The Bible becomes a purity shield for white Protestant innocence claims

Evidence

Ultimately, the museum is a monument to the Bible as cultural talisman, a fixed object of Christian purity that protects the positive story of a triumphant white Protestantism. The Greens are known as savvy business leaders, and their $400 million investment aims to pay large dividends. The museum attempts to shore up the reputation of the Bible at a time when old assumptions are slipping, and this whitewashed presentation of the Bible in turn provides something virtually priceless: the plausibility of white Christian innocence set against a backdrop of divinely ordained progress. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 228

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The mechanism — that a ‘whitewashed’ sacred object manufactures the plausibility of innocence against a backdrop of ordained progress — is a genuinely dense observation about how cultural capital converts into moral absolution.
• XREF: connects to: White Christians must abandon claims of racial and theological innocence to confront their past — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 233; White Christianity’s function was protecting white racial innocence — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 69; Theology of white Protestant superiority undergirded a century of lynchings — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 29 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• White Christianity’s function was protecting white racial innocence #corroborates (0.90) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 69
• Theology justified slavery and genocide by marking whiteness as Christian #corroborates (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 145
• White Christians must abandon claims of racial and theological innocence to confront their past #complicates (0.75) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 233
• Theology of white Protestant superiority undergirded a century of lynchings #corroborates (0.75) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 29