Sunday, September 03, 2023

The ‘India problem’ under the surface at the Parliament of the World’s Religions

Hindu organizations say they were uniquely singled out for their views on the contentious Indian political atmosphere, leaving some Hindus wondering why they must be tied to the politics of India at an event centered on cultivating harmony between the world's religious communities.

Swami Vivekananda, seated second from right, at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Sept. 11, 1893, in Chicago. Others seated on stage are Virchand Gandhi, from left, Hewivitarne Dharmapala and possibly G. Bonet Maury. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons


(RNS) — It has been over a century since Swami Vivekananda introduced the tenets of Hinduism to a Western audience for the very first time.

Vivekananda’s speech at the first Parliament of the World’s Religions — part of the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago — was a message of tolerance, mutual respect and universal acceptance.

The parliament, often referred to as the birth of the modern interfaith movement, held its ninth-ever conference this week at the McCormick Place convention center, with Hindus of all stripes present among diverse faith groups from across the world.

But some say Vivekananda’s legacy of inclusiveness is far from what they enjoyed at the parliament. Instead, Hindu organizations say they were uniquely singled out for their views on the contentious Indian political atmosphere, leaving some Hindus wondering why they must be tied to the politics of India at an event centered on cultivating harmony between the world’s religious communities.

From the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission and the educational efforts of Vivekananda Vedanta Society to the familiar “Hare Krishna” chanting of ISKCON, the Hindu presence at this year’s Parliament was philosophically and spiritually diverse.

Daily kirtans — musical devotional chants — and yoga nidra allowed those unfamiliar with the tradition to experience the many forms of worship and intellectual exercises that form the Sanatana Dharma tradition.

Devotees of Amma Sri Karunamayi, a Hindu spiritual leader, use their smartphones to record her speech during a Climate Repentence Ceremony at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago on August 15, 2023. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

Devotees of Amma Sri Karunamayi, a Hindu spiritual leader, use their smartphones to record her speech during a Climate Repentence Ceremony at the parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago on August 15, 2023. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

Hindus were also involved in discussions on combatting climate change and the misuse of the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol that was appropriated by Nazis into their Hakenkreuz, or “hooked cross,” symbol. 



Nivedita Bhide, part of the Indian organization Vivekananda Kendra, was set to be a featured luminary in the parliament’s plenary. But days before the conference, Bhide’s speaking engagement was dropped due to activists sounding the alarm on her allegedly Islamophobic statements on social media and ties to Hindu nationalist ideology. 

Parliament leaders did not address specific concerns from Hindu groups about Bhide’s cancelation.

“The parliament is presently concluding its convening in Chicago with more than 7,000 attendees with very broad and deep Hindu participation that we are grateful for,” the Parliament of the World’s Religions said in a statement to Religion News Service. “The parliament is open to people of all religions, spiritual paths and ethical convictions, consistent with the values of respectful dialogue. We seek to promote harmony and partnerships amongst world’s religions and spiritual communities on issues that humanity faces today.”

The far-right nationalist ideology that Bhide was accused of following has been embraced by supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hindu-majority India has been on the USCIRF’s watchlist for countries eroding religious freedom because of increasing concerns about the oppression and marginalization of Muslim and Christian minorities. 

Given that the 2023 Parliament’s theme was “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom and Human Rights,” Bhide’s alleged embrace of Hindu Nationalism was out of place for a conference speaker. But some American Hindus feel they were the only diaspora group in attendance that was singled out to answer for their ancestral homeland’s woes. 

Richa Gautam. Photo via Twitter

Richa Gautam. Photo via Twitter

Richa Gautam, the founder of Castefiles.com, said that one of the highlights of the conference was engaging in dialogue with groups that are not often on Hindu Americans’ radar — people of the Bahai faith, indigenous traditions and pagans.

But Gautam argued that Bhide’s cancelation was part of a series of attempts to “target and cancel Hindu voices, even those that speak for spiritualism.”

“If you’re coming for a ‘kumbaya’ conference, you might as well allow everyone,” said Gautam. “That is the magnanimity and generosity you would expect by people who are driven by spiritual or religious conversation and dialogue. But obviously, that wasn’t the case.”

Multiple discussions of Hindu nationalism were held by groups like Hindus for Human Rights and the Indian American Muslim Council. The Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh and World Hindu Council (also referred to as VHPA) were also in attendance, along with the Hindu American Foundation and the Coalition of Hindus of North America.

Vocal critics of the Hindu right, including South Asian history scholar Audrey Truschke, spoke at the parliament on Friday about the threats and harassment she has received from right-wing groups due to her scholarship on Hindu nationalism.

