The History of Racism through the Lens of American Religion

A Four-Part Interrogative Lunch and Learn Series

-Dr. J. Cody Nielsen

Meeting Link: https://zoom.us/j/7114078039

Overview:

The history of racism far precedes the founding of the United States, as some of the earliest forms of racism can be traced back to Europe during the time of the Roman Empire. Especially as Christianity took root across the Roman Empire, and well into the Middle Ages and Europe, racism was not so much about the color of one’s skins but about the communities of Christian or not. As colonialism took hold and the “new world” became a destination for empire and expansion, American religion became a vessel through which racism became more sophisticated and modernized to what we perceive it to be today. How we address that, and what has become of American religion, especially white Christianity, is worth our time and energy to interrogate.

Part I: The first forms of race relations- November 12th @ Noon

Christianity didn’t take hold until Constantine made it the official religion of Rome in 313. Prior to this, early Christians often were on the outside of political power structures looking in. Early tensions between Jews, from whom Christianity grew out of, had occurred during the 1st and 2nd centuries C.E., but really took hold with this new marriage of Roman Empire politics and the early Catholic church. From here, Christians began establishing theological rationale for a Christian or not mentality which would fuel the earliest forms of racialization of individuals which we see today.

This session examples the foundational cornerstones of the Christian church’s narratives around who was considered more “righteous” and who needed conversion and assimilation into Christian practices.

Part II: white Christianity becomes hegemonic, privilege, and supremacist -November 19th @ Noon

When Charlemagne established the first kingship in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire in the year 800, it was done as a negotiation because the Papacy of the now powerful Roman Catholic Church and the military and feudal powers in Europe. Quickly, Charlemagne began a campaign of forced conversion of much of the European continent, and as kingdoms were established and feudalism became the predominant structure of life in Europe. Being Christian was privileged and dominant. This session explores how Europe’s supremacy of Christianity becomes entwined with empire and later capitalism, colonialism, and what would become of the push to establish territory in the “New World.”

Part III: Racism, Religion, and the American Culture- December 3rd @ Noon

When the Doctrine of Discovery was established by Papal edict in 1493 (only a year after Columbus apparently discovered America) it was done so as a pragmatic way in which to prevent the global powers, especially Portugal and Spain, from going to war over land rights. But it also reinforced and ignited what would become the African slave trade, a theologically legitimized pathway to build the new societies that would be established across this new continent. This session explores the establishment of American culture, including but not limited to the United States, and the ways in which Christianity and Christian missionaries narrated a permissible colonialism and racialization of those who they considered “savages.” This session also explores the ways in which this permeates still today in our society.

Part IV: White Christian Nationalism, Supremacy, and the battle for an anti-racist future – December 10th @ Noon

The current U.S. political and cultural climate demonstrates that white Christian supremacy and nationalism is now one of the greatest threats we have ever faced. While this has always been just below the surface, the political opening which is currently occurring has led us to recognize its threat to race relations in the United States. This final session considers what we must do to battle against this both inside and outside of Christian communities and the impact it may have toward race