In Jim Wallis’ most recent book, The False White Gospel, he discusses his perspectives on the historical and current expressions of white Christian nationalism in the United States and what must be done to preserve a multicultural and multiracial participatory democracy. 

Jim Wallis grew up in Detroit and his family attended a white evangelical church there, but when as a youth Wallis became concerned about the racism he witnessed in Detroit, he did not find support for addressing these concerns in his white evangelical church community.

Here are some responses Jim Wallis received when as a young man he questioned racism in his hometown of Detroit:

“I don’t know. That is just the way it is and the way it has always been.”

“If you keep asking those questions son, you are going to get into trouble.”

“Son, you have to understand that Christianity has nothing to do with racism. That is politics.”

(Responses shared in Jim Wallis’ plenary address to the American Academy of Religion, November 2018)

The responses he received from his white evangelical faith community led to Wallis leaving the church for some years until he realized that what his white evangelical church was preaching was not the way of Jesus, but rather a false white gospel, which had very little to do with the way of Jesus portrayed in the gospels – a false white gospel that rejected the way of radical inclusivity and love and justice for all while clinging to systems and beliefs that perpetuated their perceived ethno-cultural interests and power.

Wallis came to see that this false white gospel left out almost all of the teachings on justice in the Bible and ignored Jesus’ teachings about bringing good news to the poor, liberating the oppressed, making peace, and caring for the most vulnerable among us. In reading the Bible, Wallis came to the conclusion that the problem was not with the way of Jesus, but rather with how others had coopted and misused Jesus. As Wallis puts it in his book, “Jesus is a victim of identity theft in America.” As others have noted, we have recast Jesus much more in the image of John Wayne as a symbol of the power and virtues of white America rather than embracing the way of a radically inclusive prophet from Nazareth who was executed by the empire.

The false white gospel ignores the prophetic power of Jesus in order to perpetuate power and privilege by enforcing systems that support white supremacy. Wallis noted that in the past, supporters of slavery would simply delete all of the passages in the Bible that focused on freedom, liberation, and equality to hide the prophetic message of the Bible from the persons whom they enslaved. Today, adherents of the false white gospel simply ignore those passages or spiritualize them in such a way that they lose their power to challenge the unjust systems in our society.

The danger we are facing today is that adherents of the false white gospel have tremendous political power within our society, and they are now even openly identifying themselves as Christian nationalists. It is no wonder that Christian nationalists want to control what we learn from history because history clearly shows us the dark, dangerous, and deadly places humanity is prone to go when it embraces all forms of religious nationalism; and it almost always brings tremendous harm, suffering, and death to the most vulnerable among us – you know, the people Jesus and the Hebrew prophets so inconveniently say we should all be caring for.

The false white gospel of Christian nationalism fails to embrace the over 2000 passages in the Bible that express concern about poverty and justice. It fails to embrace the Imago Dei vision of the Bible that all persons are created in the image of God and therefore of equal sacred worth. It fails to embrace that we are to love all of our neighbors, not just the ones who look like us and believe like we do. It fails to welcome to stranger, to truly care for the imprisoned and sick, and to address the injustices that perpetuate the plight of the most vulnerable among us. For these reasons and more, it is a false white gospel – the false white gospel of white Christian nationalism.

Given that white Christian nationalists appear to be willing to do almost anything to maintain and expand their power, including the use of threats of violence and the use of actual violence, and given that white Christian nationalists express a willingness to embrace autocracy and authoritarianism to hold on to power, Wallis sees white Christian nationalism as being one of the greatest threats to a multicultural, multiracial, and multi-faith democracy.

Wallis understands that many persons have left Christianity because of this false white gospel being so prevalent in American churches. He understands why people would choose no religion over the false religion of white Christian nationalism. He expresses hope, however, that persons might also choose better religion rather than no religion at all.

The better religion that Wallis envisions embraces all that white Christian nationalism ignores and rejects. It celebrates the equal sacred worth of all persons; it lifts up our moral responsibility to love all persons, even our enemies; it views nature as our community, not just a commodity to be used and consumed; it brings good news to the poor, liberation for the oppressed, and care and comfort for the vulnerable; it sees faith and justice as being inseparable; and it calls on all persons to speak out against all forms of injustice and to resist the systems that perpetuate injustice.

Given that Wallis is a Christian, it may come as no surprise that he believes that what he is describing is the true Christian faith as opposed to the false white gospel, but he is quick to note that persons who orient themselves to religion differently share many of these same concerns, and he embraces the freedom of religion as a core component of preserving freedom for all persons within a pluralistic society. The way forward for Wallis is to reject the false white gospel for a better religion, for a better way, a way of radical inclusivity and justice.

Wallis does not mince his words when he proclaims, “White Christianity is nothing less than an idolatry, the worship of a false God. Whiteness, deliberately or unconsciously, becomes the real god to whom we offer allegiance.”

So what are we to do in relation to this false white gospel? We are to resist it as we battle for the soul of our nation. We resist it through political participation, especially through preserving voting rights – rights that are currently coming under direct attack. We resist it in our religious communities by realizing that every justice issue is also a faith issue. Wallis reminds us that speaking up for justice issues, even doing so from the pulpit, is not a violation of the separation of church and state. Preserving freedom, justice, and the well being of all people and the community of all life is a sacred duty to which we all are called at all times and in all places.

We are not only rejecting the false white gospel of white Christian nationalism; we are also embracing the radically inclusive and just vision of Beloved Community. And those of us who happen to be white have an even greater responsibility to resist and speak out against the false white gospel for the sake of the Beloved Community. May we all have the compassion, strength, and the courage to do so.