The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy

by J. Russell Hawkins

Why did southern white evangelical Christians resist the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s? Simply put, they believed the Bible told them so. These white Christians entered the battle certain that God was on their side. Ultimately, the civil rights movement triumphed in the 1960s and, with its success, fundamentally transformed American society. But this victory did little to change southern white evangelicals' theological commitment to segregation. Rather than abandoning their segregationist theology in the second half of the 1960s, white evangelicals turned their focus on institutions they still controlled--churches, homes, denominations, and private colleges and secondary schools--and fought on. Focusing on the case of South Carolina, The Bible Told Them So shows how, despite suffering defeat in the public sphere, white evangelicals continued to battle for their own institutions, preaching and practicing a segregationist Christianity they continued to believe reflected God's will. Increasingly caught in the tension between their sincere belief that God desired segregation and their reluctance to give voice to such ideas for fear of being perceived as bigoted or intolerant, by the late 1960s southern white evangelicals embraced the rhetoric of colorblindness and protection of the family as measures to maintain both segregation and respectable social standing. This strategy set southern white evangelicals on an alternative path for race relations in the decades ahead.

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

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 27, 2021

Reviews

[Brice Karickhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ultimately my problems with this book boiled down to two things. The first is that, in my opinion, anecdotes were extrapolated to over-generalizations. This is not at all to say that the generalizations were false, but simply that, like so many other authors, this author used the “here’s a story, and in summary, everyone is like that” mode.

The second problem I had is simply that the author was blatantly anti “color-blindness”, going so far as to say that it is just the white Christian’s new model of the same ol racism. I agree that color-blindness can be used as a tool to ignore deep-rooted individual racism, or at the very least, structurally racist systems. However, I also think that some version of color-blindness is actually the best answer we have to racism, as well as the most aligned answer with a Christian and/or classical liberal worldview (which I hold).

The most interesting thing I learned from this book was that by and large, white southern pastors were actually pro-integration. In the situations where segregation stubbornly held on, it was usually a consequence of church members defying their pastors and complaining until they found a pastor who was more willing to validate their racism. Takeaway: the biblical structure of church leadership (which often involves submission) is actually one of the Church’s best weapons against worldliness, such as Jim Crow racism. Yeah, some pastors have done bad things and set a bad example, but other pastors are God’s tool to sanctify their congregation.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A detailed analysis of how Baptists and Methodists in South Carolina addressed the significant changes wrought in society by the Civil Rights Movement and the landmark SCOTUS cases of the 1950s and 1960s.

The author powerfully demonstrates how a good percentage of white Baptists and Methodists in the 1950s and early 1960s were firmly convinced that God was a fan of segregation and was against race mixing. The author explains the arguments they would make, especially the one rooted in Acts 17:26: since God established the habitations of different people, and had made delineations between white and black people, to intermix would therefore be contrary to God's purposes.

The author provides plenty of documentation for how this view was held and argued and how it powerfully motivated many white South Carolinians to personally encourage their political leaders to resist attempts at desegregation and also encouraged their congregations to make stands to the same end. He skillfully hearkens back to previous instances of pro-slavery and Jim Crow sentiments pervasive in South Carolina for the century beforehand. He showed how they resisted all forms of desegregation and integration in public schools and in church colleges.

The author then goes on to show how the pro-segregationists shifted once it was clear to them that integration was inevitable: they retreated to a domain in which they felt they could have more control, "focusing on the family," and they advocated for a more colorblind posture of "freedom" for all in order to both facilitate the maintenance of segregation academies and to make sure that Black people would obtain no greater benefit than the pretense of equality in society; there would be no redress for the inequities and discrimination of the past, for that would be "racist."

The author did well at staying in the land of his research, but one should not be fooled: such sentiments were restricted neither to South Carolina nor to the Baptists and Methodists. The author has done us a service in helping to continue to explain how we have reached the point we have in our society and the current rhetoric popular therein. Who are the heirs of the segregationist movement and posture? Who are the heirs of the Civil Rights Movement and all it embodied? The answers to these questions are made harder to deny, and harder to genuflect away from, once this book is properly considered.

Highly recommended.

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dense, short history that takes a narrow focus on the issue of how segregation lead to colorblind narratives that maintain as much racism as socially acceptable. The use of primary sources was impressive and the writing concise and arguments well explained, but this is not a history book I’d recommend to a more general reader.

