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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai - Go Unlimited to remove this watermark) Welcome back to Heavenly Homeland, a five-part audio documentary from the

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Faithful Politics podcast that looks at the impact of Christian nationalism in

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America. I'm your host, Will Wright.

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I am experiencing this hearing and I'm struggling whether I respond or launch

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into this question as a legislator or from the perspective of a woman of faith.

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That clip you just heard is from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democratic

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Congresswoman from New York's 14th District. She was speaking during a 2020

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House Congressional Committee hearing on the Trump administration's religious

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liberty assault on LGBTQ rights. I cannot... it's very difficult to sit here and

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listen to arguments in the long history of this country of using Scripture and

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weaponizing and abusing Scripture to justify bigotry. White supremacists have

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done it, those who justified slavery did it, those who fought against integration

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did it, and we're seeing it today. And sometimes, especially in this body, I feel

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as though if Christ himself walked through these doors and said what he

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said thousands of years ago, that we should love our neighbor and our enemy,

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that we should welcome the stranger, fight for the least of us. It's easier

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for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into

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a kingdom of heaven. He would be maligned as a radical and rejected from these

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doors. The indignation you hear in her voice is emblematic of the way the Bible

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and more broadly religion has been used as a political weapon to leverage

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outcomes that objectively subjugate, oppress, and dehumanize a very narrow

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segment of the population and benefit mostly, well, mainly straight, white,

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Christian men. In this episode, we're going to look at several ways Biblical

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Scripture has been used and applied throughout American history, from the

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Doctrine of Discovery to the events of January 6th. I mean, there's no shortage

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of examples to pull from when looking at the harm done by those who profess they

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follow Jesus, but don't necessarily act that way. But to start us off, we're gonna

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look at one of the most literal examples I could find where the Bible was used to

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facilitate the execution of a young black boy in South Carolina by the name

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of George Stinney. It was March 24th, 1944, in the Jim Crow South, where a young

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black boy named George Stinney was playing with his sister in their yard.

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Nearby, two young white girls, Betty June Binnaker, age 11, and Mariama Thames, age

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7, were out looking for flowers when they briefly approached George Stinney and

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asked where they could find some. Hours later, the girls failed to return home and

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a search party was organized to find them. George actually joined the search

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party and casually mentioned to a bystander that he'd seen the girls

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earlier. The following morning, their dead bodies were found in a shallow ditch. To

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elaborate on what comes next, we turn to Professor Karina Lane. She's a

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constitutional law scholar at the University of Richmond Law School, who

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writes about the influence of extra-legal norms on Supreme Court

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decision-making, with a particular focus in the field of capital punishment.

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Yeah, I mean, you know, what's really interesting is, of course I know the

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case. As for him, he was 14. He was 14. 14-year-old American, African-American,

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South Carolina, accused of killing two white girls. He was the youngest American

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at that particular, well, I think ever to be sentenced to death, and it was in 19,

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yeah, 1944. So, you know, his, he was taken from his parents, didn't get a chance to

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talk to them, wasn't given an attorney. They said, the prosecution said, he

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confessed. There was never a record of that. He said that they tortured him and

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made him confess. And, you know, I think there's several things that were really

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terrible about that particular case, but, you know, one of them is the case, the

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whole thing, from start to finish, isn't a day. His attorney is a tax guy. He's not

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a criminal lawyer. He's a tax guy who's in the middle of a campaign for some

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public office. The counsel didn't call any witnesses, you know, didn't

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cross-examine anyone. Can you imagine that, even in 1944? Like, the prosecution

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puts on its case and it's like, no questions. No, we're not gonna put anyone

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on. Like, nothing happens. And he gets convicted and sentenced to death

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immediately. Again, the entire thing happens in a day. When they go to execute

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him, so I think there's a deep irony in this, they execute him by the electric

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chair. We didn't have lethal injection until 1977. So this is the electric chair.

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They had to use a Bible as a booster seat in the electric chair because he

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was too small. It's definitely hard to miss when

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Professor Lane mentioned that they used a Bible as a booster seat to murder a

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14-year-old black American whose only crime was being born in a country that

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despised him for the color of his skin. Aside from anger and, as Professor Lane

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stated, the perversion of this act, I can't help but think of a few things. One,

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that Bible was in the room, ostensibly for the purpose of a chaplain or faith

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leader to read and pray for somebody I'd imagine was a much older adult about to

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meet their maker. Second, instead of offering comfort to the small kid, the

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Bible in the room was used as a prop. It was used as a prop to lift him up, to

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draw him closer to the apparatus that would eventually end his life. The way

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Professor Lane described how the Bible was being used as a booster seat, I

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thought was an interesting phrase. Because a booster seat is specifically

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designed to protect children from injury or death. But that certainly wasn't the

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case here, was it? Now, your relationship with the Bible and what it means and

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its broader implications I'd imagine will be largely determined by a number

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of factors, like your upbringing, your faith background, and also whether or not

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you feel the Bible is a tool of oppression, or maybe one of liberation.

