Last semester, in a class about how law and religion had shaped U.S. history, I read a book that discussed religion and lynching. The author spoke of America\u2019s \u201cmultiple Christianities,\u201d a phrase that\u2019s stuck with me since. I was reminded of this phrase when I noticed the theme of religion in this week\u2019s reading, and I wonder if it might be a good way to think about how Wright and Baldwin view religion and racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For two men who disagree sharply about how to talk about racism in America, Richard Wright and James Baldwin appear to have a lot in common in their understanding of religion. This convergence of their views really interested me, since James Baldwin\u2019s critique of Native Son <\/em>is rather scathing, but he seems to share Wright\u2019s opinions toward religion. In \u201cEverybody\u2019s Protest Novel,\u201d he compares novels like Native Son<\/em>unfavorably with missionary stories and tropes of white as holy and black as sinful. He finally writes, \u201cBigger\u2019s tragedy is\u2026 that he has accepted a theology that denies him life\u201d (Collected Essays<\/em>, 18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Baldwin is scornful of how themes of sin and sanctity are presented in Native Son<\/em>, Wright seems equally so. In the final portion of Native Son<\/em>, religion becomes an especially pronounced theme. Reverend Hammond and Bigger\u2019s mother try to convince Bigger to turn to prayer while in jail. The preacher tells Bigger, \u201cBe like Jesus. Don\u2019t resist\u201d (Wright, 285). But Bigger has no desire for religion, a repulsion that is compounded by the Ku Klux Klan\u2019s burning cross: \u201cThe cross the preacher had told him about was bloody, not flaming; meek, not militant. It had made him feel awe and wonder, not fear and panic\u201d (337). Religion, in Wright\u2019s view, is used for negative purposes\u2014either to suppress Black liberation or to empower white supremacists. This dichotomy between the burning cross and the preacher\u2019s cross underscores that white Christianity and Black Christianity are two different things. Wright articulates this divide in \u201cHow Bigger Was Born\u201d as well, commenting that there may as well be \u201ca white God and a black God\u201d (437). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wright and Baldwin\u2019s shared cynicism towards religion is an important area of overlap. While they may see \u201cmultiple Christianities,\u201d their perspective seems to be that all religion blinds people to the work of racial justice. Seeing how these two different novelists relate to religion, in particular their critique that Christianity is just as segregated as the rest of the United States, is an invitation to think more deeply about how we can engage with these authors as students at a Catholic university and enter more honest conversations about the role of religion in promoting or frustrating racial justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last semester, in a class about how law and religion had shaped U.S. history, I read a book that discussed religion and lynching. The author spoke of America\u2019s \u201cmultiple Christianities,\u201d a phrase that\u2019s stuck with me since. I was reminded of this phrase when I noticed the theme of religion in this week\u2019s reading, and … Continue reading Bad Religion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471414],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-native-son","tag-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}