[Cameron Rhoads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Physically read. Shocking to read how white southerners used the Bible to fight hard to preserve white supremacy and segregation from Reconstruction (1865-1877) up to this very day, using the Bible as a justification for their racism. After the Civil Rights era (1950s and 60s), whites’ dog whistles were “private schools,” “colorblindness” and “a quality education,” but the truth was de facto segregation and the avoidance of race-mixing. Absolutely eye-opening and shameful, but a true story that forever must be told. The text is only 167 pages long, but the type is small, and there is a lot of endnotes fraught with sources and other information.

[Adam Shields · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary: A history of Baptists and Methodists in South Carolina arguing for the continuation of segregation for theological reasons. 

I have read a lot of Civil Rights and Civil War/Reconstruction/Jim Crow history. And some of that history, like Mark Noll's The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, is trying to be comprehensive, but much of it is telling the history from the side of the abolitionists or the opponents to segregation. The Bible Told Them So is telling an essential part of this history from the side of the segregationists and why they were arguing for the continuation of segregation and how they made that argument. The arguments are so explicit and clear here that it becomes hard to avoid the reality of how in the 1950-70s there was a real fight to "preserve white supremacy."

The book is structured in five chapters. The first focuses on congregational response to Brown v Board and how many pastors were fired for supporting the ruling. The second chapter looks in more detail at the theological reasoning for the defense of segregation. The third chapter looks at how Baptists and Methodists responded to proposals to integrate their denominational colleges (and pairs nicely with the chapter on college from The Myth of Colorblind Christianity). The fourth chapter is about the rise of colorblind language and justifications for segregation in the face of the larger culture's rejection of segregationist rhetoric. And the final chapter is about the rise of private schools and how those schools were framed, primarily using colorblind rhetoric but for segregationists reasons.

I think the arc of this history is essential. There is a movement from overt segregationist language, theologically informed and undergirded, to alternate public rhetoric while maintaining the private communication, to a colorblind public and private rhetoric without a change in practice, to a denial that the earlier segregationist language was ever used. In many ways, I think this builds on the work on the history of memory from David Blight and others about how there is an intentional misremembering. One of the parts of this story that was new to me was how early colorblind language was drawn directly from the Plessy v Ferguson decision.

"The phrases "natural affinities," "mutual appreciation of merits," and "voluntary association of individuals" were not Workman's. They were the words of Henry Brown Billings, words the Supreme Court in 1896 used to deny Homer Plessy--and all who shared his skin color--ful equity as American citizens...At first blush, Workman's letter seemed to gesture at a new era of white Christians' acceptance of racial integration. But by appropriating word for word a line from the Supreme Court case that gave Jim Crow legal sanction in the South for nearly seven decades, Workman's letter also reveals ways in which the new language of colorblindness had its roots in the desire of segregation. Understanding the historical links between colorblindness and segregationist theology reveals a continuity of segregationist Christianity from the 1950s to the 1970s and a perpetuation of racial separatism by white Christians--even unwittingly so--into the decades beyond."

As expected, I have a lot of highlights, primarily of quotes that need to be read to be believed. You can see my 12 notes and 76 highlights on my Goodreads page.

One of the interesting realities is that arguments, primarily those in the 1950s and early 1960s, included the positive use of the phrase "white supremacy."

During the afternoon session, H. K. Whetsall was one of the first to speak, declaring that, while the state convention and committees might be nudging Baptists toward integration, the Bible did not. “There is scriptural basis for White supremacy,” Whetsall asserted, and he reminded those in attendance that the Bible “condemns racial intermarriage.”46 Robert Head followed Whetsall at the microphone and scolded the state convention “for ‘brainwashing us’ about integration.” Head’s comment drew agreeable laughter and applause from those in attendance.

The focus of the book is on the theological undergirding of segregationist defenses. These theological defenses were not used just against secular forces seeking integration like the courts. They were in many ways more explicit in countering religious groups advocating integration. In response to an SBC national convention resolution in 1956 affirming integration, many local churches passed their own resolutions denouncing integration.

