Very well stated, Tim! To dig more deeply into this, one could note the peculiar U.S. Evangelical Protestant belief, one I’ve heard many times from pulpits across the country, that the conservative Evangelical Christian people of the United States are God’s new chosen people, analogous to the Jews of the Old Testament.

This belief fits rather hand in glove with popular Evangelical end-time teachings in which a select few will be snatched up into heaven while the rest of the world suffers under the Antichrist. These select few, of course, will be devout Evangelical Christians. Supposedly, the United States will play a decisive role in fulfilling prophecies that will make all this come to pass.

As silly as it sounds, Evangelical Christians in the United States believe it firmly. And when they learn about it in church, they do so almost always as members of a sea of white faces.

Hearing them natter on about being God’s new chosen people, it’s all but impossible not to notice that the chosen are almost all white.

And if you listen to them very carefully after church, you’ll hear some of them mention that God never really opposed slavery. It’s in the Bible so it must have been not a really big deal to God.