by Rev. Dr. Jim Warnock
This month I’m including what was originally a Facebook post from Torri Williams. She’s a young Black woman, married with two kids, whom we knew in Indiana. She wrote this in the middle of September, but I think it is ever more significant today.
We seem to be living in an era of increasing political violence, particularly assassinations. That is never an acceptable solution to our issues. We do have a history of it and of rhetoric encouraging the demonization of people different from us. In Indiana, the Ku Klux Klan had a huge base in the 1920s. They were very much involved with the churches and proclaimed a Christian faith alongside their bigotries. I was happy to know that Gethsemane, the parish I served, was one of the few in Marion’s downtown to refuse to host them or take money from them.
The Klan is still active or maybe I should say their ideas are. Their last public rally in Marion was in 2001, just before we arrived. While we there, a young man from my parish, a candidate for holy orders, worked as part of the maintenance crew at the local Christian college. He spent much of his time arguing with his fellow workers, some of whom espoused Klan-like racist views.
Torri has it right. A Christian faith based on anger, generating hostility toward others and fear is counterfeit. Our faith is based on love, the love Jesus showed on the cross, the acceptance of people different from ourselves, the refusal to demonize people we don’t like. Torri makes the point very nicely:
Facebook 9-13-2025
The Klan wasn’t just racist. They targeted anyone seen as “un-American”…sound familiar? One of the most recognizable symbols of the KKK is the cross, the burning cross. This wasn’t an accident. The Klan was overtly religious: Christian. They sang “The Old Rugged Cross” or a variation of the tune during their rituals. If the hate and bigotry were the fuel for that burning symbol, the Klan members were the oxygen.
The acceptance, complicity, and willful ignorance of non-members were also the oxygen.
Many Klansfolk called themselves “good Christians”. They fully believed they were doing the Lord’s work. The Klan spread hate, bigotry and fear with a whole lot of Jesus sprinkled in. It was common practice for the Klan to “donate” to preachers and churches.
The members were fathers, sons, husbands, wives. Sometimes, I wonder how many of them were lauded as good people. I wonder how many times their hate was called a “difference of opinion” or a “political view”. I wonder how many times people said they don’t agree with everything the organization does, but respect how they are spreading God’s word. After this week, I don’t need to wonder so much.
It’s been interesting to watch people that I’ve fellowshipped with, prayed with and for, remind me that someone who openly denigrates people like me, represents what they believe in. Christian nationalism is a helluva drug.
[Sunday] a lot of people will go to church. I’m sure the events of the week will be preached on and prayed about. I hope people will be willing to examine whether their beliefs are helping them be the “light of the world” or the oxygen for the perversion of the cross.