Thread by @dianabutlerbass

Well, I did something I probably shouldn't have. I read that "manifesto."

I don't recommend that. But there are a couple things I'd like to point out.

The New Zealand murders have been called "anti-immigrant terrorism," but there is something deeper at work.

The manifesto begins with a refrain about the birthrate -- and that seems to be the murderer's main concern: the low birthrate of white European peoples.

For several years, I've worked with primarily mainline Protestant churches, with European cultural traditions and that are largely white.

I ran workshops about demographic change.

Showed mostly white Xians how reaching out toward millennial adults AND listening to & entering into new conversations w/POC (Xians & those of other faiths) was the 2fold calling for vibrant Xianity in the future.

I tried to communicate my enthusiasm for these possibilities.

I based this on demographics -- talked a lot about the birthrate in mostly white mainline churches. But I also talked about larger demographic shifts around the world.

Lots of white churchgoers "got" it -- they saw that a new future was opening and they wanted to go there. They were excited about new, younger theological voices, about a more diverse, truly global faith, and about inter- religious possibilities for peace and the planet.

But at every event there was also anxiety. Sometimes it was only minor, but sometimes people would get very upset at me.

More than once, a person would challenge me. It would always go like this: "Well, we could adapt to the kids or do all this work about race and religion, or we could just take birth control away from all white women."

It was usually framed as a joke.

I wouldn't let people get away with it, though. I challenged back. "What are you afraid of? Your own children? People of color? Other religions?"

The questioner would usually stop. But occasionally, I'd get a response like this: "I love our traditions. I don't want them lost."

After hearing this enough, I realized that demographic change was deeply tied to control of women and a profound fear about the loss of particular forms of culture and tradition.

And that the above expressed itself in forms of racism and anti-immigrant views that ranged from "cloaked" to outright ugly.

These anxieties are present in mainline Protestant churches and are the underlying fears propelling division, theological fights, struggles over change, and addressing important social & political issues.

Because I was so attended to demographic fears (I did mostly of those workshops between 2012-2015), as the 2016 election unfolded, I immediately recognized these threads around the Trump campaign.

I'd actually been talked for 3 yrs about what political form fear might take.

(Folks who know my work well will certainly vouch for this)

But I never really thought of this as a global fear. Until Brexit. Until French elections.

It is SO IMPORTANT to understand these threads: The fear that is woven into the loss of PARTICULAR notions of western European religion, race, and culture.

It is about birthrate, rebellious women not doing their part to stop it, about immigration, religious decline, race....

...and of course, loss of power, privilege, and hierarchies that benefited a very few and kept the rest in their divinely-ordered "place."

If you don't understand the religious dimensions of this (and the manifesto-writer made this perfectly clear by quoting sources from medieval Xianity), you don't understand it.

*attentive

It is also important to understand that there are other threads of western Christianity (of which I am a part) that specifically challenge and reject these notions -- that are religiously-informed visions of peace, equality, shared community, and hospitality.

In effect, part of what is going on around the world today is a huge struggle for the soul of what we once knew as western Christianity.

Will fear & nostalgia -- even to the point of violence and new crusades -- win out? Or will the love & justice stream of Xianity overcome?

The "manifesto" does not reveal a single motivation -- nor a secular one. It demonstrates anxieties emerging from the deep intersections of religion, culture, power, gender, and race.

We need nuanced, multifaceted responses to the fears in whatever form those fears take.

*talking

Thank you for taking time to read and think about this. Pls forgive typos, etc. I try to correct obvious mistake in subtweets w/*.