“Jesus was a White man too!”: The relationship between beliefs about Jesus’s race, racial attitudes, and ideologies that maintain racial hierarchies.

Abstract

Historians, Black liberation theologians, and Black/Pan-African nationalists have long argued that individuals' beliefs regarding Jesus' race are related to their racial attitudes and ideologies that maintain racial hierarchy. In the current study, we examined the relationship between beliefs about Jesus' race, racial attitudes, social dominance orientation (SDO), and colorblind racial ideology (CBRI). We found that individuals who believe Jesus is White were higher in both explicit and subtle forms of anti-Black prejudice (i.e., symbolic racism) and had higher feelings of warmth toward White people than individuals who believe Jesus is non-White. In addition, we found that those who believe Jesus is White, versus non-White, had a higher preference for group-based social hierarchy and were more likely to endorse CBRI. Analyses indicated that SDO and CBRI fully mediated the relationship between believing Jesus is White and explicit anti-Black attitudes. The relationship between believing Jesus is White and subtle anti-Black prejudice was also fully mediated by CBRI. These findings advance research on the relationship between religiosity and prejudice by demonstrating that individuals' racial conceptualizations of religious deities are related to how they feel toward racial groups and the extent to which they endorse ideologies that maintain social hierarchy. Implications, limitations, and future research directions are discussed.

Decolonizing Purity Culture: Gendered Racism and White Idealization in Evangelical Christianity

“…While women fall into numerous categories of race, religion, socio-economic class, ethnicity, and various other attributable identities, a singular female perspective cannot encapsulate the realities of all women (Crenshaw, 1991). Therefore, our study is consistent with findings that suggest an individual’s beliefs might be related to racial attitudes and ideologies that maintain racial hierarchies (Howard et al, 2021), while contributing unique insight into how white hegemony operates within the notion of the ideal pure woman in purity culture.…”

Unexamined whiteness in the psychological study of men and masculinities: Situating research and practice within white space and white time.

“…In this racial construction of what was good and moral, white masculinities was often conflated with the image of a Judeo-Christian male God and Jesus. Such a construction reified a racial hierarchy and justified ongoing injustices, inequality, harm, and violence against communities of Color (Howard et al, 2022; Roberts et al, 2020). In fact, whiteness was and is generally connected to ideals of innocence and vulnerability in the United States, and these associations have worked to benefit white women and their femininity within white supremacist masculinities (Bonds, 2020; Moon & Holling, 2020).…”