Category Archives: Racism

White Supremacy and American Christianity: Fascism or Faith

Take Action After Watching White Supremacy in American Christianity

White Supremacy and American Christianity Series

Fascism or Faith

Budget Reconciliation Toolkit

Bring the discussion to your community with messaging and resources from our NETWORK team.

Download the Guide
Watch Only: Joan, Dr. Jones, and Fr. Massingale
Watch Only: Joan's Conversation with Amanda Tyler

What is White Christian Nationalism?

NETWORK partner, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC), released a joint project with the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) detailing Christian nationalism’s prominence in the January 6 insurrection. In it, Amanda Taylor of BJC shares, “Christian nationalism is a political ideology and cultural framework that seeks to merge American and Christian identities, distorting both the Christian faith and America’s constitutional democracy. Christian nationalism relies on the mythological founding of the United States as a ‘Christian nation,’ singled out for God’s providence in order to fulfill God’s purposes on earth. Christian nationalism demands a privileged place for Christianity in public life, buttressed by the active support of government at all levels.

Christian nationalism is not Christianity, though it is not accurate to say that Christian nationalism has nothing to do with Christianity. Christian nationalism relies on Christian imagery and language.”

Watch Previous White Supremacy and American Christianity Conversations

White Supremacy and American Christianity, Part 5
We Choose Freedom
White Supremacy and American Christianity, Part 4

With previous discussion laying out the roots, influences, and threats to democracy posed by white supremacy in our churches and politics, Fr. Bryan N. Massingale, Dr. Robert P. Jones, and NETWORK’s Joan F. Neal looked to the future and explored how we the U.S. can move beyond Christian nationalism. And young adult justice-seekers shared how they connect their work for democracy to their faith. White Supremacy and American Christianity: Moving Towards Beloved Community was a special conversation, focused on the future and the possibility of a vibrant, multi-faith, multi-racial democracy where every person can thrive, without exception.

White Supremacy and American Christianity, Part 3

In October 2023, ethics professor Fr. Bryan N. Massingale, author Robert P. Jones, and NETWORK’s Joan F. Neal gathered for White Supremacy and American Christianity: A Consistent Ethic of Hate Threatens Our Democracy. The country was on the precipice of a budget crisis. House extremists didn’t want to negotiate, they wanted a government shutdown–they were a threat to our democracy. Their actions, rooted in white supremacy and Christian nationalism, were positioned to harm those they view as other: Black and Brown citizens and non-English speaking Black and Brown immigrants. Instead of building a pluralistic democracy, they aimed to diminish the progress and presence of non-white people in our country and throw our government into chaos.

White Supremacy and American Christianity, Part 2

In October 2022, ethics professor Fr. Bryan N. Massingale and author Robert P. Jones participated in an enlightening conversation ahead of this year’s midterm for an exploration on the influence of  White Supremacy in American Christianity on our politics. The conversation was moderated by NETWORK’s Joan F. Neal.

White Supremacy and American Christianity, Part 1

In April 2022, NETWORK engaged experts working at the intersection of racism, nationalism, and Christianity for a conversation on the poisonous effect that White Supremacy has on American Christianity. Fr. Bryan N. Massingale, Dr. Robert P. Jones, and NETWORK’s Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer Joan F. Neal were joined by Georgetown University’s Dr. Marcia Chatelain.

White Supremacy and American Christianity Guest Speakers

Darcy Hirsh is the Senior Director of Policy & Advocacy at Interfaith Alliance, (Part 3) where she leads the organization’s policy work at the local, state, and federal levels, as well as its critical advocacy in the courts.

Dr. Robert P. Jones is the President and Founder of PRRI, and author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Robert P. Jones speaks and writes regularly on politics, culture, and religion in national media outlets including CNN, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and others. Dr. Robert Jones’s latest book is a New York Times best-seller. You can buy it here: The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future and follow Dr. Jones through his newsletter at https://www.whitetoolong.net/.