"...the white parishioners of Clarendon Baptist included additional rationale that revealed the theological convictions from which such resolutions emerged: We believe that integration is contrary to God’s purposes for the races, because: (1) God made men different races and ordained the basic differences between races; (2) Race has a purpose in the Divine plan, each race having a unique purpose and distinctive mission in God’s plan; (3) God meant for people of different races to maintain their race purity and racial indentity [sic] and seek the highest development of their racial group. God has determined “the bounds of their habitation” (Last part of Acts 17:26). This resolution explicitly stated what Camden First Baptist’s had only implied: God had segregated the races for his own purposes, given this arrangement divine sanction, and instructed the faithful through scripture not to pursue racial integration. What began as a voluntary separation between Christians of different races in the nineteenth century had, by the midpoint of the twentieth, become a holy command in the minds of many white southerners."

One of the reasons I am unconvinced by natural theology arguments is that they have been used so often to justify injustice, as happened here and so frequently throughout this era.

As a theological principle, general revelation suggests that humanity can learn about God through observation of the natural world; for many white southerners in the mid-twentieth century, nature revealed God to be a segregationist. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handywork,” a segregationist minister quoted from the nineteenth Psalm. “The corollary of the above passage,” continued Pastor W. C. George, “is that since nature is God’s handywork, it reveals his laws to those who have the diligence and the insight to discover them.” Following George’s line of thought, white Christians found in nature divine justification for Jim Crow. While employing both scripture and general revelation in their defense of Jim Crow, Christian segregationists such as Festus F. Windham challenged anyone to prove that segregation was sinful. “I am referring to voluntary segregation,” Windham clarified, the kind he believed existed between southern whites and their black neighbors. “We find much voluntary segregation even in nature,” the Alabama Sunday School teacher continued. “Hordes of black ants several times larger than the little red ants do not integrate with any other ants, though they may live not too far apart in their ground tunnels.”

David French has recently used a phrase regularly in talking about racism that I think is relevant, "Systems and structures designed by racists for racist reasons are often maintained by nonracists for nonracist reasons." Part of what is important about how the arc that I have described above works is that by the time the kids are in the segregated schools, they deny that their parents put them in those schools for racial reasons. Hawkins cites a researcher who interviewed parents and students at a conference for private school students in the early 1970s.

For some Christian parents, these justifications dovetailed nicely with an emerging theological emphasis on familial responsibility and values. “Parents’ rights come from God by way of the natural law,” wrote one parent referring to private schools.73 Whereas segregationist Christians viewed public schools as attempting to strip away parental rights, the private schools existed to reinforce them. And whereas segregationist Christians saw public schools as a threat to their children’s safety and quality education, private schools enhanced both. What was at stake for these Christian parents who sent their children to all-white private schools was nothing less than parental rights and obligations. In their assessment, race was not a factor. Denying that race was the cause for enrolling children in private schools did not make it so. But it did begin the process of allowing southern white Christians—intentionally or otherwise—to elide the connection between their school choices and race. A researcher who attended a convention in the early 1970s for private school students noted this lack of awareness in the students themselves.

Every student at the convention “said they were attending the private school because their parents did not want them in integrated schools.” But none of the students described this decision as race based. One of the students’ comments captured it perfectly: “N***** are dumb, can’t learn; and when you have a majority of low standard in a school, they will pull all the rest down. It’s not really a race issue, just a matter of lowering standards.”

This matters because many of those private, often Christian, schools still exist. And they continue to have a legacy of segregation even if they are not segregated for explicitly racist reasons today. For instance a number of cases of Christian schools that have dress codes that do not take into account Black hairstyles. Those policies may or may not have been put into place with explicit racist intent. It could just be that because the schools were segregated, they did not need to take into account Black hairstyles and it is not until there are Black students in the schools that the policies are examined and found to be a hindrance. But the point of David French's quote is important because the result is that there is still a discriminatory result. And without understanding that there was in fact a real discriminatory purpose at the creation of these schools, then there will continue to be resistance to the idea that anything needs to change in response. It becomes a, "well my family didn't own slaves" when in fact the systems that were put into place did invoke white supremacy as an explicit reason in the creation of that private school or that overwhelmingly white congregation, or there is a benefit to that white college student because their grandparent was a student when the school was segregated.

[Vance Christiaanse · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book focuses on the history of white supremacy in South Carolina but the basic patterns appear in every state, I'm sure. The book explains the Bible passages once used to defend slavery and segregation and moves through history to explain how racism adapted its rhetoric to survive numerous challenges. Especially helpful was the history of "color-blindness."

