Some fundamentalist communities are taught that whites are superior and all others are less perfect versions of God. (Image courtesy of MN Prairie Roots).
“In deep-red America, the white Christian god is king,” according to a white former Christian fundamentalist known by the moniker Forsetti’s Justice.
In a strongly worded piece for AlterNet published earlier this year, Forsetti takes aim at rural white Americans, who he argues are in large part to blame for their own hardships due to the bigoted and overly rigid belief system that is fundamentalist Christianity.
Following the contested election of President Donald J. Trump, pundits across the political spectrum were adamant that Democrats had failed to hear the voices of white, working–class Americans. For Forsetti, this wasn’t the problem that ultimately got poor white folks to vote against their best interests.
“The real problem is that rural Americans don’t understand causes of their own situations and fears, and they’ve shown no interest in finding out,” the blogger wrote. “They do not want to know why they feel the way they do or why they’re struggling because they don’t want to admit it’s in large part because of the choices they’ve made and the horrible things they’ve allowed themselves to believe.”
Forsetti said he spent the first 24 years of his life “deeply embedded” in the rural Christian fundamentalist culture, as he faithfully attended “their” worship services, listened in on the politically charged banter at the local diner and winced at racial jokes and epithets. But the now-56-year-old man eventually branched out and continued his education, filling his head with ideas that challenge a belief system nonconducive to “introspection, questioning, learning or change.”
“When you have a belief system built on fundamentalism, it isn’t open to outside criticism, especially by anyone not a member of your tribe and in a position of power,” he wrote “It doesn’t matter how ‘understanding’ you are, how well you listen, what language you use — if you are viewed as an outsider, your views will be automatically discounted.”
Forsetti also took issue with Christian white Americans and their racism. He noted that while they’re not your typical “cross-burning” racists, their belief system is based on the notion that they’re superior because they’re white and God created them in his image. Meanwhile, everyone else is just a less-than-perfect cursed version of the Most High.
“Nonwhites are the color they are because of their sins, or at least the sins of their ancestors,” Forsetti wrote of what he was taught in his religion growing up. “Blacks don’t have dark skin because of where they lived and evolution; they have dark skin because they are cursed. God cursed them for a reason. If God cursed them, treating them as equals would be going against God’s will.”
In addition to the bigotry, Forsetti called out fundamentalist’s susceptibility to propaganda. For closed-off belief systems, the blogger said this is especially damaging because there are no checks and balances.
“If bad information gets in, it doesn’t get out and because there are no internal mechanisms to guard against it, it usually ends up very damaging to the whole,” he said.
Foretti concluded with a list of honest truths that rural Christian white Americans just don’t want to accept. He argued that until they accept these truths, nothing is going to change:
- Blacks are not “lazy moochers living off their hard-earned tax dollars” any more than are many of their fellow rural neighbors. People in need are people in need. People who can’t find jobs because of their circumstances, a changing economy or outsourcing overseas belong to all races.
- Immigrants haven’t taken their jobs. If all immigrants, legal or otherwise, were removed from the U.S., our economy would come to a screeching halt and food prices would soar.
- Government has not done enough to help them in many cases, but their local and state governments are almost completely Republican and so are their representatives and senators. Instead of holding them accountable, they vote them into office over and over and over again.
