The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith

by Michael O. Emerson, Glenn E. Bracey II

Are most white American Christians actually committed to a Religion of Whiteness?

Recent years have seen a growing recognition of the role that White Christian Nationalism plays in American society. As White Christian Nationalism has become a major force, and as racial and religious attitudes become increasingly aligned among whites--for example, the more likely you are to say that the decline of white people as a share of the population is "bad for society," the more likely you are to believe the government should support religious values--it has become reasonable to wonder which of the adjectives in the phrase "White Christian Nationalism" takes precedence.

In this book, Michael O. Emerson and Glenn E. Bracey II respond the answer is "white." The majority of white Christians in America, they argue, are believers in a "Religion of Whiteness" that shapes their faith, their politics, and more. The Religion of Whiteness, they argue, raises the perpetuation of racial inequality to a level of spiritual commitment that rivals followers' commitment to Christianity itself. This religion has its own unique beliefs, practices, sacred symbols, and organizations. What is more, this religion affects more than just churches. It drives the nation's politics, divides families, and is especially harmful to communities of color.

Using national survey data, in-depth interviews, and focus group results gathered over several years, Emerson and Bracey show how the Religion of Whiteness shapes the practice of Christianity for millions of Americans--and what can be done to confront it.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Race, Politics, History, Spirituality, Christianity

208 pages, Hardcover

Published May 21, 2024

About the author

Michael O. Emerson (Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 1991) is Professor and Head in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has published widely in the areas of race, religion, and urban sociology. He is the author of 15 books and nearly 100 other publications, secured over 7 million dollars in research grants, helped secure over 20 million dollars in institutional grants, and has won several national awards for his research.

He has published with Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, New York University Press, Chicago University Press, Allyn & Bacon, Prentice-Hall, Palgrave Macmillan, ASR, AJS, Social Forces, Social Problems, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Urban Research and Practice, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, Annual Review of Sociology, and Sociological Quarterly among others.

Dr. Emerson also has won 7 teaching awards, mentored many graduate students, and had his work appear in hundreds of media outlets. He has served as chair of the ASA’s Public Understanding of Sociology Award, Chair of the ASA’s Religion Section, President of the Association of the Sociology of Religion, on the Council of ASA’s Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section and is the founding associate editor of ASA’s Sociology of Race and Ethnicity journal.

Currently, he is the principal investigator of the largest study of race and religion ever conducted in the United States, funded by the Lilly Endowment. This project is a multimethod study involving thousands of interviews, several experiments, focus groups, participant observation, ethnography, and content analyses. Along with co-investigator Dr. Glenn Bracey (Villanova), he is working on two books from the project. Along with Dr. Gwendolyn Purifoye (North Park), he is also studying urban public transportation systems and their impact on racial inequality.

Reviews

[Wick Welker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many American Christians worship their own whiteness.

I've read several books like this but my attention was drawn to it from the biblical scholar Dan McClellan on social media. This book examines American christianity and concludes that about 2/3 of white christians actually worship whiteness, called the Religion of Whiteness (ROW). As a Christian myself, I found a lot of their conclusions pretty self evident already. It's pretty clear that many christian churches, many evangelicals, insulate defend and protect whiteness as a fundamental, yet mostly covert practice. They authors didn't exactly lay out a lot of rigorous data here but their studies were interesting. For example, the made control questions interviewing many Christians and then were able to hone in on specific Christians that cherry-pick the Bible to clearly protect concepts of white nationalism.

I thought their discussion and personal accounts of "betrayal trauma" by black christians was very good. These stories laid out how many black christians experienced betrayal by their white brothers and sisters in their congregations especially during the time of George Floyd protests and were either silenced or pushed out of their congregations. The authors delineate two types of ROWers: the white veilers and the white mighters. The white veil are those that are not overt about their racism, rather they pretend that racism is not a white problem and like to act like America is some sort of post racial utopia and if you talk about race you're just a whiner. And then their are the white might people who overtly talk about white supremacy and talk about how white people are actually the victims ect, ect. There are white christian that don't practice ROW, according to the authors, but they are a clear minority.