I've been a Christian for fifty years and have never been able to get other Christians to tell me what they really believe. This book was 200 pages of harrowing quotes from Christians who were willing to be open about their racism. It helped me understand what's really going on inside my friends' heads.

[Josh Kingcade · Rating 5 out of 5]

History Repeats Itself

If you didn’t know the subject of this book and just read the many quotes from white Christians, you might wonder if this book was about 1960 or 2020. Hawkins has done great working reminding us that history may not exactly be repeating itself, but it sure rhymes.

Hawkins does this by letting the primary sources do most of the speaking. Of course, he spends time interpreting the sources, but the words of mid-century white Christians speak for themselves.

[Betsy Zimmermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book documents how the laity in the Southern church chose to double down on the tenets of racism and segregation rather than repent and heal, even when church leadership actively worked to rebuke, confess, and repent. As implied by the title, the author uses biblical proof texts to uphold the idea that God created race, white is superior to black, and color blindness and other bedrock racism ideals are not only not sinful, they are God’s will. Spoiler: they’re not.
These proofs range from the downright impossible to truly tortured logic. Impossible: Noah’s son Ham is Black and his curse follows all people with African heritage. Not only does the Bible not state Ham is black, it does state that Noah had one wife, so it would be impossible to have one son uniquely African. As for the tortured logic, the Tower of Babel story isn’t about how Man disobeyed God but rather shows how God blessed segregation by creating different languages and separating people groups. These are just two examples of many.
The author has researched this subject thoroughly using extensive documentation; conference debates and resolutions, personal letters, and news items to create a book that reads more like a 200 page academic journal than non-fiction geared towards layman. It is said we all have a favorite sin that keeps us from God. This book shows how this favorite sin grabbed hold of an entire subgroup of Christians and helps the reader understand how many in today’s church have rejected core teachings in favor of a blatantly self serving philosophy.

[Melissa Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished the audiobook and I can’t stop thinking about it. Hawkins traces how theology was used to defend segregation: how biblical arguments were shaped not only by white Christian leaders but by the demands and fears of the white congregations they served. It wasn’t just a few pastors misusing scripture; it was entire churches, entire communities, using faith as justification for maintaining separation.

It’s a hard listen but an essential one, because knowing our history is the first step to recognizing the patterns that persist. Much of the coded language developed during that era, talk of “protecting traditions,” “local control,” and “individual rights” is still used today, just dressed in new, more respectable words.

Near the end of the book, Hawkins discusses how “colorblindness” became (and remains) a kind of plausible deniability:

“Colorblindness functions as a shield, allowing people to claim they see no race and therefore cannot be racist, while leaving intact the very systems that sustain racial inequality.”

That line reminds me how easily comfort can disguise itself as righteousness.

This history isn’t something to turn away from, it’s something to learn from. Because faith should never be used to shape our laws or limit someone else’s freedom.

If you’re interested in the intersection of religion, race, and American identity, this book is eye-opening, unsettling, and absolutely worth your time.

[Matt]

This book was very illuminating. It focused on the Southern Baptist and Methodist Churches in South Carolina (the last state to integrate) between Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, and the early 1970s. Hawkins discussed how segregationists used selective passages from the Old and New Testaments to justify segregation, which later evolved into an individual religious focus on "colorblindness," a focus on family, and the drive to create private all-white schools as an alternative to integrated public schools. The rhetoric changed from defending segregation outright to focusing on the "hearts and minds" of individuals, allowing whites to ignore structural and systemic causes and impacts of racial inequity and racism.

Hawkins showed how religion can be manipulated or interpreted to support existing social and power structures. It was surprising to see that the leadership of the churches, the Methodist Church more so than the Southern Baptist Church, initially supported the Brown decision and only later came to oppose it as the rank-in-file revolted in support of segregation.

[Salvador Blanco · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful book filled with primary sources from Southern Baptists and Methodists from Brown to the late 70s to show that “white evangelicals who champion racial justice through individual heart changes, or reconciled relationships, or appeals to color blindness are using tools fashioned and utilized by their segregationist forbears precisely to avoid racial justice their descendants now seek.”

Therefore, “it should not surprise us that studies find these latter-say racial reconciliation efforts fall speculator short of their goals” (166-7).

Until one understands segregationist theology and how blasphemous it is, one will not understand why the church in America is still so racially divided. This book helps introduce readers to the haunting truth of segregationist theology that is still very much at work in our day.