“I’m happy to see the Parliament of World Religions (@InterfaithWorld) take far-right religious nationalism seriously and remove some Hindu nationalists,” she wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, after Bhide was dropped as a speaker. “It’s not perfect; they missed some. But it’s a step towards condemning bigotry and enabling a greater diversity of voices.”



The Indian American Muslim Council has long been fighting to expand awareness of the unequal treatment of Muslims in India under the BJP’s rule. A banner from the Indian American Muslim Council named the Hindu American Foundation and a series of other American Hindu groups as “Hindutva Organizations in America.” 

Mat McDermott. Photo by Tejus Shah/HAF

Mat McDermott. Photo by Tejus Shah/HAF

The term “Hindutva” translates to “Hindu-ness,” but refers to Hindu nationalism.

Mat McDermott, the communications director for Hindu American Foundation, says the claims made on IAMC’s banner, including that the group “lobbies for Indian politicians and supports a beef and Hijab ban,” were categorically untrue. McDermott was personally called out on X and in person at a Hindu nationalism panel for working with a “right-wing hate group.” To some, he says, HAF is no different than Hindu extremists calling to expel Muslims. 

“I was livid,” said McDermott. “We were not talking about anything to do with India, nor anything HAF and IAMC had clashed on in the past.”

McDermott said the nonprofit organization, which has been around since 2003, has long been the target of academics and activists. McDermott said the HAF’s views are “pretty much in the center” and argued that it is increasingly difficult to have nuanced views on the Indian government in left-wing spaces. 

“In the current public discourse, it’s “you’re with us or you’re against us,” said McDermott. “You’re irredeemable if you don’t condemn the government of India outright.”

This is not the first time politics has gotten in the way of Hindus and the parliament. In 2013, the parliament canceled its co-sponsorship of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birthday celebration in Chicago, where Indian yogi and ayurveda businessman Baba Ramdev gave a speech, without revealing why.

A poster of Swami Vivekananda during the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago on Aug. 15, 2023. RNS photo by Bob Smietana

A poster of Swami Vivekananda during the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago on Aug. 15, 2023. RNS photo by Bob Smietana

As a result, the only Hindu members of the parliament’s board of directors resigned.

“To completely ignore issues of fairness, transparency, and mutual respect raised by the Hindu community at large and the condescending tone of the announcement should call into question the parliament’s ability to be a global leader in the interfaith movement,” said Pawan Deshpande, a member of HAF’s executive council, back in 2013.

Nikunj Trivedi, the president of the Coalition of Hindus of North America, said Hindus are accepted when they are peaceful and apolitical, but not when they raise their voices about issues like Hinduphobia. 

“A good Hindu should never talk about the problems Hindus face,” said Trivedi. “The minute they do, they are called a Hindu nationalist. They are canceled.”

He says many Americans are already misinformed about the Hindu religion and that critics of the Modi regime are contributing to a negative image of the Hindu diaspora. Instead of building spiritual, religious and philosophical bridges of understanding, he says, some are contributing to the perspective that Hindus should not be involved in these types of conferences.

“It creates this idea that Hindus are not good people, who endorse violence, ethnic cleansing and genocide,” said Trivedi. “The treasures of our culture are completely sidelined by creating this monstrous idea that this entire community is out to get someone.”

For some Hindus, Vivekananda’s legacy becomes tarnished when the parliament becomes politicized.

“I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal,” Vivekananda said in his famed 1893 speech.

Rakhi Israni is the legal director for HinduPACT, a policy initiative of the VHPA. She is also on the board of advisers for the Vivekananda Yoga UniversityIsrani says it is okay if discussions of politics help someone understand religion or faith a little better, but not if they are used to shut down others’ viewpoints.

“A forum like this should really be about faith, spirituality and the uplifting of people in general,” said Israni. “Vivekananda’s speech opened a lot of people’s minds to the idea that we are all one family, or in the Hindu philosophy, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.'”

 Opinion

Explaining the Hindu divide at the Parliament of the World’s Religions

It shouldn’t be hard to see why fusing of religious and national identity causes anxiety and fear.

Religious leaders chant on stage during a climate repentance ceremony at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago on Aug. 15, 2023. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

(RNS) — At the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago last week with the theme of defending human rights, several Hindu groups complained that, at an event that celebrates common ground among religious communities, they were tied unfairly to India’s contentious religious politics. 

What those who complained didn’t address was that they, along with a growing number of Hindu organizations in India and in the United States, have tied themselves to those contentious and aggressive politics. These groups ought not to be surprised when their views on the relationship between religion and the nation-state is called out in public spaces,  especially because these ideologies contribute to tension and violence in India and elsewhere.