Fr. Bryan Massingale is the James and Nancy Buckman Professor of Theological and Social Ethics, as well as the Senior Ethics Fellow in Fordham’s Center for Ethics Education and author of Racial Justice and the Catholic Church. Fr. Massingale is a noted authority on social and racial justice issues, particularly in Catholic spaces. Read Fr. Massingale’s Op-Ed in National Catholic Reporter, “As the election cycle cranks up, Christians need to call out white Christian nationalism” and his keynote address at the 2022 Outreach Conference: “Intersectionality and LGBTQ Ministry”

Professor Marcia Chatelain, Ph.D., is the winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History (Part 1) her book Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. She is a professor of history and African American studies at Georgetown University and the leading organizer behind the #FergusonSyllabus, an online educational resource that has shaped educational conversations about racism and police brutality since 2014. 

Keep Up with NETWORK

Just Politics Catholic Podcast Season 2

Present Day Trauma and Old Wounds

Present Day Trauma and Old Wounds

We Need Solidarity Across Communities to Counter the Horrors of the Budget Bill’s Immigration Provisions

Joan F. Neal
June 26, 2025

In responding to the budget reconciliation bill now expected to pass the U.S. Senate this week, NETWORK and Sisters around the country have focused much attention on the calamitous cuts to health care and food programs in the bill, especially as they would go to tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals in the country. This is a worthy focus, given the millions of people whose lives are threatened by this disastrous bill.

Sadly, this is only part of the story. NETWORK has also called attention to the $150 billion this bill allots to terrorizing our communities through scaled up immigrant detention and deportation efforts. The horrific policies and actions under this Administration have drawn much attention in the media.

One recent example is the viral video of Narciso Barranco, a California gardener, being beaten by agents as they arrest him. One of his sons, a Marine who put his life on the line for our country, says he is heartbroken and betrayed. While this violence is happening to specific families, the shockwaves it sends through our communities are palpable. It is also intergenerational. Clearly, we need to realize that no individual, family or community is safe when this level of unchecked militarization descends upon us at such an expanded scale.

For Black people in the U.S., images of masked and armed men snatching people off the streets and disappearing them evoke another horrific chapter in U.S. history, one that is still discernable in the rear-view mirror. Neighbor turned on neighbor along racial lines. There was vigilante justice against the Black community, and, just like today, people were afraid to live their daily lives. The impacts on our communities are comparable in terms of the terror and trauma they spread.

Across the U.S., we should feel real pain watching neighbors, coworkers, friends, and families—including those with legal residency in the U.S.—being hauled away from their homes, workplaces, and loved ones. We need to lean into this empathy and let it draw us into action. Solidarity is our salvation.

We have mustered this widespread solidarity before, the most recent and far-reaching example being the Civil Rights movement, which saw white people—including many Catholic Sisters and clergy—joining protests and marches to decry racial segregation and the denial of civil rights, voting rights, fair housing and more, to Black people – U.S. citizens. The Civil Rights movement is an example of how solidarity across communities can work to counter systemic injustice and lead to societal transformation. This is a lesson we should all remember at this time of turmoil.

So as we act together in resistance to the current push to pass the ‘big, bad’ budget reconciliation bill, we cannot lose sight of the human cost of this terrible, unjust piece of legislation that will provide billions of dollars to continue the violent assaults on immigrants while slashing essential programs for all people across the country who need assistance. Rather, we must once again come together in solidarity so that none of us, no matter who we are, react to the harm of another person without empathy. We must acknowledge that we are all one, human family without exception—as residents of this country, as members of communities, as children of God—and act accordingly.

We shouldn’t need horrors such as these ICE raids or devastating cuts to essential programs to remind us of this oneness, but here we are. Thankfully, protests and other actions in recent weeks have shown encouraging signs that we are still capable of recognizing our shared humanity. Let us pray and act so that these acts of solidarity continue.

Use NETWORK’s Budget Reconciliation Toolkit to take part in our advocacy against this bill.

