White Southerners explained away church segregation as benign natural worship-style preference.

Evidence

While my schools and sports teams became integrated, one place that remained strictly segregated was my Southern Baptist church, Woodville Heights Baptist Church, which cast a watchful eye on the neighborhood from its place on a hill a few blocks from my house. For most of my childhood and adolescence, I understood church segregation in benign terms, as the result of cultural preferences for different styles of worship. Neither group would be happy with racial mixing, the argument went, because each race naturally preferred its own type of preaching and music. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 147

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to how segregationist ideology rationalized itself as benevolent cultural difference, echoing masking of other forms of discrimination as preference. — connects to: White churches actively produced white supremacy rather than merely tolerating it — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 102; White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1055; White Christianity’s function was protecting white racial innocence — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 69 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Segregationists resisted the racist label by invoking God, nature, science, or common sense. #exemplifies (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 17
• White churches historically functioned as agents upholding racist social structures #corroborates (0.85) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1055
• White churches actively produced white supremacy rather than merely tolerating it #corroborates (0.82) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 102
• White Christianity’s function was protecting white racial innocence #corroborates (0.78) — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 69
• Whites holding contradictory egalitarian and racist beliefs feel little psychological tension about it #expands (0.75)