In fact, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, where religions come together to discuss global challenges and solutions, is precisely the place to raise such concerns. The purpose of the gathering is not to promote a superficial harmony or to overlook issues that divide religions. It is naïve to suggest, as one attendee did, that the parliament is a “kumbaya” event and should uncritically give a platform to even dangerous ideologies.

But the complaints aired after the parliament go beyond politics. They reflect a deepening divide between (at least) two ways of thinking about Hindu identity and the meaning of Hinduism as a religious tradition. These different ways of thinking about Hinduism are also present in relationships with other traditions.


On one side of the divide are those Hindu organizations influenced, in varying ways, by the ideology systematized and expounded by the mid-20th-century figure V.D. Savarkar known as Hindutva (Hinduness), in a well-known book by the same name. Savarkar tied religious identity to national identity by defining a Hindu as a citizen of India, as a descendant of Hindu ancestors, as a participant in a shared Sanskrit culture and as one who regards India as a holy land.

On the basis of these criteria — and especially the last two — Savarkar included Jains, Sikhs and Indian Buddhists in his category of “Hindu,” but excluded Indian Muslims and Indian Christians. In Savarkar’s view, Muslims and Christians “ceased to own Hindu civilization (Sanskriti) as a whole. They belong or feel that they belong to a cultural unit altogether different from the Hindu one.”

In essence he accused nondharmic Indians of having a divided love and loyalty, of regarding lands outside of India as sacred, of venerating leaders and professing beliefs that did not originate in India and of venerating their holy lands above India. In his view, they do not belong to India in the same way as Hindus.

It shouldn’t be difficult to understand why a clear fusing of religious and national identity that privileges Hindus causes anxiety and fear in those who are excluded. Hindutva is associated with hostility, mistrust and increasing violence toward communities that do not satisfy his criteria.

Savarkar’s equation of Hinduism and India, which overlooked the universal claims of Hinduism, reduced it to the religion of a particular ethnic and national group. A religious nationalism that divinizes the nation and its defense and service only diminishes both faith and nation. It is not surprising that some adherents to this ideology see criticism of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the negativization of Hinduism.

Savarkar’s version of Hinduism is not irrelevant. It is alive in various contemporary organizations, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates, many of which have partner associations in the United States, some of which participated in the Parliament of the World’s Religions. It is significant that on Feb. 26, 2003, amid controversy, a portrait of Savarkar was unveiled in the Central Hall of the Indian Parliament, facing a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. 

On the other side of the Hindu divide are those groups, also present in Chicago last week, that do not conflate religious and national identities, for whom “Hindu” connotes a universally accessible religious identity transcending nationality, ethnicity and South Asian culture.

For these groups, being Hindu is not the same as being Indian. Nourished by spiritual traditions originating in India, these groups honor the sacred geography of India, but veneration for India is not a requirement of Hindu identity and a criterion of exclusion. Love for India is not anti-Muslim or anti-Christian.

These groups lift up the ancient and powerful tradition of hospitality to religious diversity in the Hindu tradition. The tradition has made it possible for Indian Hindus to accommodate the country’s wide diversity of religious beliefs and practices and to offer shelter to persecuted religious groups for centuries. They see the Hindu tradition as offering a theological understanding of religious diversity that complements diversity in the civic sphere and counters the use of state power on behalf of a particular religion. They advocate for diversity, justice, dignity, and the equal worth of all human beings.  


Hinduism has never been a homogeneous tradition, but today what is most likely to distinguish one Hindu from another is their understanding of the relationship between Hinduism and the state. Organizations that describe themselves as Hindu in the U.S. are obliged to be explicit about their view of the topic, and failure to do so leaves room for misunderstanding. 

Historically, the interests of the state and the deeper purposes of religious teachings rarely coincide. In the long run, the refusal to critically distinguish the universal and humanistic teachings of the Hindu tradition from the specific, historical expression of the Indian state will do a grave disservice to the religion. It will limit the potential of the tradition to be a blessing for the world.

(Anantanand Rambachan is emeritus professor of religion at St. Olaf College. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)



 Opinion

A religious calling to protect democracy

Most religious doctrines do not require an embrace of democracy. But in today’s world, authoritarians are attempting to do the opposite —  to recruit communities of faith to undermine democracy.

Attendees watch a performance by the Tai Ji Men community during the opening ceremony of the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, Aug. 14, 2023. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

(RNS) — As religious leaders gather this week for the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, we ought to reflect on the ways that our shared belief in the equality of human beings demands that we defend democracy. We should also understand the pivotal role that people of faith must play to preserve the freedoms — including religious freedom — that democracies protect.

