Category Archives: White supremacy

Christian nationalism, Democracy under attack, White supremacy

VIDEO: Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast on dangers of ‘White Christian Nationalism’

Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast

The Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast spoke at Community Congregational Church on Sunday, October 26, at 4:00 pm on the topic of Christian Nationalism, its roots and impact. The recorded videos are embedded below.

After the event, Dr. Gast wrote:

For more extensive study, I would recommend these books:

Mary Susan Gast

BenIndy Editor: here are the two videos, many thanks to Community Congregational Church of Benicia and video editor Constance Beutel:

Full length – 49 minutes:

Highlights – 23 minutes

Christian nationalism, Democracy under attack, White supremacy

Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast to speak on dangers of ‘White Christian Nationalism’

SUNDAY, OCT 26, AT 4 PM
Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast

The Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast will speak at Community Congregational Church on Sunday, October 26, at 4:00 pm on the topic of Christian Nationalism, its roots and impact.

She states, “In the late 1970’s a movement began to emerge in the U.S. that we now recognize as Christian Nationalism. ‘Christian Nationalism’ is not simply being Christian and being American. It is the fusion of one particular take on Christianity with a vision of the United States as the birthright of the descendants of white Christian European settlers.

Bishop William Barber has observed that the adherents of Christian Nationalism believe that Christianity ‘calls on us to be anti-gay, against people who may have had an abortion, against immigrants, and against the poor. But what the Scriptures actually say is that God loves all people.’”

Her presentation on October 26th will examine the Biblical and historical bases for these diverse understandings of the application of Christian teaching, along with the effects of Christian Nationalism on our democracy and civil society.

Dr. Gast notes that the affirmation of Christian Nationalism among many current national leaders raises questions for many regarding the effects of that ideology on government policy.

“In August this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a video on social media. It featured two pastors of Hegseth’s fellowship of faith asserting that women should not have the right to vote. Doug Wilson, one of the pastors on the video, later affirmed to the Associated Press that he believes the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote ‘was a bad idea.’

In early September many members of the current administration attended the National Conservatism Conference. Speakers at the event included:

    • Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts endorsing ‘the righteous anger young men feel when our elites say they can be replaced by immigrants or machines’
    • Charlie Haywood, who has called for the ‘total denigration of ‘career’ as the main goal of women’
    • and U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt who declared America belongs to ‘us’. . . ‘the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world.’

Gast is a Liberation theologian with advanced academic degrees from Michigan State University and the Chicago Theological Seminary.  Over the past 50 years she has made presentations in the U.S., South Africa, and China addressing the ways in which patriarchal and colonialist interpretations have distorted Christian teachings to the detriment of women and others regarded as not-quite-human.

Community Congregational Church is located at 1305 W. Second Street in Benicia. The event is free, and the public is invited.

Christian nationalism, Democracy under attack, White supremacy

Benicia’s Mary Susan Gast to speak on dangers of ‘Christian Nationalism’

Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast

The Rev. Dr. Mary Susan Gast will speak at Community Congregational Church on Sunday, October 26, at 4:00 pm on the topic of Christian Nationalism, its roots and impact.

She states, “In the late 1970’s a movement began to emerge in the U.S. that we now recognize as Christian Nationalism. ‘Christian Nationalism’ is not simply being Christian and being American. It is the fusion of one particular take on Christianity with a vision of the United States as the birthright of the descendants of white Christian European settlers.

Bishop William Barber has observed that the adherents of Christian Nationalism believe that Christianity ‘calls on us to be anti-gay, against people who may have had an abortion, against immigrants, and against the poor. But what the Scriptures actually say is that God loves all people.’”

Her presentation on October 26th will examine the Biblical and historical bases for these diverse understandings of the application of Christian teaching, along with the effects of Christian Nationalism on our democracy and civil society.

Dr. Gast notes that the affirmation of Christian Nationalism among many current national leaders raises questions for many regarding the effects of that ideology on government policy.

“In August this year, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a video on social media. It featured two pastors of Hegseth’s fellowship of faith asserting that women should not have the right to vote.

