Reply #9: Another snippet from chapter four

[Jonathan50]

Yep, it's Us versus Them. Religious prejudice does not draw as much attention
or produce as much hatred in North America as it does in (say) the Middle East and
southern Asia, but it's still dynamite looking for a place to explode because it's so
often accompanied by the self-righteousness that releases aggression. And it runs deep
in Christian fundamentalists because religion is so important to them.

News that they score relatively highly on racial prejudice scales often stuns
white fundamentalists. They will usually reply, "You must be mistaken. We're not
prejudiced. Why, we accept black people in our church." And indeed, if you ask a
white fundamentalist if he'd rather spend an evening with a black member of his
church or a white atheist, he will almost certainly choose the former.

But fundamentalists still hold more racial prejudices than most people--a fact
known to social scientists for over fifty years. White churches were open to just white
folks for generations in America, and many pastors found justification in the Bible for
both slavery and the segregation that followed the demise of slavery. Vestiges of this
remain in fundamentalist religions. Bill McCartney, the founder of the evangelical
men's movement called Promise Keepers, tells the story of what happened on a
nation-wide speaking tour when he finished up his stock speech with a call for racial
reconciliation:

"There was no response--nothing...In city after city, in church after church, it
was the same story--wild enthusiasm while I was being introduced, followed by a
morgue-like chill as I stepped away from the microphone." 13

Ironically, most fundamentalists say they believe in "the brotherhood of all
mankind." "We are all God's children." "Jesus loves you"--whoever you are. It says
so in their mental boxes. But they still like best, by a long shot, the people who are
most exactly like themselves. Where did this crushing rejection of others come from?
Its earliest roots appear buried in the person's religious training.