Religious people have a rich history of calling the United States to live up to its founding ideals. In her own time, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer took on the entrenched white power in Mississippi’s Democratic Party by quoting Scripture and the U.S. Constitution, telling the brutal stories of voter suppression facing Black Americans and ultimately posing the question: “Is this America?”

Khizr Khan, the father of a slain U.S. soldier, embraced his own Muslim faith and defended minority political rights, in the face of political promises to ban Muslims from entering the United States during the 2016 election.

“Have you even read the United States Constitution?” he famously asked then-candidate Donald Trump in a speech before the Democratic National Convention.

The dignity of the human person is essential in many religious traditions. In my Catholic faith, this belief is rooted in an understanding that each person is made in the image and likeness of God. This belief should inspire us to work to defend democracy — not because any specific religious text requires it, but because democracies are the best way to protect individual liberties, and because this system of government allows individuals to have a say in the way we build a society.


RELATED: Parliament of the World’s Religions hopes to harness faith to address world’s ills


Most religious doctrines do not require an embrace of democracy. But in today’s world, authoritarians are attempting to do the opposite — to recruit communities of faith to undermine democracy. We see this in misguided expressions of Christian nationalism in the United States and the “spiritual cover” provided to Vladimir Putin by the Russian Orthodox Church.

When we marry a preference for a specific religious identity with the force of the state, we create dangerous conditions that are antithetical to religious values. This invites authoritarian coercion of the faith tradition seeking power, and threatens the religious liberty of those who do not share that faith. It politicizes religious faith itself and removes the voluntary nature that defines true religious belief.

Sikh motorcyclists participate in the Parade of Faiths in Chicago on Aug. 13, 2023. The parade preceded the Parliament of the World's Religions, which began August 14. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

Sikh motorcyclists participate in the Parade of Faiths in Chicago on Aug. 13, 2023. The parade preceded the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which began Aug. 14. Photo by Lauren Pond for RNS

People of faith can make prudential judgments regarding candidates and policies while informing these decisions by the moral framework of their religious tradition. This can best be done within a system that values free and fair elections, open debate and both a constitutional system that protects individual rights and democratic processes that allow problem-solving on behalf of the people.

In recent years, we have seen the ways that political movements can co-opt religious faith in harmful ways. On the one hand, some religions slap religious labels onto political beliefs without a real respect for its underlying values. Others have embraced a “the ends justify the means” approach to Christianity — even if those means include tearing down our political processes. The most dangerous example of this approach was the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol, where some Christians shamefully cited their faith as the inspiration.

If we are willing to sacrifice the protection of democratic institutions for temporary political gain, we will lose the freedoms we hold most dear — and further diminish Americans’ trust in religion itself.

The answer to anti-democracy religious activity is not to demand that people of faith remove their religion from their political engagement.

A retreat of religious values from our public life would leave our democracy in an even more perilous situation. A Civil Rights Movement without the leadership of people like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Rev. Ted Hesburgh is unimaginable. The daily work of feeding people in need, welcoming refugees and tackling issues like addiction and homelessness is largely led by faith-based organizations.

At this pivotal moment, democracies are in decline in many places in the world, and it faces an existential threat here in the United States. A profound lesson of the 20th century is that to defeat an authoritarian, we need a broad coalition of folks who might disagree on politics and on policy, but who are willing to prioritize a defense of democratic systems that allow us to resolve disputes peacefully and democratically. People of faith are crucial to building and maintaining such a coalition.

This is about more than any political candidate or party. Voting is extremely important, but it is the bare minimum of how people of faith can serve our public life. We must work to ensure that every eligible person can vote, every vote is accurately counted, the results are respected and the rule of law triumphs. While the specific calling of each religious person may be different, each of us has a role to play in the preservation of democracy.


(Chris Crawford is a policy advocate at Protect Democracy. During the 2020 election, he co-founded Faiths United for Free and Fair Elections and organized a number of faith-based initiatives to protect the 2020 election. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

Christian nationalism’s opponents are getting organized

Faith groups are teaming up with liberal secular organizations to combat the ideology, which they say is a threat to democracy — and, for many, their religion.

Poor People’s Campaign co-chair the Rev. Liz Theoharis speaks during the announcement of a new resolution titled “Third Reconstruction: Fully Addressing Poverty and Low Wages From the Bottom Up,” May 20, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. RNS photo by Jack Jenkins

(RNS) — On Jan. 6, 2021, Rahna Epting, the executive director of liberal advocacy group MoveOn, watched her television in horror. As supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the seat of U.S. democracy, Epting couldn’t help but notice the Christian symbols some waved as they surged past police barricades.

