Christianizing the Klan: Alma White, Branford Clarke, and the Art of Religious Intolerance

Abstract

According to the biblical book of Daniel chapter 3, King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled the Babylonian Empire where the Jews lived in exile, commissioned the building of a ninety-foot golden image and commanded the people to worship it. Refusal to comply meant one's death in a fiery furnace. While most obeyed the king's dictate, the story recounts how Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, Jews who worked for the king, refused to worship the image and remained loyal to their God. In response, the king bade his men to stoke the furnace and burn the defiant rebels. To the king's amazement, the trio appeared unscathed amid the red-hot flames, and he glimpsed a mysterious fourth figure with them. Seeing this, the king called the men to come out of the furnace and they emerged unharmed, protected, according to the text, by the fourth figure, an angel. The story depicts Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego as heroes who withstood the forces of evil and witnessed the power of their God. It speaks to the fidelity of these men and to the intolerant nature of Nebuchadnezzar's faith. While this passage and its lessons may be familiar to many, in the 1920s they gained additional meanings that provide us with important insights into the workings of religious intolerance in the United States.

The material study of American Protestantism

“…Edward J. Blum and Paul Harvey's The Color of Christ (2012) traced how images of Jesus constructed race, racism, and power in American society from colonial times to the 2010s. Other scholars have studied how the KKK visualized white Protestant identity in support of white supremacy and white nationalism (Baker, 2011a(Baker, , 2011bNeal, 2009).…”

Quem é o “cidadão de bem”?

“…bastante diferente em relação àquela empregada pela Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura (Unesco) no final do século XX. Os "bons cidadãos" da Klan eram fanáticos religiosos adeptos a práticas racistas e xenofóbicas de extrema violência (Neal, 2009). Já para o paradigma da educação cívica da Unesco, "bons cidadãos" são aqueles formados para serem esclarecidos e conscientes das questões humanas e políticas em jogo em sua sociedade, desenvolvendo o respeito pelos outros e reconhecendo a equidade entre todos os seres humanos" (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 1998).…”

Intolerance and American Religious History

“…In addition, a recent article, 'Christianizing the Klan: Alma White, Branford Clarke, and the Art of Religious Intolerance,' explicitly invokes the term religious intolerance and suggests additional sources and themes for consideration. In this article, Neal (2009) examines the importance of visual imagery in the replication and dissemination of religiously intolerant views. Further, this investigation underscores how the intolerant use the Bible and history to craft their views and persuade others of their validity, suggesting the need for more studies on how sacred texts and historical interpretations are intertwined in messages of hate (see Figure 2).…”