just enough light

We are a nation in which a privileged majority (Christians) can now claim victim status. That seems to be the irony and absurdity of the new White House Anti-Christian Bias Task Force.

This is not a Christian endeavor, but a clear case of pandering from both sides. The president is locking in support of gullible Christian leaders and their sizeable following, and Christian leaders are nailing down their place at the emperor’s table. Neither party seems to have a particularly Christian agenda, at least not according to the teachings of the person for whom the Christian movement is named. If these folks knew anything about Christian history, they’d know that Jesus and his followers did not whine about persecution. They often saw it as a sign they were doing what they needed to do.

This is not a task force to protect Christians. This is a task force to protect White evangelicals who are not happy about being treated like everyone else has been treated for generations. In short, it’s about race.

I grew up as part of that privileged religious majority. In my hometown in East Texas, Christians were the only game in town. The assumption was: because we are a Christian nation (we aren’t), we can promote our Christian beliefs whenever and wherever we please. We can put Nativity scenes on the courthouse lawn, post our commandments in public spaces, mandate prayer in school and at football games, and we can be assured that all the city, state, and national elected officials will be one of us.

Through the late 1980s that was true. Every president, vice president, House Speaker, Senate majority leader, chief justice of the Supreme Court, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and every governor (with a few exceptions of women who completed their husband’s terms) was a white man, and to get elected, each espoused Christianity as their religion, or that was tacitly assumed.

This is no longer the case, and some area not happy. A 2015 survey asked a sampling of Americans whether they thought American culture and way of life had changed “mostly for the better’ or “mostly for the worse” since the 1950s. A large majority of people of color and people without a religious affiliation said the change was mostly for the better.  57% of whites and 72% of white evangelical Christians said thing had changed for the worse.

“When one grows up with a certain guaranteed standing in society, the loss of that special status can feel like an injustice. Indeed, many white Americans began to feel like victims.” (Levistky & Ziblatt, The Tyranny of the Minority, 2023)

The gender, racial, and religious playing field is being leveled, based on that pesky Constitution, and those who have enjoyed a hilltop advantage for so long are feeling stiffed. They want their country back (the way it used to be), and now they have a president who will give them what they want politically in exchange for their unquestioned loyalty.

It’s a good thing the task force is not about Un-Christian bias. They’d have to blow the whistle on themselves for cutting aid to those in other countries in desperate need and for making life generally more difficult for those in this country who already struggle.