Appalled, she contacted the Rev. Liz Theoharis, a Presbyterian minister and head of the Kairos Center for Religions, Rights and Social Justice. The pair had worked together in the past and quickly brainstormed their next project: combating the forms of Christian nationalism visibly evident Jan. 6.

“There is a tribalism and a very strong, religious-like element to this MAGA movement, which we name as white Christian nationalism,” Epting said. “As a progressive, secular organizer, I don’t think me and my comrades in our space are really fully evaluating what this threat is.”

In the years since Jan. 6, however, as proponents of Christian nationalism have grown louder, so, too, have their detractors: Epting and Theoharis’ partnership turned into a yearslong project to determine how best to curb the influence of the ideology, ultimately resulting in a 75-page report titled “All of US: Organizing to Counter White Christian Nationalism and Build a Pro-Democracy Society.”

Their study is but the latest in an intensifying effort to challenge Christian nationalism and its influence on U.S. politics. Denominations are condemning the ideology. Local faith leaders are launching awareness campaigns. Clergy and secular groups are teaming up to strategize ways to combat Christian nationalism ahead of the 2024 elections.

FILE - The Rev. Liz Theoharis, from left, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Imam Saffet Catovic and Bishop Vashti McKenzie during the Poor People’s Campaign’s congressional briefing on Sept. 22, 2022, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

The Rev. Liz Theoharis, from left, Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Imam Saffet Catovic and Bishop Vashti McKenzie during the Poor People’s Campaign’s congressional briefing on Sept. 22, 2022, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

Epting, Theoharis and Stosh Cotler, the former head of Bend the Arc Jewish Action and the report’s chief author, collected examples of these efforts for their study. They interviewed dozens of activists and were advised by an array of leaders with ties to religious groups such as United Church of Christ or secular organizations such as the Working Families Party. The report’s preface notes those involved include a mix of Christians and non-Christians who are united by a “shared recognition that the rise of an authoritarian strain in our politics has been fueled and emboldened by a white Christian nationalist movement.”

As they mined their findings, authors slowly came to identify ways they believe activists can blunt Christian nationalism’s impact.

“White Christian nationalists are out-organizing us in spaces we have left uncontested for far too long,” Epting said, singling out rural areas that often go underserved by local governments.

Theoharis agreed, saying advocates should be “organizing people more holistically” in order to meet “people’s material, spiritual and emotional needs, as well as political needs and aspirations.” She stressed the need for cooperation between religious and secular groups, hoping they can strategize to “build the kind of society we need,” but also signaled a desire to alter public perception of Christians.

“When people are celebrating abortion bans, they’re articulated as Christian,” she said. “But when people are feeding migrants in the desert as part of their faith practice, they’re talked about as activists.”

Many mobilization campaigns against Christian nationalism, including some mentioned in the report, draw strength from projects that predate Jan. 6. The Poor People’s Campaign, launched in 2017 by Theoharis and the Rev. William Barber II, rebooted the last campaign of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who organized the original in 1968 as a way to resist what he described as three “evils” of society — racism, poverty and war. The campaign’s recent iteration added two more to that list: ecological devastation and the “distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism,” which includes Christian nationalism.

Amanda Tyler in 2022. Photo courtesy of Baptist Joint Committee

Amanda Tyler in 2022. Photo courtesy of Baptist Joint Committee

Meanwhile, the advocacy group Faithful America has organized clergy and other faith leaders to stage protests across the country criticizing events that feature Christian nationalists — particularly the ReAwaken America Tour, a right-wing traveling roadshow typically headlined by Christian nationalist influencer and former Trump adviser Michael Flynn.

Faithful America protesters are often joined by leaders associated with groups such as Interfaith Alliance, which convened a briefing on Christian nationalism on Capitol Hill in September, or Christians Against Christian Nationalism, an effort led by Amanda Tyler of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, who recently condemned Christian nationalism in a testimony before Congress.

“Christian nationalism strikes at the heart of the foundational ideas of what religious freedom means and how it’s protected in this country, and that is with the institution of separation of church and state,” Tyler told the House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in December.

Tyler and others have also partnered with groups such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with the BJC and FFRF producing a joint report on the role Christian nationalism played in the Jan. 6 attack.

The idea that Christian nationalism functions as a key component of broader threats to U.S. democracy is shared among a growing number of faith leaders and activists. Pastors derided Christian nationalism while discussing voting rights at a recent Progressive National Baptist Convention gathering. Similarly, Katrina L. Rogers, media director of the faith-based advocacy group Faith in Public Life, said via email that FPL is organizing against Christian nationalism — also referred to as white Christian nationalism — because the group believes the ideology is “at the center of many of the attacks we are seeing across the country on our freedoms, including the freedom to vote and to access reproductive health care.”

