I know Bill Maher is a bit of a one-trick pony, but it's not Christianity at the root of QAnon/MAGA—it's white supremacy.
Black Americans are more religiously devout (and Christian) overall than white Americans—but they aren't storming capitols or bombing abortion clinics.
White supremacy has long used Christianity as a public-facing cover (defending slavery, segregation, homophobia, etc), but it wasn't driving those things; it was used as a tool to defend privilege.
Religion was also used as a tool to support abolition, civil rights, et al.
Am I saying there are no good criticisms of religion? No. But don't say "Christianity" when you really just mean "white evangelical Christians," or when you really mean, "white supremacy."
Because Christianity ≠ conservative white evangelicals. You're erasing *a lot* of folks.
I think one of the reasons this bothers me so much is that, having grown up in & surrounded white evangelical Christian culture, I believed white evangelicalism WAS Christianity—there was no other.
And it's convenient for Bill Maher to help evangelicals reinforce that lie.
In a weird way, people like Bill Maher have a symbiotic relationship with white Christian nationalists; they help him reinforce his idea that Christians are kooky/awful; he helps them reinforce the idea that they're the True^TM Christians, under attack from the "pagan" culture.
In reality, white evangelicals make up about 15% of the population—slightly less than white mainline protestants from more liberal denominations and about the same as Americans claiming atheism/agnosticism/no religion. pewforum.org/2015/05/12/ame…
By portraying the tiny sliver of American Christianity that is white evangelicalism as the default definition of "Christian," people like Bill Maher continue giving them outsize cultural power while writing off larger, more social justice-oriented forms of Christianity.
As an young evangelical in 2009, I remember being absolutely shook when I got on an elevator with a Black woman, who told someone that while she always votes for Democrats, she's not really voting for Democrats.
"I just vote Christian," she said.
I was utterly befuddled.
White evangelical culture had made it inconceivable to me that someone could "vote Christian" and that mean "vote for Democrats."
Turned out, she meant, "Vote for health care for the poor, for better pay for workers, better treatment of minorities," etc.
But white evangelicalism didn't teach me that policies designed to help the poor and downtrodden were "Christian politics." Voting against abortion, against gay marriage & against efforts to essentially dismantle white Christian privilege were what voting "Christian" meant.
But it wasn't just white evangelicals teaching me that the only "Christian" way to vote was the white evangelical way; people like Bill Maher, in his zeal to make faith (not deep rooted American white supremacy) the culprit pushed the same message; so did the mainstream media.
Millions of Black voters nationwide also "vote their faith," as do millions of liberal white Christians (whose faith things like fighting for immigrant rights).
But the MSM almost never talks about them as "faith/values" voters. That's almost always for white evangelicals. Why?
Black Christians and liberal white mainline protestant Christians are just two of the groups written out of the story by this narrative; consider also, as another example, the millions of Latino and Hispanic Christians who come from a Catholic social justice tradition.
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Mississippi's mortality rate reached a 102-year-high in 2020, dwarfed only by 1918, when the state's population was a third smaller and medical science was far less advanced (there was no flu vaccine until 1945).
Mississippi's 2020 excess death toll of 7,314 likely means thousands more died of COVID-19 last year than officially reported; By year's end, the state had officially confirmed only 4,816 deaths.
NEW: A week after police shot a Black teenager multiple times near Hattiesburg High School, Mayor Toby Barker addressed the shooting today for the first time.
“In recent days, we have asked the Dept. of Public Safety, through MBI, to provide the public with an update, to assist in at least dispelling inaccurate information circulating on social media" about the shooting, but they have not done so, Barker said.mississippifreepress.org/8940/hattiesbu…
Black Lives Matter MS President Reginald Virgil:
“He did the right thing in putting something out to the people, but the thing the people want is transparency because the people are on edge. This is in the community—there are different stories coming up."mississippifreepress.org/8940/hattiesbu…
Twice when I tried to ask Sen. Hyde-Smith questions during her 2018 campaign, she told me to walk over to her press secretary, Melissa, and tell her my question.
After I did, Melissa would walk over, whisper with Sen. Hyde-Smith, and then I could re-ask the senator my question.
Speaking of being "disrespectful" to members of the press, this is how Sen. Hyde-Smith's campaign celebrated her 2018 election night victory: By tagging me & other Mississippi reporters in the tweet below (I broke the story on her segregation academy).
NEW: An officer shot a 14-yr-old Black teen multiple times outside Hattiesburg High School, hitting his stomach, activists say.
Police have released few details about the victim after 5 days. They claim he had a weapon but won't even confirm he's a minor. mississippifreepress.org/8850/officer-s…
"It doesn’t even matter that he’s Black at this point. He’s a 14-year-old boy. … And then the news put out that he was a man, and we’re tired of our kids being adultified," said BLM Mississippi activist Anastassia Doctor. mississippifreepress.org/8850/officer-s…
“There is no excuse to shoot a child multiple times leaving him in the ICU fighting for his life. There’s no excuse for the HPD and MBI to be vague...He is not a ‘man’ or just a ‘person’—he is a young 14-year-old boy," says #BlackLivesMatter MS president. mississippifreepress.org/8850/officer-s…
In a 2019 email, a UM fundraising official said Provost Noel Wilkin opposed renaming the Meek School for a recently deceased donor and that "we need to reserve the name for someone who will contribute multiple millions."
For the first time since 2016, @SenatorWicker is tweeting concerns about "executive actions."
Trump signed EOs at a higher rate than Obama (55 per year vs 35), but Wicker tweeted about "executive actions" just once under Trump—praising him for a "religious liberty" order.
Similarly, @SenatorWicker has very different ideas about confirming Supreme Court justices in the fourth year of a president's term when the president is a Democrat vs. when a Republican is in office.
My bad, @SenatorWicker also tweeted twice about "executive orders" (not just "executive actions") in 2017.
March 6, 2017: "I strongly support @POTUS's rêvent executive order..."
March 28, 2017: "POTUS's executive order...is great news...!"