A complimentary book to this is White Too Long which I recommend.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I come across a nonfiction book that blows my mind and changes the way I think about the world, and all I want to do is blare quotes from the book at random passersby in hopes they too will think about things in this new way. I suppose that's how religions get people to proselytize, so let me stop you and ask if you've heard about our lord and savior The Religion of Whiteness by Michael Emerson and Glenn Bracey.

The premise of this short book is simple: The vast majority of the movement popularly known as "evangelical Christianity" no longer practices the religion of Christianity at all, but rather the religion of whiteness. These white Christians – about 67% of the total demographic group – no longer uphold the doctrines and practices of historical "evangelicalism" (scare quotes intended from this historian of conservative religion). Instead, they embrace, worship, protect, and defend whiteness, either explicitly as outspoken white supremacists or implicitly as colorblind "all lives matter" denialists.

Rather than bore you with further summaries of the book, I'm going to bore you with quotes from the book instead!

"Race has become 'religionized' in the United States; it has taken on transcendent qualities. ... Racism and racial injustice have not receded from American life because they are, in good part, the life-giving force of a dominant group's religion" (p. 1).

"Most white Christians in the United States ... are faithfully following what amounts to, in effect, a competing religion" (p. 9).

"The worship of whiteness is a religion of millions of people, complete with developed beliefs, practices, and social organization. ... Theologically, these believers may be worshipping a god, but sociologically, in Durkheim's terms, what they are worshipping is whiteness" (p. 44).

The book then goes on to show how they arrive at this conclusion, using surveys and interviews they conducted over the past several years. There's a little bit of a circularity risk apparent – in which people the authors identify as practitioners of the religion of whiteness exhibit traits the authors describe as essential to that religion, and those traits are essential because they are exihibited by those they have identified. Nevertheless, they convincingly show that a large number of white Christians either embrace racism or deny its existence in proportions well beyond those of either nonreligious white people or Christians of color. And in doing so, they seem to undermine their own stated belief in the supremacy of Christian doctrine as expressed in the Bible.

So what is the religion of whiteness (which Emerson and Gancey annoyingly acronymize into ROW throughout the book)? They identify six "core beliefs, but really, I think they can be condensed into three buckets:

1. White supremacy – that whiteness is natural, universal, invisible, and blessed by God;
2. White Christian nationalism – that American society should be centered on white Christian notions of morality and identity, with other groups only tentatively allowed admittance to the social order;
3. Black inferiority as the central doctrine that ultimately overwhelms and, um, colors animus toward all other groups deemed non-white.

In short, as Emerson and Bracey put it, "White persons practicing the ROW are both more likely to believe being white is of extreme importance and to feel the very real need to defend their race, even as they state that race doesn't matter and doesn't impact American society" (p. 71). And they do so, Emerson and Bracey argue, because they have racialized their own emotions, conditioning them to react with fear, anger, and disgust when such topics as civil rights, Black Lives Matter, reparations, or critical race theory come up. And they respond with "boundary enforcers" that have been effective neutralizers of the struggle for Black equality for more than a half-century: spiritualizing the discussion by insisting that the gospel is inapplicable to such "political" issues and weaponizing the Bible to deligitimize those advocating for racial equality.

This is obviously a timely book, but it's also a readable one – well worth the time for anyone seeking to better understand the recent collapse of conservative White Protestantism into authoritarian right-wing populism. Such questions cannot be adequately answered without understanding how race functions within this group, and The Religion of Whiteness is a vital part of helping to do that.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An exploration of how Whiteness (the belief in white racial superiority) functions as a type of religion in the Durkheimian sense. 

I have been waiting to read this book for about four years now, ever since I heard that Michael Emerson was working on follow-up research to his Divided by Faith book. I read the Beyond Diversity report by Barna about some of the early research. And I have widely recommended this video where Michael Emerson introduces his Religion of Whiteness concept. And while it is now dated, I still very much recommend his book, co-authored with Christian Smith, Divided by Faith, because its use of the White Evangelical toolkit as a model to describe the cultural tools of handling race as White Evangelicals has been so influential to how many have spoken about Evangelicals and Race in the 25 years since the research for that book was done.