Doug Wilson, one of the pastors on the video, later affirmed to the Associated Press that he believes the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote ‘was a bad idea.’

In early September many members of the current administration attended the National Conservatism Conference. Speakers at the event included:

    • Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts endorsing ‘the righteous anger young men feel when our elites say they can be replaced by immigrants or machines’
    • Charlie Haywood, who has called for the ‘total denigration of ‘career’ as the main goal of women’
    • and U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt who declared America belongs to ‘us’. . . ‘the sons and daughters of the Christian pilgrims that poured out from Europe’s shores to baptize a new world.’

Gast is a Liberation theologian with advanced academic degrees from Michigan State University and the Chicago Theological Seminary.  Over the past 50 years she has made presentations in the U.S., South Africa, and China addressing the ways in which patriarchal and colonialist interpretations have distorted Christian teachings to the detriment of women and others regarded as not-quite-human.

Community Congregational Church is located at 1305 W. Second Street in Benicia. The event is free, and the public is invited.

Christian nationalism, Donald Trump, Sexism, Trump administration, White supremacy

Trump on DEI – he is promoting white Christian Nationalism

(From BenIndy contributor Roger Straw: Professor Eddie Glaude is a favorite author and one of my heros. His clarity on issues of U.S. history and culture and the reality of longstanding and pervasive racism in the U.S. is inspiring and challenging – and dead on righteous and true. Listen to his recent interview…and note my transcription below.)

White nationalist agenda: Professor slams Trump’s racist, sexist DEI comments

 Chris Jansing Reports, MSNBC on YouTube: Professor Eddie Glaude interview 31 Jan 2025

Partial transcript, by Roger Straw, Benicia Independent, Professor Eddie Glaude on 31 Jan 2025:

1:24
It’s important for us to take Donald Trump at his word. There is no evidence to suggest that diversity had anything to do with the loss of 67 people. And what you see, in no uncertain terms, is the way DEI is being used for a white Christian Nationalist agenda. This had nothing to do with merit. This has everything to do, to my mind – because yesterday revealed it – because there’s no evidence to correlate these two considerations. He’s not interested in merit. The assumption is, that if you have women, if you have black people or brown people, if you have a diverse workforce, that by definition, the standards have been compromised. That is a racist, a sexist view.

So what does it mean, Chris, that people are taking this seriously? If we understand it for what it is, an item in a white Christian Nationalist agenda, and you see businesses and government following suit, what are we to conclude? So I think yesterday was quite revealing, and the policies and the decisions that are being made now are as revealing as well.

3:08
I mean, how many McKinsey reports do we have to cite about the value and the power of a diverse workforce? Of a diverse leadership team? So we know that’s the truth. We know that’s to be the case. So what we’re seeing here, or witnessing here, is the capitulation to a white Nationalist agenda. And I want to stop dancing around this, Chris. We need to understand what we are confronting. We need to understand what the tattoos mean on Pete Hegseth. We need to understand what this particular decision is actually revealing. CRT, DEI, ‘woke’ – all of this is aimed at cultivating and stoking white grievance. And if we keep dancing around it, and keep capitulating to it, we’re going to find ourselves, shall we say, harkening back to the days where people like me supposedly knew our place – and people like you, Chris.

6:04
We have to be clear about our values. We have to be clear about who we believe ourselves to be. What is the nature of the America that he’s putting forward? What does it mean that for a large number of our fellows, that we have to endure this sort of view? Right? And what are its implications for the very way in which this country goes about its business? I mean, we are barreling towards the 250th anniversary of the nation. And here we are, grappling with the contradiction that has haunted this place since its founding. We have a president who believes that this country must be a white nation in the vein of old Europe. He talks about immigration, Chris, but we know birthright citizenship has nothing to do with the “crisis at the border” (quote unquote). It has everything to do with great replacement theory. We have to start being honest with what’s in front of us. Because if we’re not being honest, we’re being complicit. And so we’ve got to get clear about the values that animate the very country we claim to be so committed to.