Racism in Religion

By Clement DeWall

How Christianity promoted and practiced slavery for over 1800 years. Why White Supremacy and Christian Supremacy are the same things. Why the arguments Christian churches use to condemn the LGBTQ community are the same arguments they used for centuries to justify slavery. How the Christian beliefs that promoted slavery were also the excuse for t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clement DeWall Publishing
• Release date: Apr 26, 2022
• ISBN: 9781956741346

Clement DeWall

Clement DeWall earned a Doctor of Ministry degree focused on marriage commitment from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. After seventeen years in ministry, he served as president of the Federation of Christian Ministries.DOB: 03/29/1933High SchoolLoveland High School, Loveland, Colorado, 1951B.A.St. Thomas College, Denver, CollegeOrdained in Rome, Italy, 1958S.T.L.Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy, 1959D.Min. Iliff School of Theology, Denver, Colorado, 1976Wrote articles for Religion Teachers' Journal and Homiletic and Pastoral Review in 1960s.Elected President, Federation of Christian Ministries, 2001Author of the following:Traditional Marriage: From Abraham to the PresentWhat Your Church Didn't Tell YouTraditional Marriage: From Abraham to the PresentThe Last Pope: The Diary of John PeterThrough the Eye of a Needle: The Path of Unconditional LoveFalse Questions: Jesus and Our Spiritual PathForgive 70X7: Our Forgotten PowerThe Last Supper: It's First Century Development

Book preview

Introduction

If you had lived in Queens, New York, in the 1960s or 1970s, you might have met Russell and Hermine Ryan, a couple that moved to the United States in 1959 after their marriage in Nova Scotia in 1958. While serving in the US Air Force and on vacation, Russell had met Hermine in Austria. After moving to Maspeth, Queens, New York, he worked as a construction worker; Hermine became a US citizen in 1963.

Hermine was a meticulous homemaker and respected as a friendly woman by her neighbors. When children in the neighborhood by accident threw a baseball through her window, she did not make them pay for the damage. Her husband described her as no more decent person on this earth and that she wouldn’t hurt a fly.

In 1964, a reporter from the New York Times rang the doorbell of the Ryans. It became known that Hermine had been a female Nazi prison guard known as the Stomping Mare, previously Hermine Braunsteiner, wanted as a war criminal for such crimes as whipping women to death, grabbing children by their hair, and hurling them onto trucks that took them to gas chambers, and hanging female prisoners. Her nickname probably came from the story of her stomping women to death.

In 1973, the German government accused her of being responsible, with others, for the deaths of two hundred thousand people.

History matters. It matters for individuals. For nations. For political parties. For businesses. For religions. But we judge differently from case to case. There is a difference in how we consider a crime committed by a high school student and a crime committed by a member of the KKK. For organizations, we examine their record, teachings, and belief systems over time.

The history of religions is often forgotten, if not hidden. This book focuses on Christian churches, which quickly put their past out of sight—just by ignoring it. Christian churches let their history of racism and slavery slip into oblivion, then issue public statements that make it appear as though they have always condemned what they once supported.

Our path begins with the practice of slavery from the time of Abraham to the beginning of Christianity. We will see how Christians embraced slavery and how the religious belief system started the slave trade and eventually encouraged white supremacy. Finally, it will become clear why the history of racism in Christian churches must be laid bare to replace all forms of prejudice and bigotry with a firm commitment to and belief in equality for all.

Part I

The Disgrace

1

Legalized Oppression

Soon after Columbus got to the Americas, there followed the subjugation of indigenous peoples, the slave trade, and the biggest land grab and seizure of natives’ natural resources that the world has ever known. Portugal and Spain divided the new world between them so that Portugal colonized Brazil and Spain laid claim to Mexico and the western coast of North America. Ocean trade routes were divided between the two countries. The Americas were not the only object of European greed and oppression; Africa, too, was divided into European colonies in which the original habitants lost their human rights.

Who gave the okay to this travesty? None other than the leading religious leader of the time, Pope Alexander VI, whose 1493 papal bull, Inter Caetera, sanctioned the right of Portugal and Spain to colonize the indigenous people of North and South America. It asserted that these countries had the right to convert and enslave those they conquered, and the enslavement of Africans was given the green light as well. The only exception was for land under the dominion of a Christian monarch (king or prince). This land giveaway and right to enslave and convert was given to the kings of Castile and Leon forever.

Five Christian countries dominated the slave trade: Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands.

Later papal decrees condemned making slaves of non-Christians, but not until February 15, 2017, did Pope Francis publicly state that indigenous people had the right to determine what happened to their land.

Much of this is skimmed over or omitted in high school history classes, hidden under the praises of the European conquerors and the myth that the eventual domination of Native Americans was but a prelude to the manifest destiny of the United States expanding gloriously from coast to coast. In recent times, greater historical awareness has led some to fight to do away with Columbus Day.

What kind of logic underlies this decree? Besides the inflated image of papal authority, there is the apparent belief that Christians are superior to non-Christians. Those of any other religion can lawfully be subjugated and enslaved while taking away their freedom, land, and culture to turn them into Christians. If taking their lives to accomplish these aims is necessary, so be it.

Implementing Christian domination of others is the natural consequence of Christian dogma. At the time of the papal bull, this dogma could be found in the belief that outside the Church, there is no salvation and the necessity of faith and baptism not to be in the state of sin. Action is always an expression of belief.

The implicit belief supporting the papal bull is the antithesis of the cry for equality under the law and even of the foundational American statement, All men are created equal. The oppressive cruelty authorized by the decree can only be rationalized by a belief that Christians are superior to all other