The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

From the late 1960s to the 1980s, Republican politicians developed a rhetoric of “color-blind conservatism” (153). They would promote policies that harmed specific racial and ethnic groups but claimed “racial innocence” by avoiding racial language. Conservative Christians embraced this political force. Tisby notes that while Democrats also failed to address racial issues, Black people felt particularly degraded by conservatives.

Evangelicals and Politics in the Late Twentieth Century

Evangelism rose during the 1970s and the 1980s, reinforcing a new generation of Christians that became more political. The mobilization of evangelist voters in the 1970s became known as the “rise of the Religious Right” (154). According to Tisby, during the period, Christian complicity in racism took a more subtle form. While Democrats also had racist issues, conservative Christians supported the Republican party. A coalition consisting of fundamentalists, Pentecostals, Catholics, and Protestant evangelicals formed the Christian Right and became a voting target for Republican politicians.

The Rise of Law-and-Order Politics

Tisby states that the idea of Black power in the 1970s, combined with rising protests and riots, challenged American society overall. Politicians like Richard Nixon developed a law-and-order rhetoric to promote the idea of social stability, exploiting racial backlash. Tisby notes that the law-and-order politics eventually reinforced an “aggressive criminal justice establishment” (157).