Lent Week 6: We Aren’t Falling for Division

Lent 2025: Giving Up Billionaires


Welcome to week 6 of our Lenten series, “Giving Up Billionaires,” as we call on Congress to give up billionaires so our communities can have what we need to thrive. Click here for the rest of our Lenten reflections and actions.

We Aren’t Falling for Division

 

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP
April 9, 2025

 

In the U.S., only one percent of the population earns a million dollars or more per year, and there are just 800 billionaires. Yet this small group of the wealthiest individuals has spent millions to persuade everyday Americans to vote in favor of their interests instead of our own. How have they done that? One answer: by stoking racial fear.

In the 1950s and ’60s, some politicians and their ultra-wealthy backers seized on the discomfort of the Civil Rights Movement to stoke racist resentment. They tried to weaken support for a government that works for the people, so they could instead build a government that works only for the ultra-wealthy.

Some lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers today still stoke racial fears by scapegoating our neighbors. The ultra-wealthy try to distract us from the economic problems that their wealth-hoarding creates by pointing the finger at immigrants, transgender people, or working people.

We see this in the Trump administration as they spin lies about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to pit white, Black, and Brown workers against each other. And, we see it this week as Republicans in Congress seek $350 billion in the budget reconciliation bill to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors.

Take action
  • Call your House Member at 1-888-897-9753 to ensure that Congress does not pay for more tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and more funding to detain and deport our immigrant neighbors by cutting Medicaid and SNAP in the budget reconciliation bill.
  • Spread the word. Save the image that I’ve placed below to your computer or phone, then share it on social media or email it to friends and family.
  • Write a letter to the editor (LTE) calling Congress to reject the budget proposal. LTEs are one of the most effective advocacy tactics. Please join us TOMORROW, Thursday, April 10 at 7:00 PM Eastern / 4:00 PM Pacific at our LTE training at our LTE workshop to learn some LTE best practices.

Find more LTE and social media guidance in our Lent toolkit.

The result of these divide-and-conquer tactics has been devastating for most of us, no matter our race or gender. As the ultra-wealthy have amassed power, they have weakened regulations that protect us and our communities and let billionaires off the hook from paying their fair share and contributing to the common good.

These lawmakers and their ultra-wealthy backers hope that we will become too divided and distracted to recognize the real culprits. But we aren’t falling for it! We refuse to fear our neighbors or to fall for attempts to divide us. We know the way through this: to come together across our differences and work to build a world that truly works for all of us–not just the ultra-wealthy. We must demand that our elected officials make the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share instead of giving them tax breaks and taking away our health care, food, and even our immigrant neighbors, to do it.

TAKE ACTION: Call your House member today at 1-888-897-9753 and tell them to protect SNAP and Medicaid and reject funding for detention and deportation and tax cuts for billionaires in the budget proposal! Then, use our Lent toolkit to write an LTE calling Congress to reject the budget proposal.

NETWORK has more shareable content, sample social media posts, and LTE guidance for you in our Lent Toolkit.

Emily TeKolste_2025_Spring

Sr. Emily TeKolste, SP is NETWORK’s Grassroots Mobilization Coordinator. To read more, check out her column in Global Sisters Report, “The existence of billionaires is immoral.”

The Whole Body Suffers

 

The Whole Body Suffers

This Black History Month Tests the Health of Our Union and Communion 

Joan F. Neal
February 25, 2025

Joan F. Neal, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Equity Officer at NETWORK

Joan F. Neal, Interim Executive Director at NETWORK

This Black History Month has been hard. I simply cannot sugarcoat it. Just as cold and flu season have ravaged so many people during the month of February, this month has also offered one terrible episode after another which should make all of us worry about the health of our country.  The destruction of government infrastructure and institutions combined with the normalizing of racism and anti-immigrant sentiment have ravaged the U.S. in ways that put all of us more at risk of being less financially secure and even less healthy. 

For years, the United States has been credited with having the “best health care in the world.” But if that is true, what else is also true is that access to that system is not equitably shared. Health care continues to be an issue for Black communities, and Black History Month reminds us of that fact.  It shows us how the structures of society can be weaponized against people just as easily as they can promote stability and justice. 

