Black Christians vs. White Christians

America has been in an intra-religious war for hundreds of years and it is time the nation that incorrectly bills itself as a “Christian nation” accepts a simple fact of its existence: Black American Christianity is a much better model for Christianity than white American Christianity.

For people seeking what organized American religion has to offer, Black Christianity will give you more of what you are looking for from religion, god, salvation, forgiveness, love, faith, and atonement — key Christian precepts that are central to the Christian faith. Add in acceptance of Christ as personal savior and example for living and forgiving, and anyone who chooses to see and accept truth will recognize the teaching of Christ as paramount to those who practice their faith in Black American churches.

This is not to say that the Black American church is without fault or hypocrisy, because it is. But the issues that befall the Black American church do not disrupt society as a whole.

The same cannot be said of white American churches.

Americans are quick to recognize religious warfare in Western nations. We are taught about the split of Catholics and Protestants, along with all the wars and revolutions the split led to across Europe, and the colonization and wars it led across the globe.

And Americans are quick to turn a nose up at the wars within Islam — shiite vs. sunni, while gleefully and deliberately remaining ignorant about the different “denominations” at the heart of the Islamic wars. As if white Christianity hasn’t been at the center of English vs. Irish and other European wars, the global slave trade, and the genocide of native peoples in the Americas.

Once America came into being, white Christians quickly let the world and their god know that they had finally found heaven on earth. All they had to do to make it a little more perfect, was clear the land of the indigenous people by doing their god’s work, and killing tens of millions of indigenous children, women, and men. Then, in order to form a more perfect union and be as lazy as they wanted to be, they enslaved tens of millions for three-hundred and fifty years of torture, rape, and destruction of families, all while enriching themselves, their government, and their businesses. They were so successful, that even now, families, businesses, and government are still reaping financial rewards.

Just like their god intended, I guess.

And for the past 100+ years white Christians have subjugated Black Christians, locked them up, refused to let them live peaceably, arrested them by the millions, destroyed their neighborhoods and businesses, and unleashed terror on them at home, on the road, in businesses, in public places, and at work and school.

All of the enslavement, segregation, Jim Crow, redlining, underfunded schools, toxic waste in their neighborhoods, high unemployment, police brutality, poor healthcare, unequal treatment under the law, and all the rest have all been designed, managed, perpetrated, and encouraged by white Christians.

The white Christian war against Black Christians has been and remains devastating to Black people — Christian or not — and to America as a whole.

White Christians lynched thousands of Black Christians, murdered civil rights workers and leaders, and continue to fund their private security to kill, maim, and lock up Black Christian Americans unceasingly and with intent and malice…. so that white Christian-owned prison industry can profit and help white Christian-owned private businesses to profit of Black Christian imprisonment, too.

White Christians choose to live apart from Black Christians, school their kids away from Black Christian’s kids, almost exclusively support only white Christian businesses, and regulate Black Christian bodies in public spaces in a never-ending stream of vile videos of angry white Christians yelling, cursing, screaming, punching, spitting, and hitting Black Christians.

White Christian voters elect mostly white male Christian leaders who promise them they will be hard on Black Christians, and lock them up, kick them out, and take back their neighborhood, city, county, state, and/or country from “Them.”

America’s white and Black Christians are at war and have been at war for hundreds of years. And the war has always been very lopsided.

The newest leaders of white Christianity, from elected officials to megachurch leaders, are so far away from the person they lie about following, they may as well be on another planet. They preach hate and the glory of being wealthy and they disguise it as love and blessings. Their charity is self-centered, their outreach is more marketing, branding, and revenue generation, than it is saving souls. They preach prosperity and have turned their god into a weapon to use as they see fit: to direct hate at Black folk, and women’s bodies, and the LGBTQI communities.

All racial problems in America are due to white Christians. We can trace a direct line from enslavers believing Black people had no souls and no god, to Franklin Graham saying, “Democrats aren’t Christian” because most Black people are Democrats.

It is that same line of thinking that fueled racist invectives against former Black Christian President Obama and FLOTUS Michelle. The same couple that white Christians said were not Christian during the eight years he was in office. And it is a lie which white Christians continue to believe and promote even now.