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But regardless of how you feel about the Bible, I probably don't have to explain

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to you what the Bible actually is, because, well, it's literally everywhere.

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So are you guys getting hungry? Yeah. Okay, good. Do you ever worry that they're playing too much Nintendo?

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Oh, not anymore. See, Matt has Bible Adventures. They're actually learning

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Bible stories while they're playing Nintendo. Quick, get that Bible quote, before we run out of power.

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Bible Adventures features three games in one cartridge. Noah's Ark, Save Baby Moses,

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and David and Goliath. A must for every family with Nintendo. Hey there, pretty

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lady. My name's Leif Barrett. This is my partner, Kent State. We're shirtless and

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we sell Bibles. Now, you, you look like the kind of pretty lady who could use a

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Bible, or 12. But seriously, how many Bibles would you like to buy?

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Research conducted by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 suggested

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the total number of Bibles printed in the last 1,500 years probably lies

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between five and seven billion copies. In today's standard, that's a, that's enough

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to put a Bible in every single person's hand on the planet. And according to the

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popular YouVirgin Bible app, over half a billion unique devices have downloaded

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their digital Bible that you can read anywhere you go. There have been over a

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hundred films based on the Old Testament alone, and countless series, movies, and

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other adaptations of the New Testament. So with the unprecedented access we have

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to the Bible, and the relentless advocacy from Christian nationalists that America

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was founded as a Christian nation, one could easily be forgiven for thinking

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America was a heavenly homeland. But with an abundance of biblical translations,

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countless interpretations, and mega churches everywhere, America is still

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confronted with a stark reality. We're a country divided, a nation often ignorant

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of its own history, and a homeland still grappling with the deep-seated inequities

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that stem from its past, to include its founding, going back as far as 1493, with

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the creation of the Doctrine of Discovery. To invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever,

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and other enemies of Christ, wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms,

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principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever

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held and possessed by them, and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to

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apply in the appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties,

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principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their

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use and profit. That's Mark Charles, a Native American activist and author of the book, Unsettling Truths,

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the ongoing dehumanizing legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery. Mark doesn't just talk about

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the Doctrine of Discovery as an abstract concept on TED Talks and everywhere else. He actually

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lives it, and as a Navajo man, he confronts its legacy every day, fighting to shine a

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light on a part of American history that has largely been overlooked.

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In our Navajo culture, when we introduce ourselves, we always give our four clans. We're matrilineals

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of people with our identities come from our mother's mother. My mother's mother is American

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of Dutch heritage, and that's why I say, Tsin-ba-kay-dee-nah. Loosely translated, that means I'm from the

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Wooden Shoe people. My second clan, my father's mother, is Toa Higlini, which is the waters

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that flow together. My third clan, my mother's father, is also Tsin-ba-kay-dee-nah. And my

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fourth clan, my father's father, is Toa Chitini, and that's the Bitterwater clan. It's one

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of the original clans of our Navajo people.

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I also want to acknowledge I'm speaking to you from what's now called Washington, D.C.,

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but these are the traditional lands of the Piscataway, and I want to honor the Piscataway

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as the host of the lands where I'm living. I want to thank them for their stewardship

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of these lands, and I want to just state how humbled I am to be living on the lands of

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the Piscataway today. So in the short elevator speech of who the Doctrine is, it's a series of papal bulls,

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edicts of the Catholic Church. It says things like invade, search out, capture, vanquish,

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and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, reduce their persons to perpetual slavery,

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convert them to his and to their use and profit. It's a series of papal bulls written between

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1452 and 1493. It's essentially the Church in Europe saying to the nations of Europe,

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wherever you go, whatever lands you find not ruled by white European Christian rulers,

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those people in those lands are less than human, and their land is yours to take.

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So that's the Doctrine that let European nations go into Africa, colonize the continent,

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and enslave the people because they didn't see them as human. It's the same Doctrine that let

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Columbus, who was lost at sea, land in this new world and claim to have discovered it, right?