In the U.S., structural racism can be as simple as where a hospital or a grocery store is built; which communities can receive urgent, life-saving care and which lack even adequate transportation to access quality health care.  Structural racism decides which neighborhoods have ready access to the fresh fruits and vegetables so essential for a healthy life and which communities are literal food deserts with only small grocery stores and limited options or fast-food outlets. Caring for our health involves both being able to access medical care when needed as well as being able to maintain good health by eating well. 

And while we may not realize it, these healthcare gaps are at the heart of today’s debates over the federal budget. Republicans in Congress have once again proposed to slash essential food and health care programs to give tax cuts to billionaires, balancing the budget on the backs of children, families, and ordinary people, many of whom are Black and Brown.  These actions not only exacerbate the healthcare situation but also perpetuate the racial wealth and income gap and reverse the gains that Black History Month celebrates.   

Families should not lose the ability to feed their babies through SNAP benefits in order to give Elon Musk another tax break. Nor should they lose their Medicaid in order for Jeff Bezos to further pad his considerable bottom line. Our very health and lives are literally caught up in this budget fight, and it is time for all people to speak out! 

Families should not lose the ability to feed their babies through SNAP benefits in order to give Elon Musk another tax break … Our very health and lives are literally caught up in this budget fight, and it is time for all people to speak out! 

Troubling signs are all around us. At the beginning of February, the report emerged that Black women die at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women around the time of childbirth, an increase from 2.6 times higher only a couple years earlier. The Black maternal mortality crisis is real, a concern of NETWORK, and just one of many indicators of persistent structural racism in U.S. health care. And if the proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid go through, they will be no exception. 

 NETWORK is fighting against these discriminatory policies through our new policy agenda: An Economy for All, which presents a clear plan to create an inclusive economy where everyone thrives – no exceptions.  This is the vision that is central to the celebration of Black History Month. 

Moreover, in areas such as health care, impacts spread.  Scripture tells us that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers (1 Cor 12:26). This is important to remember as the Trump administration rolls out its cruel and discriminatory agenda. No one can say “this won’t affect me.” Everyone should be concerned. This month’s Senate confirmation of vaccine skeptic RFK Jr. as Health and Human Services secretary portends a picture of a future where the health of all people in the U.S. will be weakened, where women won’t be able to get the health care they need, where children will die from easily preventable diseases, undoing decades of medical progress that made this country—and the world—healthier. 

The whole body also suffers from the moral wound that is inflicted on society by the acceptance of racist policies, whether in health care, foreign assistance, or immigration. It is all morally unacceptable, and it hurts our souls to permit it, even passively. For U.S. Catholics, this Black History Month has tested our Union, the structures that enshrine  “We the People” of the country. But it has also tested our Communion, our capacity to be one Body with all God’s children. If we are indifferent to our Black or immigrant friends or abandon our fellow neighbors abroad, we have lost our sense of Communion. 

I believe that our country and the church are still healthy enough to rally and offer the moral witness necessary to fight off the harms of entrenched racism and Christian nationalism now ravaging our body politic. But it will require a renewed sense of solidarity, a commitment to being not just one people, but one Body, accountable to all its members without exception. That is a history well worth writing with our actions today. 

Honoring Black History Month: Immigration is a Civil Rights Issue

Honoring Black History Month

Immigration is a Civil Rights Issue

Black History Month isn’t just about the past—it’s about fighting for justice today. Immigration is often overlooked in these conversations, but the struggle against nativism and xenophobia is deeply tied to the Black freedom movement. From restrictive immigration policies to the mistreatment of Haitian migrants, we see how racism shapes who is welcomed and who is excluded.

In this powerful reflection, Adam Russell Taylor, President of Sojourners, reminds us that a just and humane immigration system is essential to the fight for civil rights. If we believe in justice for all, we must challenge the policies and attitudes that harm immigrant communities.

