Episode 88: The "Moral Issues" That Masked Segregation
7/1/202639 min
Abortion and homosexuality. If you grew up in conservative Christianity, you know these are the two issues. The ones that decide votes. The ones churches will not bend on. But what if neither issue started out as the point?
This is part three of our series on the church’s role in building white supremacy in America. In part one, we traced colonization and slavery. In part two, we covered Jim Crow and the civil rights era. In this episode, we follow that same through line of racism forward to the political strategy that focused conservative Christians on abortion and homosexuality, in order to secure the conservative Christian vote and keep the right people in office to uphold segregation.
This episode wraps up our current series on the Christian church’s historical role in building white supremacy in America.
Topics covered: a recap of part one (colonization and slavery) and part two (Jim Crow and civil rights), the political strategy that focused conservative Christians on abortion and homosexuality, securing the conservative Christian vote, and how that vote was used to uphold segregation.
If you like this episode, be sure to check out:
Episode 86: 1493 When the Church Gave Permission for Conquest and Slavery
Episode 87: Jim Crow and the Pulpit: How the Church Preached Racism as God's Order
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRachael Loney· Host0:00
If you grew up in or around conservative Christianity, you know the two issues that matter above everything else, abortion and homosexuality. They're why conservative Christians vote the way they vote. They're why they fight the way they fight. These are the hills they will die on. But what if those two issues were never actually about theology? What if they were chosen strategically by political operatives who needed something to mobilize evangelical voters around? And what if the real origin story has nothing to do with babies or marriage, and everything to do with race? Today, we're going back to where it actually started, and it's not the story you were told. And with that, let's dive in.
Jaisa Engasser· Host0:39
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome everybody to this week's episode of Spirit Outspoken. Well, surprise, surprise, we went down a rabbit hole- [laughs] ... and it was far deeper and far more extensive than we ever anticipated, and Rachel Loney, our leader, who just started unpacking - and, and I gotta say too, like, you were saying for months that it was on your heart to really look at the white Christian history and how it relates to racism in America and white Christian nationalism. And a lot of this is being prompted by what we're seeing in the news and what we're experiencing today. And like a lot of things Spirit Outspoken takes on, history is such a huge part