[Chaim Moore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opening account that draws direct lines from segregation and Jim Crow to structural homogeneity, current day inequalities, and the school choice movement. The amount of ministerial support behind these measures specifically designed to avoid integration via theological arguments and direct political influence is jaw-dropping. There’s too many anecdotes of powerful religious organizations using their power not for gospel advancement but gospel retraction to cover. Definitely provocative for considering the historical context of white evangelical political beliefs and practice.

[Shea P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this was a really well done, unbiased, historical account of desegregation politics in the church and schools during the Civil Rights era. It got a little weedy for me during part 4 where it discussed Colorblindness and the Methodist Merger, but picked back up when it began discussing the creation of Southern Christian Segregationist academies or Christian Private Schools. I was familiar with this idea that many existing Southern Christian private schools were created in the 50’s and 60’s to keep segregation alive, so it added to my understanding of this time period.
Overall, I thought it was informative and insightful

[Josh Loomis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sobering and difficult to read, Hawkins lays out a history of how the church in South Carolina used the Bible as one of the primary driving points to perpetuate segregation. It’s definitely worth a read to help us wrestle through our nation’s past and how the church was part of it.

[McCarley Golden]

While this looks at a very specific geographical region, it’s indicative of a larger scope of the south in the 60s. If you grew up at a private school(me) or in a church(also me), this should be mandatory ready.

The scary part is how much of it sounds like what is happening around us now.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

EDIT 1/2/21: The danger of reviewing all of these books on similar topics weeks after I read them is being unfair to one of them – and I fear that was the case here. It suddenly struck me one day that in seminar, I actually mostly defended this book, its other issues (listed below) notwithstanding. So I've bumped this up to four stars. It's really well done and well written, and its focus on education and the family – particularly the way "family values" have been used as a cover for white supremacy and segregation, at least in North Carolina, which is Hawkins' focus. So mea culpa: this is an excellent book and well worth reading.
___________

This book had a lot of promise, and it does several things really well, making a strong case for the deeply embedded racism that forms the basis for much evangelical political engagement. Sadly, a lack of focus on any women at all is a big drawback. I wish I could say more about this, but by this point in the semester, these books started to blend into each other.

[Andy Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant research.

[Sally Kilpatrick]

This book isn't an easy read. I could be referring to the academic nature of the book, but I'm really referring to all of the hate that Hawkins quotes. It's so much hate. It's nasty words and nastier actions like racists attacking school buses bringing Black children to a white school. It's relatively modern history. My parents both lived this. The book ends in the mid-70s when I was born.

First, the book talks about how Southern Evangelicals, particularly Baptists and Methodists in South Carolina, used scripture to justify segregation. The book talks specifically about the trials in desegregating the campus of religiously affiliated colleges.

When it became important to not be SEEN as racist, then pastors turned to a strategy of "colorblindness," as in you are making this all about race by talking about race. This also paved the way to focus on interpersonal relationships rather than structural changes as an answer to eradication racism in the future.

The next chapter talks about the Methodist Church, how it was segregated in South Carolina and how attempts to ensure proper representation were shot down as "racist."

Finally, as the South could hide from integrated public schools no more, the last chapter explores the relationships between private schools and racism. Basically, private schools were invented because white people still didn't want their kids to go to school with Black kids for all of the same reasons preachers had been espousing since before the Civil War. The words might have changed; the intent had not.

Whew, Lord. This passage kinda sums up where we still are today:

"In the closing decades of the twentieth century, John Perkins, a self-identified Black evangelical Christian, embarked on a ministry of racial reconciliation among Christians in his native South. As he traveled throughout his home region sharing his vision of reconciled lives and beloved community, Perkins discovered that many of the white conservative Christians who embraced his message did so without expressing repentance. "I find that they want my relationship, but they want more to quickly forget the brutality and the injustice that their people put on many of us in the name of Christianity," Perkins wrote in his 1976 autobiography. Perkins's words continue to resonate today. White evangelicals desiring a solution to the problem of race would do well to begin their search for answers by acknowledging and addressing the "brutality and injustice" of the segregationist theology that has so deeply shaped their past even as it continues to influence their present."

No one wants to feel bad about themselves or the privilege that got them to where they are, but it behooves us to learn these things and to sit in them. The longer I continue studying, I see that fighting racism, homophobia, all of the bigotries *is* a huge part of my faith journey.

