White Christian Conservatives Should Oppose Protests by White Supremacists

God is not a racist. Torch-wielding white nationalists and white supremacists marching through Charlottesville, Virginia, Friday night and rallying again Saturday failed to learn that important lesson. They shouted “unite the right” and “white lives matter” – and called for the South to split from the United States.

The Friday evening march and the larger “Alt-Right” rally taking place Saturday came in response to Charlottesville’s decision to move a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from Emancipation Park to another park.

The rally is reminiscent of an Alt-Right event in Charlottesville in May, in which white nationalists marched and chanted slogans, including “Russia is our friend,” “White lives matter,” and “No more brother wars.”

The last chant, “No more brother wars,” is a shorthand way of saying that people of European heritage should stop fighting with each other because this only weakens the white brotherhood and strengthens the black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American communities. In other words, it is a call that places racial solidarity ahead of patriotism and loyalty to America.

One of the protest leaders at the May event was Richard Spencer, one of several white nationalists including Jared Taylor and Matthew Heimbach, who have risen to prominence in recent years. They wish to privilege their ethnic group – white Americans of European descent – over all others.

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In a 2005 article in American Renaissance, Taylor wrote: “Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization – any kind of civilization – disappears.”

White conservatives – especially white Christian conservatives – should speak out openly against white nationalism and white supremacy. This is racism pure and simple, and it represents a frontal assault on the Christian gospel, a denial of human dignity and a subversion of our democracy.

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God sent his son – a brown Middle Eastern man – to save the whole world, including sinners of every race and ethnicity (John 3:16). Genuine Christianity overcomes social, ethnic, and gender barriers (Galatians 3:26, 28).

That is why we should fight white nationalism and other forms of racism tooth-and-nail, not only from the voting booth, but in our neighborhoods, at our churches, and on our social media.

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We should draw upon the Bible’s teaching that all humans are created in God’s image. We should point to the Declaration of Independence’s assertion that all human beings are created equal and endowed with unalienable rights. And we should make a conscience-based plea that appeals to our fellow citizens’ ingrained sense of right and wrong.

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Events like the one in Charlottesville give good-willed conservatives – especially Christian conservatives – an excellent opportunity to begin rectifying the situation by speaking a good word in the midst of a bad moment.