Watch the video below, and join us in action!☀️

Want to dive deeper into the systemic inequalities that keep racial and economic justice out of reach for so many? Sign up for our Racial Wealth and Income Gap workshops to learn how we can take action together! Sign up here.
Ralph McCloud

Honoring Black History Month: Advocating for Workers’ Rights

Honoring Black History Month

Advocating for Workers’ Rights

Black History Month is a time to honor the resilience, leadership, and contributions of Black activists, labor leaders, and faith-driven advocates who have fought for justice and human dignity. From the Civil Rights Movement to today’s ongoing struggles for economic and racial justice, Black leaders have shown us the power of collective action in the fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, and policies that uplift communities.

At NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, we recognize that this legacy calls us to action. As people of faith, we are called to uphold the dignity of work and ensure that every person—regardless of race, background, or economic status—has access to the protections and resources they need to thrive.

This Black History Month, our Government Relations Fellow, Ralph McCloud, reflects on how our faith compels us to advocate for worker protections and human needs programs. Too often, workers—especially Black and Brown workers—face systemic barriers to fair wages, paid leave, and safe workplaces. As Catholics committed to social justice, we must continue to push for policies that protect workers, dismantle economic inequities, and promote the common good.

Watch the video below to hear Ralph’s powerful reflection, and join us in taking action. Justice is not just a historical movement—it is a present and urgent call. ✊☀️

Want to dive deeper into the systemic inequalities that keep racial and economic justice out of reach for so many? Sign up for our Racial Wealth and Income Gap workshops to learn how we can take action together! Sign up here.

Move Past the Unserious

Move Past the Unserious

People Who Want Action on Immigration Should Look to These Proposals

Ronnate Asirwatham
April 2, 2024
NETWORK Government Relations Director Ronnate Asirwatham, a woman in a pink jacket, holds a microphone and speaks from behind a podium with a sign, "Invest in Welcoming Communities." Many other advocates with similar signs stand behind her.

NETWORK Government Relations Director Ronnate Asirwatham at the September 2023 Welcoming Communities press conference on Capitol Hill

Words have consequences. And almost nowhere is that truer than when dealing with immigration.

People like to think they are true to their word when they say they want action on immigration and care about finding practical solutions. After all, immigration is a serious issue that touches millions of lives and practically every community. We should adopt serious proposals. But what does it mean to be serious?

Many people, especially elected officials, betray their unseriousness by how they talk about immigration. Unfounded claims of a “migrant crime” wave are dangerous and inaccurate. These claims feed into racist tropes by fueling fear and hatred towards immigrants and people of color, making our communities less safe.

Fearmongering gives cover to politicians wishing to pass or enact terrible policies. The recent legal attack by the Attorney General of Texas on Annunciation House—a series of shelters that serve migrant people across the Southwest—is one small example of right-wing extremists attacking people seeking safety, as well as the people of faith who serve them.

We have also seen this type of attack in extreme bills against immigrants and people who welcome them in the state legislatures of Arizona, Idaho, and Georgia and the U.S. Congress. Instead of putting forward workable solutions, Congressional extremists keep pushing for unworkable, failed proposals that the American public has rejected. They think this is a good way to pass unpopular policies, but providing a veneer of legality for attacking immigrants makes everyone less safe.

This xenophobic rhetoric is like that which brought gunmen to the Pittsburgh synagogue and the El Paso Walmart. Unserious people can still create serious threats, and the policies of deterrence and the rhetoric of racism these politicians are proposing will make all who live in the borderlands and people of racial and religious minorities everywhere unsafe.

We must focus on what constitutes a serious immigration policy proposal; luckily, we have plenty of examples. At the end of January, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus released its immigration principles for the second session of the 118th Congress. These principles, comprised of 18 policy proposals within a framework of four pillars—immigration reform, jobs and the economy, border safety, and regional migration concerns—are what serious immigration policy looks like and what people of faith and goodwill should push Congress and the Administration to adopt.