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The first sentence of the first chapter of Unsettling Truth says you cannot discover lands

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already inhabited. You can conquer those lands, you can steal those lands, you can colonize

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those lands. You can't discover them unless your worldview tells you that the people already

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living there are not fully human. So this Doctrine then gets embedded both into the

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theological imagination as well as the actual written foundations of this country. The Doctrine

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of Discovery is behind the notion of manifest destiny. The Doctrine of Discovery is written

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into and influenced our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. We have Supreme Court cases

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referencing by name the Doctrine of Discovery as recently as 2005, right? That this is the legal

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precedent for land titles, right? When the Constitution states that the supreme law of the land

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are the Constitution and treaties. And so you would think if you had a land dispute where a

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native nation was claiming rights to land or the U.S. government was claiming rights to land, the authority for that

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would be the treaty, right? No, there was a treaty written after this war or at this point of

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context which gave the rights for this and that and whatever to take place. But because every

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treaty the U.S. entered into with native nations has been broken, when they are pressed legally to

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establish why they can claim sovereignty over this country, over this nation, this continent,

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their only legal justification is the Doctrine of Discovery.

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In light of this turbulent moment in American history, it's regrettable that the church did not

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acknowledge their mistakes and promptly initiate the process of reconciliation.

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Furthermore, it's disheartening that as Americans, we have failed to incorporate the tragic events

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and suffering inflicted upon indigenous people into our educational curriculum.

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This omission not only disrespects the memory of those who were unjustly killed, but also

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perpetuates the risk of similar atrocities occurring in the future.

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Additionally, it is unfortunate that instead of honoring the victims and their rich cultural heritage,

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we failed to establish a holiday dedicated to memorializing the generations of

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indigenous people whose lives and traditions were completely devastated. It pains me to

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admit that none of the aforementioned statements are true, despite my sincere wish to convey otherwise.

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Further back in time, you know, another date I would give is 1845, actually before the Civil War.

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This is Robbie Jones again. We heard him on episode one. He's the president and founder of PRI.

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His book, The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future,

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really hits home this point. And what happens, you know, there is, that's the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention.

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And it's the split the same year the two largest white Protestant denominations split.

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They split over the issue of slavery. So, the Methodist Church and the Baptist Church is split

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with the southern portions forming the Methodist Episcopal Church South and the Southern Baptist

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Convention. And what's not really, I think, the pieces don't get put together this way,

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but really, that's the dress rehearsal for the political secession that happens in the Civil War,

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because this predates that. So, the churches actually, right, set the stage for political

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secession over the issue of slavery by these southern churches saying, we want a place where

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enslaving other people is compatible with the gospel. I mean, that was essentially the thrust

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there. The Klan has had different views from time to time on lesser issues. The one issue we've never

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changed on is that of segregation. We believe that God has commanded us to separate ourselves

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from other races. When I saw this headline, I kind of laughed. I said, oh, this is so ridiculous.

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Yet another person claiming it's racist to have a white Santa, you know. And by the way, for all

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kids watching at home, Santa just is white, but this person is just arguing that maybe we should

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also have a black Santa. Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to

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change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man too, but... There's a move in the message

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of blacks marrying whites, whites marrying blacks, and folks think it's all right.

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But you know what? My God still has nationalities outside the city.

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Now watch this. Brother Graham says, high breeding, high breeding, how terrible high breeding.

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The high breed the people. It's a big molding pot. I got hundreds of precious colored friends

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that's born again Christians. But on this line of segregation and things that they're talking about,

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high breeding the people, what? Tell me what a fine cultured, fine Christian colored woman,

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fine Christian colored woman, would want her baby to be a mulatto by a white man.

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No, sir, it's not right.

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From 1493, jumping ahead about 136 years,

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we see another period in America's history where the holiest text in the Christian faith

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is not used to liberate or free shackled Africans, but rather to boost systemic oppression

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and enslave other human beings. In the first episode of the series, we heard from Professor

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Trimper Longman III and got his thoughts about how biblical hermeneutics were wrongly used to

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justify America as a Christian nation. But there's another lesser known way the Bible is

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used to perpetuate racial discrimination in this country. It's a concept known as polygenesis.

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Let me give you an example. I'll start with this because I think it's a really good thing. You know

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there's two Genesis stories, right? You don't think anything about that. You just say, okay,

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there's two ways to tell this story about Genesis. This is Professor Nthea Butler. She's the Geraldine

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R. Siegel Professor in American Social Thought and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies

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at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of African American and American religion,

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Professor Butler's research and writing spans African American religion and history,

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race, politics, evangelicalism, gender, sexuality, media, and pop culture. She's also the author of

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the book White Evangelical Racism, the Politics, Morality in America. In the 19th century,

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actually even further back, 18th century, there are people who believe the polygenesis,

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two creations. So they believe that the first creation was kind of an aberration.

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So, you know, and if we had this on right now, and I don't have it here in front of me,

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there's a book that was printed in 1900 by Charles Carroll called The Negro, a Beast.

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It has a picture of a black man on the front with ape-like characteristics.

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Polygenesis, and this is what this book, The Negro, Be the Beast, was about,

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was about this man believing, and others too, believing that there were two different creations

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and that black people were an aberration creation. They were not this perfect creation.