According to the Rev. Jen Butler, FPL’s founder who now consults on various efforts to mobilize religious voices, the broad political impact of Christian nationalism naturally leads to team-ups between secular and faith groups.

“The religious community is pivoting directly to address white Christian nationalism, and secular funders are seeing the value that the religious community can bring to the table because of the way we have sounded the alarm on Christian nationalism — and begun to respond,” Butler told RNS this week in a phone interview.

The report, which was commissioned by the MoveOn Education Fund and the Kairos Center, proposed 11 strategies to fight the Christian nationalism. They included calling for organizations to prioritize the South, encourage Christians to mobilize their fellow faithful against Christian nationalism and “fully integrate faith communities and faith leaders into a pro-democracy movement.”

The report adds: “We agree that to effectively combat this movement, we must broaden our ranks, forge new alliances, and make changes in how we organize, both within our own communities and across them.”

FILE - Doug Pagitt takes a selfie in a crowd protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Thursday, May 28, 2020. Photo by Doug Pagitt

Doug Pagitt takes a selfie in a crowd protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, May 28, 2020. Photo by Doug Pagitt

Doug Pagitt, who is mentioned in the report and leads the liberal-leaning advocacy group Vote Common Good, said he’s attended multiple closed-door strategy sessions all over the country this year that dealt with Christian nationalism. The conversations, he said, often highlighted the influence of Christian nationalism on Republican-led efforts to restrict abortion rights or ban gender-affirming care for transgender people.

The work is growing ever more local: Pagitt said VCG has begun working with the Public School Defenders Hub, a project of the California-based Contemporary Policy Institute, to train school board candidates on Christian nationalism.

“We know that Christian nationalist groups are targeting those places,” Pagitt said, referring to school boards. “They feel that with a small amount of investment they can make a big impact.”

Indeed, a growing number of localized Christian nationalist organizations have focused their campaigns on local government entities this year, with activists sometimes delivering fiery, religion-themed speeches at public meetings. Pagitt said VCG wasn’t planning on working with school boards, but the surge in faith-fueled, right-wing activism has caught many education officials by surprise, leading the Public School Defenders Hub to seek out his group.

“Our goal here is to deepen understanding to respond more effectively in resistance,” Pagitt said. 

Doug Pagitt. Courtesy photo

Doug Pagitt. Courtesy photo

Organized pushback against Christian nationalism is popping up in other spaces as well. Last week, around 100 faith leaders associated with Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope, an interfaith coalition that goes by its acronym of MICAH, launched a new “We All Belong” campaign with the goal of protecting democracy and rejecting Christian nationalism.

And just a few days before, the Disciples of Christ denomination passed a resolution — sponsored by an array of local congregations — at its biennial General Assembly denouncing Christian nationalism as “a distortion of the Christian faith.” According to Word&Way, the gathering also featured multiple workshops focused on Christian nationalism, including a talk led by Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis who has written extensively on the topic.

Whitehead, who has a forthcoming book titled “American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church,” told RNS he has led talks about Christian nationalism with Episcopal bishops and Seventh-day Adventists in recent months.

“There’s a growing concern across not only American Christian groups and denominations, but also those who are not necessarily partisan or even religious, responding to what they see as the threats toward democracy in the U.S., toward the Christian faith, toward interfaith collaboration,” Whitehead said.

Whether that rising concern will be enough to fully curb Christian nationalism’s influence, Whitehead wasn’t sure. But looking toward the future, he said, coalitions like the one’s forged by Epting, Theoharis and others stand a chance of winnowing the ideology’s outsized influence on American politics — and, potentially, religion.

“Over the next few decades, I think it’ll be more difficult overall for this idea of the U.S. as a Christian nation — to reflect a particular Christian expression — to be taken for granted, or to even be the privileged position across American society,” he said.


(This story was was reported with support from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation.)

 Written in Protest

Let’s review: Slavery benefited white people

We’re not done covering the basics of anti-racism in America. Even some Black people are confused. 

Slaves plant sweet potatoes on the James Hopkinson plantation in South Carolina, circa 1862. Photo courtesy of LOC/Creative Commons

(RNS) — In the years since the killing of George Floyd, it has felt at times as though anti-racism is stuck in a feedback loop. We shout the same truth claims to burned-out supporters and entrenched opposers. Is it still really necessary, I ask myself, to repeat the A-B-C’s of social justice?

Apparently it is. We’re not done covering the basics of anti-racism in America. Even some Black people are confused. 

“Where would you be today without slavery?” Kim Klacik, a Black woman and former Maryland Republican congressional candidate, asked talk show host Marc Lamont Hill in a recent interview on theGrio.com. 