  • Increase funding for asylum processing and legal representation programs for adults and guarantee access to counsel for asylum seekers in federal custody.
  • Create family reunification programs for additional countries to assist with backlogs.
  • Facilitate access to work authorization for newly arrived immigrants.
  • Fund community-based case management programs that decrease immigration detention.
  • Protect Dreamers and DACA recipients.
  • Provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented individuals.
  • Update the registry cutoff date through H.R. 1511, the Renewing Immigration Provisions of the Immigration Act of 1929.
  • Advance immigration protections through H.R. 3194, the U.S. Citizenship Act.
  • Establish a humanitarian visa for pre-screen asylum seekers.
  • Expand protections for minors seeking to be reunited with parents holding legal status in the U.S.
  • Protect undocumented spouses or parents of military members by providing a path of legal residency and eliminating the threat of deportation.
  • Advance protections for agricultural workers through the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2023.

These are serious proposals that can create real change by actually addressing the problems created by our broken immigration system. Any person, elected or otherwise, who claims to be serious about the border and immigration but isn’t embracing these proposals is not serious. In fact, they are very likely trying to use the plight of suffering people to get you to buy into a “solution” that will only cause more suffering and put more people in danger. And that’s serious.

This story was published in the Quarter 2 2024 issue of Connection.

The Ripple of One Person’s Vote

The Ripple of One Person’s Vote

Contribute to the Love That Saves the World

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU
March 5, 2024

Sr. Erin Zubal, OSU, NETWORK Chief of Staff

Waiting in line outside a school gymnasium in the early morning hours. Feeling the chill of November in the air. Greeting the poll workers. Making selections on an electronic menu screen. The experience of voting is many things, but not many people would probably think of it as helping us grow holiness. But listening closely to Pope Francis, it’s clear that this election year offers yet another opportunity for many people to journey closer to the God who loves and saves the world.

In his 2018 letter on the call to holiness, Gaudate Et Exsultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), Pope Francis waded into explicitly political waters when he cautioned against limiting one’s political concern and advocacy to just one or two issues, as so many Catholics tend to do in the U.S. “Equally sacred,” he affirmed, are the lives of people in poverty and all who are rejected and discarded by society. “We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in the world,” he wrote.

That same year, the Vatican’s doctrine office also published a document on “certain aspects of Christian salvation.” This document rejects “individualistic and merely interior visions of salvation” as being against the “economy through which God willed to save the human person.” People must journey beyond themselves, out into the world, to participate in the grace of the salvation story that culminates when “each person will be judged on the concreteness of his or her love.” (Placuit Deo #13)

This, too, is political.

See NETWORK’s 2024 Equally Sacred Checklist to support you in educating yourself as a faithful voter on the issues and concerns that are “equally sacred.”

Voting is concrete. It is an act. It is a choice. It’s an imperfect choice because voters are often not faced with specific policy proposals but with individual office-seekers who may be better on particular issues than others and whose performance, once elected, can be unpredictable. Will they advocate for people on the margins? Are they able to be bought by wealthy corporate interests? Do they take the weight of responsibility of their office seriously? The answers to these questions can and do produce wildly different outcomes.

But what remains is this: In the act of voting, a person creates a small ripple in the social fabric, a ripple that may end up part of a more significant current or movement that impacts the lives of millions of other people– for good or ill.

Using one’s vote for ill often means voting as a means of lashing out against people or groups of people whom voters have been told to fear, such as migrants and other people struggling to survive on the peripheries of society.

Voting may take only an instant, but the harm inflicted by bad immigration policy compounds over the years. It is felt in the lives of families and children who might never recover from the devastation they experience.

Even more could be said about the pain intentionally inflicted on Black and Brown communities by the stoking of Christian nationalist and white supremacist narratives. What does it mean for this country that so many neighbors voted this way?

But the opposite is also possible. A person can use their vote to build up rather than tear down, show welcome rather than hostility, and contribute to love rather than hate. And in an election year that looks to be decided by a small number of people in a few states and localities, the choice of one person to choose solidarity, to make their vote an act of love, is as consequential as it’s ever been. It might just play a part in saving the world.

This story was published in the Quarter 1 2024 issue of Connection.