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And so there's a picture in the book of Adam and Eve sort of standing in the garden,

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kind of covered up, you know, naked, looking up at the light of God coming from heaven.

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And then in the corner, they have this picture, this very bestial picture of a black man

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and saying, you know, could God have created both of these? So in other words, this was a mistake.

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So you're asking a question about how do people interpret the Bible. Back then,

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that's how people interpret the Bible. Okay. And so they don't have biblical

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higher criticism that starts in the middle of the 19th century with Germans and all of this.

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They don't have that. They're just going like, this must be where black people came from.

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Oh, this is how the curse of Cain happened. If there's another way you could talk about this,

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the curse of, you know, Ham, Shepard, Dapid, the curse of Ham, basically, you know, whatever.

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Cain is also another way they do it. So, Cain killed his brother, that means he was cursed,

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he was black, right? Or you could have Ham looking on his father's nakedness.

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Anybody who was a descendant of Ham was enslaved. Oh, they just happened to all be black. Look at

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that. Okay? So, there's these different ways in which people use scripture to do that.

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So, fast forward, 20th century, you have people who, you know, you got Standard Oral who pays

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for the fundamentals and has all these things about how to refute higher biblical criticism

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in the 19th century that the Germans have already started. All right? You get a nice

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little biblical history. And this is where you begin to have all of this kind of theological

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stuff that happens and the kinds of breakups that happen with, you know, Princeton Seminary,

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goes into Westminster Seminary, you get the creation of Fuller Seminary and how you get

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to do Bible and how you're going to talk about that and how evangelicals sort of think about

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this. Now what you've got, and this is the unfortunate part, is that you have some of

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this stuff going on where you have people who are really looking at scriptures and all this,

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but then you got somebody like a John MacArthur that really believes like 19th century stuff

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and is basically, believes in biblical racism. He claims to be this guy in Southern California

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who knows so much stuff, and I'm bringing up his name for a reason, but he also believes

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in 19th century crap. For the enslaved Africans, the introduction to Christianity was

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anything but voluntary. It was not a faith they freely embraced, but one shackled upon them by

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their white oppressors who sought to control not just their bodies, but their minds as well.

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You see, many slave owners use select passages in the Bible to prove that it was God's will

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for them to be enslaved. Popular verses like this from Ephesians 6-5 were used by many of

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these slaveholders, quote, servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh

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with fear and trembling and singleness of your heart as unto Christ not with eye service

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as men pleasers but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart

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with good will doing service as to the Lord and not to men knowing that whatsoever good thing

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any man doeth the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free, end quote.

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For the small number of slaves who could actually read and had access to a Bible,

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they likely were given a slave Bible, also called the Negro Bible.

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What's that book about? Oh, this is something special. Well, what is it? Look,

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your books are safe. It's one of the most powerful examples ever witnessed of manipulation using a

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controlled narrative. This Negro Bible omitted a bunch of verses that talk about liberation

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and freedom, much like this one found in Galatians 3-28, quote, there's neither Jew

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nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female, for ye are all one in

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Christ Jesus, end quote. You would never find that in the Negro Bible. But why would they do that?

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Well, because for all the bad the Bible is known for and that we've already discussed, it's also

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a powerful and transformational book used over the centuries to extend grace, show love, compassion,

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and liberate marginalized groups. I mean, the Bible is written under the most oppressive

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circumstances you can imagine. And yet those who fully understood what Jesus' ministry was all about

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understood that what Jesus offered was not subjugation, but rather delivering. None understood

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this more than the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who wrote in the appendix to his autobiography

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the following, what I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to

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the slaveholding religion of this land and with no possible reference to Christianity proper.

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For between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest

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possible difference, so wide that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to

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reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one is of necessity to be the

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enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ. I therefore

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hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial, and hypocritical

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Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason but the most deceitful one

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for calling the religion of this land Christianity.

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According to the PRRI Brookings survey we talked about in episode one,

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40% of Christian nationalism adherents believe that things have gotten so far off track

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that true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country. Nowhere

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was this as evident as the violence we saw unfold at the center of America's government

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institution on January 6th, 2021 in Washington, D.C.

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When what is usually a non-eventful day in D.C., a joint session of Congress,

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men of the House chambers to count the electoral votes cast for the presidential election,

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and certify the results. However, amassing on the perimeter of the Capitol were thousands of

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supporters of then-President Donald Trump, who were looking and hoping to thwart this process.

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In a sea of red Make America Great Again hats, there is also an impressive array of

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Christian symbols, such as the Christian flag, which is a white rectangular field with a

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blue square in the upper left-hand corner, similar to the layout of the American flag.

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But inside the blue square,