America’s Christian racial war can been seen in earnest every Sunday morning when white Christians go to white churches with white leaders and pray for the safety of their guns, the ownership of their wives, and for their god-given three R’s: Rich, Racist, and Right to all the weapons.

Black Christians, on the other hand, go to church on Sunday morning to pray for safety and deliverance from white Christians.

That’s right, white Christians reading this: your fellow Black Christians pray to your same god to deliver them from you.

America has a Christian racial religious war and it shows no signs of slowing down.

The war had appeared to lull, if looked a through the white Christian lens, during the 1980’s and into the new century leading up to Black Christian President Obama being elected twice by Black Christians, and white non-Christians.

White Christians soundly rejected the Black Christian President.

White Christians were so angry that a Black Christian was twice elected as their President, they retaliated against Black Christians and elected the single worst president in American history. Because he shared their racist views of the former Black Christian president and because he also hated many other groups, including Latino and Hispanic Christians.

And when he promised them an all-white country and world domination, they rallied around him and cheered his racism and told him he was the savior and sent by their god to move backwards in time to an imaginary time of an all-white country.

The temptation was too great for white Christians to resist. They prepared for a race war of their imagination that would see them finally destroy their Black Christians and Jewish fellow citizens. They marched, stormed, and rioted their way from city to city like a bizarre concert tour that culminated with a rousing racist attack and takeover of the seat of power of the so-called greatest military, democracy, intelligence organizations in the world. While their hero cheered with his family and lieutenants from a nearby bunker, where he planned to emerge later in the evening as the champion of whiteness.

He would then set himself up as the leader white Christians had been hoping and praying for without ceasing for over two-thousand years.

Black Christians though, saw the truth through the lies and racism, as they always do.

Instead of guns, false saviors, or racist rallies, Black Christian voters simply voted. Well, not so simply because white Christians made voting as hard as they ever have. But they failed and Black voters, again led by Black woman Christian voters led the charge that decimated the ugly lying racist adversarial voters.

But racism by white Christians wasn’t finished. They mounted one last attack against Black Christian voters by attacking the fruit of Black Christian voters votes.

White Christians made took over the Capitol building while parading and waving their savior’s flag, and their ancestor’s confederate flag around, while they also rampaged, shat, and filmed themselves as conquering white Christian victors.

Though their victory was short-lived, it was enough to further embolden white Christians who are even now plotting their next insurrection, while they send individual shooters and bombers on missions to soften the Capitol, like the white Christian who drove his god-issued pick-up truck filled with bombs and parked. He wasn’t killed because I guess he didn’t wear a hoodie or try to sell a cigarette, so he was gently spoken to and escorted away while the news pulled out their “mental health” card that they won’t use for Black folk.

America will never reach its potential until white Christians decide that they are not better than Black Christians. That they are not superior, and that they do not “own” the American story.

The Christian divide which is fueled by white Christians is killing America and Americans, and it is doing it in multiple ways. From pandemic malfeasance and overworked healthcare system that cannot keep up with white Christians who refuse the vaccination, to white Christians writing hundreds of laws that center on restricting and preventing Black Christian voters from voting, America is perpetually at a crossroads.

Or, better, Black Americans are always in the crosshairs of the excessive military-styled weapons of choice white Christians are using.

Black Christians have long believed in “ballots over the bullets” as a way forward, but unfortunately white Christians seem to believe ballots are exclusively for them, and their bullets are the constant threat when they don’t get their way.

And those bullets are always aimed at Black christians.

Until white christians live up to the tenants of their faith, America will not be free of racism, systemic racism, and the unequal society they have created.

And Black Christians will need to remember that despite hundreds of years of prayer for deliverance and safety from white Christians, sometimes the answer to prayer will not be a miracle, but simple awareness of the truth that stares you in the face.

That truth is the same truth since the founding of the country: white Christians do not believe Black christians are “true” believers and thus are not worthy of grace, forgiveness, fellowship, or care or concern. The foundation religion may be the same, but that is where the similarities end.

The split between Black and white christians isn’t really a split because the two groups have never been together in this country, and by the looks of it, never will.

America will remain divided as long as white Christians rule government, law enforcement, and financial markets, and as long as they believe their god accepts and rewards their racist behaviors and how their treat Black christians. Because without consequences, those behaviors will not change, and Black christians can expect another century of terror from the hands of their fellow Christians.