On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, hundreds of white terrorists stormed the Capitol building in Washington D.C in the name of Trumpism, patriotism and “revolution.” Amidst the mob dressed in riot gear and carrying armed weaponry, “Jesus Saves” was held up on posters, clothing and even wooden crosses. An ironic statement when juxtaposed next to the noose hanging on the west side of the Capitol building.
This paralleling of Christian faith and patriotism has existed in American history for centuries as justification for the maiming, murdering, kidnapping and total degradation of Black people and people of color. Many of the white people who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday are regular churchgoers who profess Christanity. The roots of their white faith is grounded in racist theology dating back to segregation and Jim Crow laws. Rather the mob we witnessed this week all identified as Christians is not clear, but for the ones who held up those signs, clearly faith and country share a bed. In between the sheets of that bed is a historical devotion to separatism.
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In 1961, a few weeks after the “Freedom Riders” bus attack in Montgomery, Alabama, a leading pastor by the name of Henry Lyons spoke these words: “If you want to get in a fight with the one that started separation of the races, then you come face to face with your God,” he declared. “The difference in color, the difference in our body, our minds, our life, our mission upon the face of this earth, is God given.”
Lyons’ speech was passionate and he was insistent that a Christian church should remain white because, simply, “God said so.” Likewise, we see that same rhetoric when we engage with the doctrine of the “Proud Boys,” an intolerant, far-right, neo-fascist and male-only political organization that promotes political violence in the United States and Canada. Recently, this group has acquired a lawsuit from Asbury United Methodist Church, a historically Black church, after ripping “Black Lives Matter” signs from the church’s property and setting them on fire in the street. The destruction of these signs happened at three other churches in the same city and is reminiscent of the historical bombings, burnings and attacks on Black churches by racist hate groups. The Proud Boys are similar to, if not the same as, the Klansman of today and the past.
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