To understand the book, you need to understand both what is meant by Whiteness and what is meant by Religion. This is a good summary of what they mean by Whiteness:

"That is, whiteness is the imagined right that those designated as racially white are the norm, the standard by which all others are measured and evaluated. It is the imagined right to be superior in most every way—theologically, morally, legally, economically, and culturally. It is that power, now centuries upon centuries old, that is worshipped, felt, protected, and defended. As the legendary scholar W. E. B. Du Bois wrote in 1920: “ ‘But what on earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?’ Then, always, somehow, someway, silently but clearly, I am given to understand that whiteness is ownership of the earth forever and ever. Amen!” (p42)

And for religion, Emerson and Bracey are using Emile Durkheim's understanding of religion. They quote Durkheim's definition of religion:

"...a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things... beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called the Church, all those who adhere to them." Note that he defines religion by what it is and what it does, its function. And what is its function? To bring its followers into a single moral community..."

So they say that Whiteness (the cultural belief in white racial superiority) functions as a religion in the Durkheimian sense. In their conception, it isn't an incidental overlap of some White Christians following a Religion of Whiteness, but that religious nature of Whiteness becomes a feature of their understanding of Christianity.

This is primarily a sociology book and deals with their data and why they think their descriptive model works. Many people who read (or judge without reading) The Religion of Whiteness will not limit their evaluation to Emerson and Bracey's definitions of either Whiteness or Religion. It will be very common for some to misread this as a condemnation of all people who are commonly labeled white instead of the much more narrow idea of Whiteness. And secondly, I think many others will not understand Durkheim's view of religion. Andrew Whitehead's book American Idolatry does not explicitly use Durkheim's understanding of religion. Still, he does suggest that Christian Nationalists (his focus and one that overlaps but is not the same as Bracey and Emerson's topic) are following a false idol but are not necessarily completely rejecting Christianity.

I would honestly like a much more cut-and-dried separation between the Religion of Whiteness or Christian Nationalism and "true Christianity." But I think Whitehead, Bracey and Emerson are trying to keep our reality complicated. It is not simple to separate these things, and I think we need to pay attention to Jesus' parable of the wheat and tares. It would be easier if it was simple to say, "You are a Christian Nationalist and therefore not a Christian," or "You are a follower of the Religion of Whiteness and therefore not a follower of Christ." There is a point where people have moved from Christianity, but that exact point where the line is crossed is not easy to discern.

One of the aspects of The Religion of Whiteness that I like is that it uses Betrayal Trauma as a descriptive model of the harm done to those who do not follow the Religion of Whiteness. The Betrayal Trauma model was developed out of research into marriage/partner domestic violence. And then, it migrated into the area of spiritual abuse and harm. I first came across the concept in this podcast, and while I am not an expert on it, what I understand of the model makes a lot of sense for it to be used here.

The main weakness of the book is a lack of clarity on White Christians who do not follow the Religion of Whiteness (ROW). I think they make the case that there is a difference between White Christians who are and are not followers of the ROW. They show through surveys that White Christians who do not follow ROW have a belief structure more similar to Christians who are Black or other racial minorities rather than other White Christians who do follow ROW. However, I was not convinced they had a clear handle on why the difference exists. I am convinced there is a difference, but it is unclear what makes people resist ROW.

In one section, they interview White Christians who were pushed out of jobs/churches for resisting Whiteness. In all of those cases, the people interviewed became aware of racial realities and then tried to work to help others become aware. But they had grown up in congregations where others did not become aware. As I read, there is no clear separation theologically, demographically, geographically, or behaviorally to fully explain the resistance by White Christians to the Religion of Whiteness. There is a slight tendency toward being in urban spaces, but that isn't very explanatory.

I think the book does have a bit of a chicken-or-egg problem with Christian Nationalism. Are Christian Nationalists more likely to follow a Religion of Whiteness because they are Christian Nationalists, or do people become Christian Nationalists because they follow a religion of Whiteness? It is more likely that these things overlap and confirm one another, but again, I would like more definition and separation than it is possible to give.

