On eve of GOP convention, faith leaders warn against white Christian nationalism

It was nearly two hours into a long afternoon rally Sunday when Rev. Dr. Kevin Shaw took the podium in a packed auditorium on Milwaukee’s Northeast Side.

It was not, he reminded the audience, a church service, but from his cadences, the message might have been from a pulpit.

“We must understand that democracy is in danger,” Shaw said, his voice rising. “That’s why we’re here tonight — to protect our democracy, to reject white Christian nationalism and to build the beloved community.”

He spoke of people targeted by racism, because of their sexual orientation, or because they are not Christian — all of whom “constantly have to prove that they belong here in America.”

There were murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

“But the God that I believe in, the Jesus in the text that I’m familiar with, took time for those who were outcasts, took time with those who were considered to not be worthy of God’s grace.”

Sunday’s rally came on the eve of the Republican National Convention set to nominate former President Donald Trump as, once again, the GOP candidate for that office.

In response, the cross-section of faith leaders who gathered on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Sunday disavowed the strain of religion that, they charged, animates Trump’s candidacy. The policies he pursued in his previous term and the agenda he has embraced on the stump, speakers said, are anchored in white Christian nationalism.

Sunday’s rally was sponsored by the Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope — MICAH, an interfaith social activism organization founded 36 years ago. Shaw is MICAH’s president. He is also the pastor of St. Matthew C.M.E. Church in Milwaukee.

The group’s campaign against white Christian nationalism, launched in August 2023, is called “We All Belong.”

In an interview a few days before Sunday’s rally, Shaw said white Christian nationalism has been at the root of political trends ranging from making voting more difficult to pushing to remove books that report frankly about U.S. history and the treatment of Black enslaved people or the harm done to Native Americans.

“White Christian nationalism teaches exclusion and control,” Shaw said. “Regardless of race, gender, ethnicity or sexuality, we all belong. We are all part of democracy.”

Jim Wallis, a writer and longtime social justice activist driven by his Christian faith, came to Milwaukee for Sunday’s rally. Wallis has written a book, “The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy.”

At a press conference before the rally, Wallis noted that there will be people proclaiming their faith on the podium at the Republican convention.

“The use of religion to promote fear and hate and violence is blasphemy,” Wallis said. “It’s time to name it and say it, and time to debate it.”

A gospel choir sings during a rally held Sunday to oppose white Christian nationalism. (Erik Gunn | WIsconsin Examiner)

White Christian nationalism refers to a collection of beliefs about American history and American society that critics argue contradict historical truth.

One belief is that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that privileging Christian belief systems and practicing Christians over other beliefs and their adherents is justified. That is false, said another speaker at Sunday’s rally, Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of Christians Against Christian Nationalism.

Tyler is also the executive director of the Baptist Joint Council for Religious Liberty, made up of several Baptist denominations that advocate for strong church-state separation.

“The lie of white Christian nationalism also contradicts the history and the constitutional text,” said Tyler, author of an upcoming book on combating white Christian nationalism. “The founders of the United States, as imperfect as they were, made a deliberate choice to form a secular government. In so doing they make a deliberate choice to break with the tradition that established religion by the government.”

Christian nationalism “is a gross distortion of the teachings of Jesus, who was always on the side of the marginalized and the oppressed,” Tyler added.

She distinguished patriotism — love of country — from nationalism, an allegiance that “demands supremacy over all other allegiances, including to Jesus.”

Tyler described the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, by supporters of Donald Trump as rooted in white Christian nationalist thinking.

Tyler said flags embraced by white Christian nationalists were flown in the Capitol by some of the people involved in the attack, which was aimed at preventing the certification of Joe Biden as the next president after Biden defeated then-President Trump in the 2020 election. Tyler testified before the congressional select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.

Several speakers made note of a Trump rally in Pennsylvania Saturday at which a man firing an assault-style weapon wounded the former president and two people, including the shooter, were killed.

“Violence is never justified and political violence is abhorrent and anti-democratic,” Tyler said.

“Every time there’s an act of violence, nearby or far away, we are traumatized,” said Rev. Marilyn Miller, the rally emcee.

Another rally speaker, Janan Najeeb, president of the Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition and the religious caucus chair for MICAH, contrasted the society that white Christian nationalists envision with the Beloved Community — an ideal named by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that the MICAH campaign also embraces.

“The Beloved Community is a society in which caring and compassion drive political policies, and support the worldwide elimination of poverty, hunger, bigotry and prejudice,” Najeeb said. “The Beloved Community upholds intrinsic worth and value of people. It is a community where prejudice, cruelty and greed are replaced with a spirit of friendship and goodwill for all. The Beloved Community is inclusive. It is diverse and welcoming and embodies the best of America’s ideals.”

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