Theology justified slavery and genocide by marking whiteness as Christian

Evidence

First, Anthea Butler and Jemar Tisby—both historians of race and Christianity—show that white Christians and white Christian communities were intimately involved in the creation of racial categories from the earliest moments of American history, contending that “white = good and Christian,” while “nonwhite or Black = bad and heathen.” Such theological work was necessary to assuage guilt or doubts that white colonists (and later Americans) might have for enslaving Africans or committing genocide against Native Americans. Rather, the Christian God was seen to have smiled on their efforts to create a new world. The consequences of this history still reverberate within American Christianity today as well as throughout the broader culture. — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 145

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the Frankfurt School material on how ideology legitimates domination — theologically-painted racial categories function as legitimating myth. — connects to: Centuries of Christian violence served protecting power and privilege — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 447; Defending a Christian nation has meant defending the racial order — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 476; Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning: The…, 20 (+24 more)
• recurring: this claim recurs 3 times within its source

Broader Connections

• Racist theological ideas sanctioned and made American slavery acceptable to Christian churches #corroborates (0.92) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 20
• Believing Africans lacked souls let slavery coexist with Christian morality #expands (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 222
• Race served as a theological marker separating the blessed from the cursed #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 1370
• Religious justifications for slavery used curses to keep converts enslaved #expands (0.82) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 118
• Christian nationalism conflates whiteness with Christian American identity #expands (0.80) — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 14
• Christian theology and pseudoscience jointly justified racial subjugation #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 173
• Medieval Christianity seeded the modern fusion of whiteness and faith #qualifies (0.78) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 111
• Theological blessing of slavery severed slaveholders’ natural moral impulses #expands (0.78) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 251
• White Redeemers used Christian theology to justify reversing Reconstruction with violence #qualifies (0.75) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1037
• Scientific racism emerged to justify slavery once religious justifications failed #complicates (0.75) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1041
• Dark skin signified sin and animality in Christian theology since the fifth century #complicates (0.72) — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 103
• Evangelical Christianity predicts higher symbolic racism among White Americans #expands (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2189