians in America must take a stand against the exclusion and oppression of people who do not fit the white male mold. We should turn to Scripture to see how God keeps turning this upside-down world right side up. The God of liberations who flattens the pyramid schemes of oppressing patriarchy.
The story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is about removing the religious regulation of cleanliness, removing body-type restrictions. The eunuch is a human who from an early age was given the prestigious role of serving directly beside the Ethiopian queen. A eunuch’s body was altered at a young age to serve a specific role.
The Ethiopian eunuch would have been considered nonbinary in his world. I can imagine Philip stumbling over their preferred pronouns. However, their alterations and identifications meant they were not considered clean in Hebrew religious custom. Cleanliness was and still is very important to God’s people, which is how cleanliness got inappropriately intertwined with godliness. But cleanliness is never next to godliness.
Like the American flag placed in sanctuaries, cleanliness became a flag, washed in the blood of the Cross, made white as snow. For far too long, Christians have been waving this whitewashed flag in people’s faces to keep them out of their churches.
Praise God, we have new vibrant flags that wave people back into welcoming and affirming communities of faith. American Christians forget that these God-given bodies are beautiful no matter what shape, skin color or sexuality.
Last Sunday, I wore my favorite preaching stole. On one side there are vibrant rainbow colors and on the other symbols of other religions and faith traditions. As I preached to a room full of white Americans following the way of Christ, I reminded them that all bodies — no matter birthright or body type — belong in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Erica Whitaker serves as associate director of Baptist Seminary of Kentucky’s Institute for Black Church Studies. She lives with her husband, Josh, in Louisville, where she previously served as pastor of Buechel Park Baptist Church. Erica is a Baptist News Global and board member. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of North Texas and a master of divinity degree from Baylor University’s George W. Truett Seminary. She is currently writing a dissertation for a doctor of philosophy degree at International Baptist Theological Study Centre in Amsterdam.