[Lionel Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book examines how two major protestant denominations in South Carolina dealt with the period of desegregation from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. By focusing on desegregation within the congregations and respective conferences, their religiously affiliated schools, and public schools, the author traces a history that starts with massive resistance in the mid-1950s and transitions to a “colorblind” policy by the 1970s. The author argues that while the talking points and rhetoric may have changed during the two decades being studied, the effect of resisting racial progress did not.
The Baptist and Methodist denominations are the two largest religious groups in South Carolina. The author starts their book by focusing on the early efforts to unify the segregated conferences of the two denominations in the 1950s. From here, the book transitions to the early efforts to integrate religiously affiliated colleges in the state and then concludes with the efforts to integrate the state’s public school system in the wake of the Brown decision. Throughout all of these different phases, the position of the white congregations stays very consistent in it opposition to integration. What does change, however, is the language used to express their opposition. Starting with very explicit racialized language in the 1950s to using terms like “school choice” and “freedom of association” by the 1970s. No matter the terminology, the author argues, the result was opposition to racial integration by the majority of congregants.
Having grown up in the South the ubiquity of “segregation academies”, schools set up to avoid integration was a part of the landscape so common as to go unnoticed. Almost every county in my state (Georgia) no matter how small or poor has one. While their stated mission may have changed over time, the reason for their creation and continuance has not. This book does a good job of connecting the past to the present and showing how our history is reflected in our current institutions and political/social movements. To highlight this, the author starts each chapter with a short story from the past to show that the issues that confronted these denominations in the past continue to confront the same problems a century later. Unfortunately, the more things change the more they stay the same.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dealing with our theologically conservative ancestors' openly racist theology is something that definitely needs dealt with and we can't simply ignore. It is a lesson to all of us that our "biblical" understanding of certain issues and the theology that we use to defend it may be more conditioned by our cultural circumstances and desire to justify ourselves than by fidelity to the text of Scripture. This is plainly the case of those who tried to argue that segregation was a God-ordained reality; in what ways may it be that way for us in the present?

Where I find Hawkins reaching is more towards his conclusions and in his (what I call) scholarly omniscience, where he is able to discern what really lies behind people's public statements and rationales. Were "family values" and private schools largely initiated due to segregationist motivations? I think he proves well enough that there was a direct correlation in South Carolina. But did coded racist language and motivation continue? That is harder to prove, especially given other issues at play in public schools (as well as the fear-mongering that no doubt drove many to flee).

Hawkins seems to want to imply that unless conservatives essentially wholeheartedly adopt a more liberal outlook on society, then they continue to be closest racists (even if unintentionally). Do evangelicals, especially in the South, need to deal with their history? Most definitely. But does dealing with it thus imply following Hawkins's preferred path toward social justice? That is open to debate.

Unfortunately, how I fear many will read this book will be to see racist dog whistles everywhere. Family values? Dog whistle. Private schools? Dog whistle. Parental rights? Dog whistle. To learn of how movements began and terms were used in the 50s, 60s, and 70s is not to gain insight into the hidden workings of the evangelical mind in the present, only of some of the cultural currents that influenced them and their parents.

[Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't remember how I came across this book BUT unfortunately it remains very important, especially right now. Unfortunately these attitudes refuse to die and we have not benefited from this. So I was curious to see if understanding the history in greater detail might help.

Author Hawkins looks at how even though white Evangelicals in the South might have lost in the Civil Rights Movement, they are curiously stuck in that era. Instead of accepting defeat, they instead turned to other institutions by which to maintain their white supremacy: schools, churches, homes, and so forth. And unfortunately this ripples out today, where we see some of the worst politicians, leaders, etc. and other types come from home, the battle now for issues like DEI and critical race theory, etc. in an attempt to spread this ideology anywhere and everywhere.

Ultimately there's a lot of food for thought here and for someone who is not knowledgeable of this history, you might find a lot here to think about. That said, I gotta say that I found this very boring. It's written by a professor and it reads like it. Which shouldn't take away from the content, but overall I thought it was tough.

I think there are hard conversations that people need to have about the influence of religion, and especially of white Evangelicals in certain parts of US society, from education to politics to culture, etc. I am not religious myself and will admit to being fairly uninformed about Evangelicals, etc. but I see enough of the influence and impacts which is unfortunate.