In response, Hill, a Temple University professor, said the question ignores the fact that many Africans had thriving societies of their own. Second, he pointed out that Klacik’s question implies that Black people are collectively better off for having been enslaved.



The conversation degenerates from there, with Klacik mindbendingly claiming that trouble spots in Africa today give a picture of what life would be like for the African diaspora if slavers had not claimed them. 

Host Marc Lamont Hill, left, and Kim Klacik during an interview on TheGrio.com. Video screen grab

Host Marc Lamont Hill, left, and Kim Klacik during an interview on TheGrio.com. Video screen grab

So let’s review: The primary benefactors of slavery are white people. Period. 

It is an irrefutable fact of history that the West was built on slave labor. Our ancestors were brought to the so-called New World to work, and their labor produced lucrative commodities such as tobacco, sugar, coffee, tea and rum that helped these nations grow wealthy. The enslaved built infrastructure: universities, churches, railroads and even the White House itself. 

That past is the story of how we got to the present. If you can celebrate the fact that Thomas Jefferson’s penning the Declaration of Independence in 1776 led to the creation of the United States, you can understand that the theft of trillions of dollars in labor from enslaved African captives led to the wealth gap between Black and white America to this day.

What wealth gap? According to the Federal Reserve, white America held $124.5 trillion in assets in 2022, while Black America held less than $8 trillion. Even accounting for the relative numbers of each group, the gap is real and inextricably linked to the trillions of dollars of wealth stolen in labor and resources from African-descended peoples and nations.


Monetary wealth is just one measure. Due to a combination of environmental racism, discrimination in health care, discrimination in criminal justice and a general anti-Black bias that leads to stress-related disease, researchers have been monitoring a fluctuating Black-white life-expectancy gap for years. According to numerous studies, white Americans generally live longer than their Black counterparts. 

JAMA, a respected medical journal, reported that the unequal structure of American society is responsible for the phenomenon known as “excess death” in Black communities:

That includes access to quality schools, jobs with a living wage, housing in safe neighborhoods, health insurance and medical care — all of which affect health and well-being. For centuries, Black people were legally deprived of these benefits, and researchers said we have yet to fully remediate the effects.

An art installation of slaves at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice by artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo in Montgomery, Al. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

An art installation of slaves at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice by artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo in Montgomery, Alabama. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

The advantages for white people extend to the intangible. Every year, the white nations who participated in the Atlantic slave trade are overrepresented among the top 20 countries in the World Happiness Index — probably because colonization left the colonizers’ descendants with greater access to means for well-being. In every nation their predecessors built through slave labor, they own most of the land and businesses.

The well-being gap seems to be directly related to racial difference. A Brookings study showed that Black and Asian Americans experienced sharp declines in well-being in 2016 and 2020 respectively — both years in which overt anti-Black and anti-Asian racism in the U.S. increased. That same study reports:

Since 2020, all racial and ethnic groups experienced a sharp drop in the percentage of adults thriving, consistent with the Gallup World Poll summary data. Asian-Americans saw the sharpest decline, which aligns with the rise in anti-Asian hate. During this period, non-Hispanic white Americans registered the highest rates of thriving.

Is it any wonder? Slavery left white people the psychological boon of presumed racial superiority, abetted by a galling, incurious innocence.

That innocence and incuriosity has penetrated even to Klacik, as she betrays in her chat on TheGrio with Hill, who is at pains to acquaint her with the idea that white colonialism had some part in African nations’ status today.



After the Atlantic slave trade was abolished, Europeans set their sights on dominating Africa, exploiting the continent well into the 20th century, enriching itself by extracting African resources and oppressing African peoples for centuries. With the exception of Ethiopia, the African continent was subjected to oppressive white rule, and the countries Europeans largely created are still dealing with the economic, cultural and political ramifications today. 

“In country after country we see white men building empires on the sweat and suffering of colored people,” boomed Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967.

Are we better off? Do Black people enjoy to some degree the benefits of Western civilization? Perhaps, but they came with untold amounts of unnecessary violence, from which we haven’t recovered yet.

 Opinion

Florida’s new curriculum echoes the paternalist theology of the Lost Cause

The doctrine that touts slavery's 'benefits' for its victims was once used to sanctify segregation.

(RNS) — As students head back to school this week, Florida students are in for big changes. Claiming to support “parental rights” and wishing to “build great families,” the state’s Board of Education approved a new K-12 social studies curriculum that suggests that slavery had “personal benefit” for enslaved people and crediting white men primarily with liberating them.

We should not be surprised that conservative Christian activists on the board, including those appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, voted in these changes. History education has long been a target of white Christian nationalists inside and outside schools, and schools have long been instruments for those intent on shaping our ideas about American identity and solidifying white Christian power in a country that is no longer majority white and Christian.