In the past two years, when I saw interviews, talks, or articles with Emerson, I thought there would be more disagreement between Emerson/Bracey and Perry/Whitehead, but after reading The Religion of Whiteness, I think the difference is in approach more than anything else.

I am not a bystander to this discussion. While I have not lost a job, I did leave a church because I became convinced that the church leadership, while speaking out against Christian Nationalism and extremism, was unwilling to go far enough to speak out against Whiteness. I didn't need the leadership to use the words whiteness, but there was a clear pattern of limiting its understanding of the problems of racism to explicit white supremacy as if to be racist meant that you were a member of a Neo-nazi group or the KKK. The church hosted discussions on race in 2018 and used sermon time to condemn racism. However, the clear pattern was to aim for moderation as the goal, not justice. It still took me a couple of months to admit it, but the final straw was the senior pastor speaking to a group of legislators, calling on them to work across political divides. He explicitly cited Martin Luther King Jr's Letter from a Birmingham Jail as justification for being a moderate. I realized that with this understanding there could be no real movement toward difficult issues in this topic because there was not a clear understanding of the problem. At that point, I had been a member for about 15 years. I had explicitly been talking to the church leadership and was involved in discussions and small groups around race for about ten years. I was not pushed out as the people cited in the book were. Instead, I became disillusioned that there could be change, which is a real difference.

The Religion of Whiteness, I think, rightly focuses on the problem of race as a significant contributing factor in the breakup of the Evangelical Church. But it is more than just the evangelical church. Mainline and Catholic Christians also have a significant problem with the Religion of Whiteness. The Religion of Whiteness is also not confined to politically conservative portions of the church. As has frequently been said, many in the deconstruction community also have not rejected the Religion of Whiteness in their rejection of some of the cultural components of Evangelicalism.

I have about 50 highlights and a couple of notes that you can publicly read. I want to reread this again because I do not want to miss important nuances. The Religion of Whiteness is a short book. It only has about 150 pages of main content, and I read it in a single day.

It is also worth noting that the release was staggered, which is odd. The Kindle edition was released on April 23, and the audiobook was released on April 30th. The Hardcover says it will be released on May 21st, but you can buy it at Amazon and presumably other vendors now, although Amazon says it won't ship until May 9th.

This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-religion-of-whi...

[Brady Kronmiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Racism and racial injustice won't go away because race is tangled up in another crucial marker of American identity, religion. That is, race has become “religionized” in the United States; it has taken on transcendent qualities.”

“Racism and racial injustice have not receded from American life because they are, in good part, the life-giving force of a dominant groups religion.”

“Most white Christians in the United States—our best estimate based on empirical dates is two-thirds—are faithfully following what amounts to, in effect, a competing religion, or sect or creed. This religion—the Religion of Whiteness—distorts people's Christian commitments and raises race to creedal status over other aspects of historical Christianity.”

“Racism and racial injustice do
not recede—they merely shape-shift—Because they are a life-giving force of a dominant groups religion.”

“Racism is about more than negative feelings and thoughts about other racial groups. Racism
is also about exploitation and unequal resource distribution. The ideological aspects of racism
(e.g., prejudice) exist to justify the material exploitation that is at the heart of racism.”

“Races are social constructions, meaning they are not biologically or genetically real. Instead, races exist only because people believe and behave as though they are real. We live with racial inequalities because people created social systems and institutions that privilege
some people (those labeled white) and exploit others (those not labeled white).”

[Sarah Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an eye-opener. Convicting and well-researched. I'll be wrangling and wrestling with this for a long time.

[Daniel Kleven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another--long awaited!--gem from Michael Emerson. It's so interesting to me to trace his trajectory of the years, from Divided by Faith, to United by Faith, to Transcending Racial Barriers, and more. In some ways, this book is a lament and a cry "After all these years, white Christians still refuse to see." And this is his attempt to understand, to get underneath, to analyze, and to diagnose. I'm here for all of it.

[Rosy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Necessary because of its obviousness. Unfortunately, many who need to read this will not be reading this. Stories of betrayal were especially powerful. “White people come to presume black forgiveness” (22). And Goza’s work (49) is especially poignant as well in showing how Hobbes, Locke, and Smith suck ass (put simply) ✨

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Painful, difficult, and necessary. I see every aspect of this in my community, and it explains a lot.

