News/Commentary

‘White Christians’ must embrace ‘black and brown’ Christian migrants to save the church: CNN

April 13, 2023 | | Print Article

CNN has once again proved it will sink to literally any depth to push its progressive agenda — especially when its goal is to paint American Christians as radical white supremacists.

In an article written by analyst John Blake, the news outlet couches its divisive, anti-Christian rhetoric in a cloud of feigned concern and academic authority and claims that “the spread of White Christian nationalism” along with “sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention” and a perceived aversion to “LGBTQ people” have “stained the church’s reputation.”

The only thing that can save the church from collapsing and keep faith alive in America, Blake argues, is if all those twisted white people can find it in their racist hearts to embrace the massive influx of non-white Christian migrants.

“The influx of Black and brown Christians from places like Latin America and Asia collides with another trend: a burgeoning White Christian nationalist movement that insists, incorrectly, that the US was founded as a White, Christian nation,” Blake writes. “It is hostile to non-White immigrants.”

To bolster his blatantly racist take on religion in America, Blake cites several of “the nation’s top religion scholars and historians.”

“They said the American church is poised to find new life for one major reason: Waves of Christians are migrating to the US,” he writes. “And they said the biggest challenge to Christianity’s future in America is not declining numbers, but the church’s ability to adapt to this migration.”

Blake explains:

The US has more immigrants than any other country. People from Latin America and Asia now make up the overwhelming majority of immigrants to the US, and many are bringing their religious fervor with them.

This migration is known as the “Browning of America,” a phrase describing a demographic shift that is expected to make White people the minority in the US by 2045.

Those who predict that the church in America will collapse often overlook how the migration of Global South Christians to America will revitalize the country’s religious landscape, scholars say. Christianity could rebound in America if White Christians embrace this one change, they say.

 

Of course, nowhere in the article does Blake offer any proof that American Christians reject Christians of color. He just keeps repeating the claim.

And just because church attendance went down during the COVID pandemic (perhaps because they were closed by the government?), Blake warns that “declining church membership doesn’t automatically translate into declining influence.”

“Consider some recent landmark events,” he writes. “White evangelicals played a critical role in getting former President Trump elected. Conservative Christian groups played a crucial role in the recent passage of state laws limiting LGBTQ rights. And the Supreme Court’s decision last year to overturn Roe vs. Wade was a massive victory for many conservative Christians.”

Even when the “scholars” he quotes say that, while they may not attend church as they once did, many Americans “still pray daily and say religion is very important in their lives,” Blake insists Christianity is crumbling.

“Despite the optimism of many religious scholars, the future of Christianity in America still seems uncertain,” he writes. “Poll numbers about the decline of religiousness in the US cannot be ignored, along with something more intangible: the frailties of human nature.”

He then grasps at invented “what ifs” to make his disingenuous, unsupported point.

“What if the US enters another xenophobic period and limits migration from non-White Christians?” he asks. “What if progressive Christians prove unwilling to align with non-White immigrants who tend to be more conservative on issues of sexuality and gender?”

“And what if some Christians still cling to the belief that America is supposed to be a White Christian nation, even if that assumption causes them to close their church doors to non-White immigrants who could be their salvation?” he continues. “If that happens, an Easter morning symbol in American churches won’t just be an empty tomb, but empty pews.”

Melissa Fine
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