After the Civil War, white Christians in the South refashioned the theology that had justified slavery into the Lost Cause. They recast defeated Confederates as noble patriots, while depicting African Americans as too immature to carry out the duties of citizenship. They used faith to suggest that the natural order had been upset. In 1876, the Rev. Benjamin Palmer, a Presbyterian minister in New Orleans, wrote that “involuntary servitude” was God’s way of protecting society from “the monotony of equality.”

The inventors of the Lost Cause also invented new histories that suited their white supremacist views, which dominated history textbooks, classrooms and pulpits across the U.S. from the 1890s through the 1960s, only unraveling through decades of civil rights activism. 



Florida’s new history standards echo these lies, teaching children debunked ideas such as the notion that enslaved people benefited from their lot. This benevolent paternalism reinforced Palmer’s idea that white men should wield power to govern others for their own good and the good of all. White Christians saw paternalism as Christian doctrine because it aligned with New Testament instructions for slaves to obey masters and wives to obey husbands. Paternalism claimed that, just as slavery had been good for enslaved people, so, too, was Jim Crow segregation, which dictated that only white men should vote.

At the start of the 1890 Mississippi Constitutional Convention — convened to disenfranchise Black men — Methodist Bishop Charles Galloway prayed that “the heritage of virtue and liberty” of Mississippi’s past slaveholding leaders would supply “courage,” “statesmanship” and “patriotic citizenship” for the delegates — all but one of whom were white. As the convention settled on poll taxes and literacy tests to limit Black voting rights, they paused for a day of prayer in local white churches to ask God’s blessing on their new constitution.

Mississippi thus became a model for disenfranchisement across the South until the 1965 Voting Rights Act overturned its measures. Even then, Christian white supremacists argued that white male political control was best for Black citizens.

A key part of creating segregation was to discount the power wielded by free Black communities. After emancipation, African Americans built churches that housed schools, community meetings and voter education. In 1872, the African Methodist Episcopal Church met in Nashville and urged Congress to pass pending civil rights legislation so that “every citizen of this republic shall be secure in … all rights in all of the states, irrespective of race.” Lest Congress underestimate the voting power of “the largest body of Christians of the African race in the country,” they warned that the “influence and energies” of their nearly 400,000 members would support the political party “which shall guarantee to our race those sacred rights.”

White Christians denounced Black Christians’ defense of their rights as manipulation by Northern white politicians. Lost Cause history books removed all evidence of Black self-determination.

Florida’s new guidelines also remove African Americans from history. Middle school students will learn about “figures who strove to abolish the institution of slavery” — all of whom are white men. The Reconstruction figures whom the curriculum highlights are all white men, with the lone exception of Frederick Douglass. Naming white leaders as the most important people shaping African American freedom and self-determination undermines not only the vibrant history of Black communities, but their very fight for autonomy.

Most perniciously, perhaps, Florida’s new social studies standards whitewash white violence against Black communities, just as the Lost Cause histories did.

In the late 1800s, white leaders framed violence by the Ku Klux Klan and lynch mobs as appropriate responses to actions by African Americans. In 1875, Mississippi’s statewide election was notorious for white mob violence against would-be Black voters. When the federal government refused requests from Black communities for help, white supremacist candidates unsurprisingly won.

On the Sunday after the election, the Rev. John Jones, a Methodist minister and former enslaver, preached a sermon praising the election results as “our victory” for which his congregants should praise God. The horrifying violence was portrayed as merely work for a righteous cause.

Today, white supremacist violence is not justified in itself, but children will be taught that both sides can be blamed for massacres of Black citizens with the claim that both sides acted violently. For instance Florida’s teachers will be called on to present the 1921 Tulsa Massacre as “violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” In fact in Tulsa, as in too many other places, white mobs destroyed Black lives, homes and businesses with impunity. A judge recently rejected claims of the last living Tulsa survivors for restitution.



In making changes in K-12 and higher education, Florida officials have followed the lead of Hillsdale College’s new K-12 1776 Curriculum. But these false ideas have garnered widespread approval for generations

We should all be no less alarmed that they are reemerging now. It took decades of activism growing out of the Civil Rights Movement to expose the false premises of these invented narratives. All of us — parents, voters, educators and citizens at large — must commit to learning more about our nation’s history ourselves and pushing for our schools to teach truthful histories to school children. We cannot allow such dangerous histories to become accepted once again.

(Elizabeth Jemison is an associate professor of religion at Clemson University and author of “Christian Citizens: Reading the Bible in Black and White in the Postemancipation South.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)