Borrowed from the library and that was best for me. Good for a reference, would not be surprised to see it on class syllabi on religion, politics, etc. Unless you need it handy because you're an expert or scholar on the matter, etc. this probably safer as a borrow.

[Noah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book connects what I know about modern evangelical views on accountable freewill individualism masked in a rhetoric of colorblindness (cf. Emerson) and how we got here (that is, a piece of evangelical history). The book is hard to read - like peeling off a scab that you had forgotten about. But it is well written, clear, and convincing.

Hawkins has two main arguments: the first argument is to demonstrate how evangelical South Carolinians fueled their support for segregation with biblical exegesis; the second argument is that their segregationist mindsets persisted even after the civil rights movement was in full swing (early 1970s) and evolved into colorblind rhetoric in order to maintain (what they believed was) biblical faithfulness and face in society. Chapter 1 explores the tense context of the evangelical southerners’ attitudes. Chapter 2 explains how their theology was constructed. Chapter 3 highlights how their attitudes and theology persisted even after national desegregation. Chapter 4 traces the transformation of segregation theology into colorblind rhetoric. And, chapter 5 examines how that language was used to defend households against the government’s acts of desegregation.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focusing on the case of church and church school integration in South Carolina, this explores how white Baptists and Methodists continued battled their own institutions: segregationist laity against a largely integrationist clergy. Christianity is seen as helping migrate overtly racist rhetoric to such dog whistles as "colorblindness" and "protection of the family" in the strategy of southern white evangelicals finding a path for race relations through private schools, etc.

One interesting footnotes is the role of Bill Workman who was one of the community leaders and politicians that left the evolving Democratic Party to find refuge in a GOP that began developing in a reactionary direction.

[Drick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Russell Hawkins documents how Methodist and Southern Baptist churches in South Carolina resisted attempts to integrate churches and justified it with a twisted reading of the Bible. Hawkins detailed how denominational officials and local pastors reinforced and justified their desire for segregated churches and Christian schools. For those interested in church processes about racism, this is a helpful book. I found the detail a bit overwhelming and skimmed the book rather than reading every word. Even so, it does reflect detailed research on the part of the author. Even so, it sheds light on the Christian Nationalist opposition to DEI and other race-related measures to bring equity to all

[Jaime Gonek · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to be wildly interesting and disheartening. Interesting because I really didn’t understand the depth of engrained belief about race that southern evangelicals held. Disheartening because if you have a group of people that truly believe that God wants Black people to be servants, I don’t see how Equal opportunity or justice will ever happen. As a Canadian, it made me think of how we treated indigenous peoples in the past, and still. As an Albertan, I truly wonder if the push for private schools isn’t actually rooted, not only in racism, but classism And elitism, far beyond what I saw it to be before reading this book.

[Sarah Rogers · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone that grew up in a Bible church, I have found myself trying to figure out where evangelicals went so off the rails - essentially refusing to “read the red words” and constantly taking things out of context to fit whatever narrative they want to play out.

Is this a fun book? No. Absolutely not.
Will it make you rage? Yeah…probably.
However, I cannot deny that it was well-researched if maybe a little repetitive.

As an aside - it makes me happy that Billy Graham distanced himself from anyone that tried to preach about segregation.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book might make you angry to read. A very thoughtful and thorough study of how white Southern Christianity defended segregation as Biblical and just, and endeavored to perpetuate it as civil rights advanced. His points about these beliefs, once no longer tenable in public discourse, switched to the condemnation of evil "individual" racism and the espousal of "color blind" Christianity while tacitly defending the same notions of segregation and white supremacy in new guise.

[Judi Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended to me by a friend, I struggled through this one because it is appalling that Christians would continue to use false narratives and half baked excuses to avoid desegregation. Color blindness among Christians is a major issue for me. The rhetoric used to justify racism remains strong in proponents of “ school choice” and even of those who homeschool. This book gives one a lot to consider and examine their own prejudices.

[Ruthie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being raised in a racist white church, I have experienced first hand the vile hatred of white supremacy. This book is impossible to ignore! God forgive us! God change our hearts of stone! Let us truly know You and your love for all of us - your beautiful loved children who are all the same yet all so different!

[Reese Hensley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book that describes how white people have perverted Christianity for their own prejudices. Taking what could be a good thing “religion” and perverting it past recognition so badly that it has become something completely different that can be used to further their hatred rather than the love they claim.