[Spectacular · Rating 5 out of 5]

Def a good book at shows that whiteness is always associated with righteousness or religious view to oppression that will always benefit one race more than one

[Jeb · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a very thorough and convincing analysis of why around 2/3rds of white “christians” are racist.

I think much of the data would also explain why there is a lot of talk about loving the least of these but very little action.

Unfortunately I would not be surprised to see this book banned and slammed by a significant portion of the powers that be.

[Sarah Wiehe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing new to offer

[Michael Ochi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an important piece in the progression from naming symptoms of racial inequality in America to uncovering a diagnosis for it. The authors masterfully present the conclusions of years of academic research in a compelling form that doesn't require higher education in sociological or statistical sciences to understand. The interspersed human stories make the analysis more relatable and are curated to personalize strong evidence rather than cherry-picked to cover gaps.

Every person will come into this book with an understanding of race and religion built upon years of lived experience and present emotions. This book needs a warning label - every reader that takes it seriously will encounter some sort of pain. For some, it may be an unwelcome and serious diagnosis of a symptom they may have only noticed in their neighbors. For others, it will press the edges of deep scars that can't find a sterile environment to fully heal. As a biracial person who grew up primarily around my white family and in majority white schools and churches, this book cut both ways. On more than one occasion I had to pause reading to work through the pain of being on the receiving side of betrayal trauma and the shame of being on the perpetrating side. I am no stranger to numbers, having started my career as an engineer and now working in technical market analysis - until this book, I'd never shed tears over statistics.

I highly recommend reading this book and sharing it with people who are in your circle of trust (and who see you as a trusted friend). Again, though it is understandable, it will be a painful read. Regardless of what you think about racial injustice coming into this book, taking it seriously will result in a grave understanding of how intertwined racial injustice and Christianity are. It is a problem that many people find comfort - dare I say emotional safety - in avoidance, but pretending it doesn't exist only makes it worse.

[Abra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished The Religion of Whiteness: How Racism Distorts Christian Faith last night. Living in the PNW as a white woman, it has been far too easy to ignore this thriving evil. We don’t live with much diversity here and it wasn’t until a friend mentioned that she was afraid to drive to remote areas of northern Idaho that it dawned on me how racist this area of the country really is. Since then, I’ve tried to enlighten myself and this book was a great starting point. The author provide well documented statistics, relevant interviews and easy to understand information. After reading it, I’ve never been so convicted of how racism has permeated American Christianity.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was less than I had hoped for. Although the writing was good and the material was presented in an easy to understand manner, it was just the summary of a study done about White Nationalism in the Church. If you are interested in this topic I would recommend reading the following:

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation
Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next
White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America

[Debra Butt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I never actually read the entire book because this is the religion I lived before I left the church in young adulthood. I did not agree with this religion of whiteness before I knew there was a name for it 50 years ago. Churches are not all hypocritical. It too me over 40 years to find a church family that is really about being a Christian.

You many want to read the book and you might see yourself but I hope not.

[Dave Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, you can be disappointed with a book you agree with

DNF at 48%
This book has reached a true conclusion.
But it's logical "proofs" are flimsy or just poorly stated.

(The next big question is: How to say it's not a great book, without looking like I'm disagreeing with it's premise?)

Nationalistic White Supremacy is doing irreparable harm to Christianity. But this isn't the book to send to a friend or family member who wants to disagree with that.

[Amy Whitehouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I did not expect this book to be as good as it was. I’m an atheist and I found this book fascinating. I’ve read a lot about the relationship between white supremacy and white Christianity, especially here in the United States. I’ve never read a book from a uniquely Christian perspective. I would definitely recommend this book, especially if you are Christian.

[Cory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus Christ vs. Christopher Christ

4/5

As a white American who grew up primarily agnostic, I have always been puzzled by Christianity in America. Where were the white pastors & "Christians" during the 400 years of slavery? Where were they during Jim Crow? Why do so many of them support trump & the MAGA cult despite how un-Christlike he & his ideals are?

This book has a perfectly rational & realistic explanation for all of those questions I harbored: white Christians (especially American white Christians) worship whiteness. Whiteness in our world of white supremacy = power, status, "better than", & most importantly, the standard.

Contrast this with Christ of Nazareth -- a selfless man who welcomed the poor, gave others food, railed against the establishment, & overturned the tables in the temple. Sound familiar? No? Why would it? White Christians don't embody these values because they aren't real Christians -- they don't worship Christ. They cherrypick bible verses to support their limited, harmful world views & eschew the actual teachings/life of Christ.

Perhaps most poignantly, look at the symbology of most white churches in America. Jesus, who hailed from Palestine, was most certainly a dark brown man with typical Middle-Eastern features. So why would he have light brown/blonde hair with white skin & light eyes? Because white people could never worship a Brown man! White is what's normal, what's good, so Jesus HAD to have been white.

The last thing I'll mention is the criticism this book has received from many who've read it or commented/reviewed it.

"wHeRE's THe dAta tO SUpPorT thEIr cLaImS?!"

"nOT aLl wHITe ChRIsTianS!"

To the former: they interviewed hundreds of Christians & cross-referenced responses using statistical analysis to determine percentages of white Christians who believe in the Religion of Whiteness (ROW). It was easy to identify them -- they almost universally believe in the worst, most immoral takes on any subject out there -- they are anti-immigration, pro-trump/right-wing, anti-abortion (without exception), you name it. ....very Christ-like, eh?

To the latter criticism up above -- if this doesn't sound like you or your church, well, congrats! But the issue is that the vast MAJORITY of "Christian" white people in the US are actually ROWers.

In summary, there are really 2 Christs out there in America -- Jesus Christ, a symbol of hope, selflessness, & magnanimity -- & Christopher Christ, a wHite (emphasis on the H!) man who looks like he hails from Cleveland, & is a selfish, ladder kicking, wealth hoarding, conservative whom most white Americans actually worship.

[Erin Isgett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was not only an incredibly well researched and exquisitely explained book, but our book club had the absolute honor of having one of the authors join us via Zoom to share for two hours. It was such a gift, and I'm so thankful for Dr. Bracey's work and his generosity in spending time with us in discussion today.

After reading Emerson and Bracey's work, I finally had the terminology and the evidence (gathered from hundreds of interviews and statistical analysis) to help explain what has been so baffling to me for years: the enormous chasm between the good news of the gospel as taught & lived by Jesus and the teachings & practices of so many American churches. The extreme dissonance finally had explanation, as disheartening and disappointing as it was.

"As we saw in the previous chapter, since the very founding of the nation, if not before, observers are continually amazed, bewildered, befuddled, angered, and traumatized by the seeming fact that white Christianity can be so cozy with white supremacy or with racism. They keep searching for metaphors to explain why. They proclaim that it is not 'real' Christianity. Some go as far as to say Christianity is but a ruse, a cover, an enabler of white domination.

"We differ with these interpretations. We are making an alternative argument. No ruse is occurring. Most of those we label as white Christians are also in fact faithful, dedicated practitioners of a Religion of Whiteness (ROW). The ROW is a 'unified system of beliefs and practices that venerates and sacralizes whiteness while declaring profane all things not associated with whiteness.' We refer to adherents of the Religion of Whiteness as ROWers. If the Christian God is the central object of Christian worship, for ROWers it is a white Christian God, and the ultimate object of that worship--the source of collective effervescence for believers in the Religion of Whiteness--is whiteness itself. That is what unites the group. And the precepts and practices of the Religion of Whiteness enjoy canonical status in many churches."

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. And if the title and the quote I included either intrigue or anger you, this book is for you. I can promise that you will not be the same after you read it. In fact, I'd be happy to lend my copy to anyone local who'd like to read it--just message me and it's yours to borrow.

[Eunice · Rating 5 out of 5]

A painful, but necessary read. Growing up in California and attending multi-racial churches and a multi-racial Christian school, this book was unsurprising and enlightening. Out there, it's easy to overlook race and feel that a church doesn't have racial problems because there's a lot of diversity, and therefore, discussions about racial issues and social justice are unnecessary.

However, I always felt off in most of the churches whose services I attended, and looking back with this book's help, it's easy to see why. Even in a lot of multi-racial churches, whiteness was prioritized. Most of the pastors were white, despite having a BIPOC congregation. 99% of my teachers were white in the Christian school, despite the diversity of the students. And the religion of whiteness was mainly taught at most places I attended. I would recommend this read to all my church-attending friends who suspect they may be in a church that celebrates the religion of whiteness.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still wrestling with this one, as many books that rely on racial categories, or especially the deployment of the term "whiteness," tend to be a bit slippery for me. That said, these authors do deploy carefully defined concepts like "betrayal trauma," as well as a certain construal of "whiteness" itself. They also deploy a wealth of data that lends significant heft to their argument, which I'm still chewing on the implications of (particularly the notion of the "remnant" within White Christianity in America), and it's all worth reading and carefully thinking about.

Full written review forthcoming for Englewood Review of Books.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was so compelling, I blew through this in a day. The data in this book confirms what many have been feeling/suspecting for some time.

This book does NOT say that religion is bad, or that christianity is bad or flawed. It does NOT say that Christians are bad. What it does do: It documents how racist ideals are infiltrating the Christian faith, and many are adopting it as doctrine. It also documents how many are using sacred texts to justify those thoughts.

This was so eye-opening and should be required reading for everyone.

[Sherry Parker-Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emerson and Bracey support their thesis that there is a “religion of whiteness” through historical and contemporary observation, as well as an extensive survey of a cross-section of Americans. I found helpful their seven “boundary enforcers” that perpetuate racism in American churches. These practices are a warning sign that racial oppression is present. I also appreciated their findings regarding American Christians who deny that racial injustice is a problem in the church, white Christians who “veil” knowingly or not, prejudice.

[Britney]

This was a solid introductory piece. I wish it had gone deeper into certain areas as this really just skims the surface. I could see this being read alongside Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation to get more of an understanding of how the religion of whiteness began and why it thrives in the United States.

[Grace H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quick read, and a great introduction to the general subject of white supremacy in American Christianity. Most of this book summarizes a study that was done, and argues that the majority of American Christians hold another religion very close to their hearts, and it takes precedence over many aspects of Christianity - whiteness. This information was not particularly new to me, but it did give a voice and name to many of my own observations. The discussion of betrayal trauma was particularly poignant for me.

[Jaylani Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am glad someone had the courage to write a book like this. I was brainwashed at a young age that Christianity was a White peoples' religion. But, as I grow up I met Christians who were non-White.
I wish the author could have a better job when it came to White Christians' treatment towards Indigenous peoples, like in Canada with residential schools and in Asia, especially South Asia, where Christian missionaries bleaching the natives.

[Caleb Lagerwey · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a followup of sorts to Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America, I appreciated how this updates a lot of the sociological research and included some deep dives on individual stories. While nothing super new, I appreciated the extra discussions of survey metrics that help to see how these sociologists measure racial idolatry.

[Amy P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well articulated and clarifying. I think this book is a much-needed follow up to Divided by Faith. At the same time, I think for someone new to studying race/religion/history in the US, I would not necessarily recommend reading this book first. There are other books that would provide better context for how we got to this place. It is very sobering and devastating but spot-on, with important nuances in defining various white belief systems.

[Jarrel Oliveira · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal book. Worth every page. The religion of whiteness invokes every form of social malady nameable, all in the name of God, hidden behind a mask of phenotypes and shades of brown to light brown. Racism and race are in and of themselves a religion, white women the priests and white men the godheads of this social structure which has ingrained and influenced church history for centuries. Share this book with a white friend!

[Cliff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book saddened me, yet it provided a plausible explanation for what I have experienced and felt for years. I have long been an advocate for multiethnic churches to worship Jesus “on earth as it is in heaven”. However, I have repeatedly felt as though I was the pig in the “chicken and pig commitment to breakfast joke”.

Emerson and Bracey do an incredible job of explaining the unfortunately enduring reality and also offer ways to potentially move forward.