Racism and Jew hatred is alive and well as the Hamas University affiliate, known as UCLA.
“Professor Sophie Bjork-James also criticized pro-lifers for denying climate change and focusing solely on the issue of abortion.
The event, titled “Misusing the Bible: White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism in America,” featured two other assistant professors.
The trio discussed “how Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism use and misuse biblical and historical material to bolster their narratives,” according to the event description.”
Now we have to add, Christian haters. UCLA needs to have all its Federal funds taken. Then loans to students that attend UCLA need to end. Once that is accomplished, then UCLA will actually become a learning institution—or it will be a monument to hatred, a tourist attraction to see what Nazi Germany looked like.
Pro-lifers misuse Bible to ‘consolidate white political power’: UCLA event
Gabrielle Temaat, The College Fix, 5/1/25 https://www.thecollegefix.com/pro-lifers-misuse-bible-to-consolidate-white-political-power-ucla-event/
‘Anti-abortion movement’ and ‘climate change denial’ are ‘innately tied,’ professor says
The pro-life movement misuses the Bible to “consolidate white political power,” a Vanderbilt University assistant professor said during a symposium hosted by the University of California Los Angeles on Monday.
Professor Sophie Bjork-James also criticized pro-lifers for denying climate change and focusing solely on the issue of abortion.
The event, titled “Misusing the Bible: White Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism in America,” featured two other assistant professors.
The trio discussed “how Evangelicalism and Christian Nationalism use and misuse biblical and historical material to bolster their narratives,” according to the event description.
Some pro-lifers point to the Bible to support their argument, “Yet many biblical scholars say abortion is actually not even really referenced in the Bible, and many argue that it is not a central ethical theme,” Bjork-James said.
She quoted Dallas Theological Seminary Professor Bruce Waltke, who wrote, “God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed.”
Further, Bjork-James referenced historian Jennifer Holland, who “describes the anti-abortion movement as the civil rights movement for white people.”
For evangelicals, the issue of abortion is “like slavery or the Holocaust … there’s no gray area involved,” Bjork-James said.
Fetuses have become icons of life, representations of life itself and of one’s religious identity, she said. To pro-lifers, the fetus is “almost like a public good that must be protected,” she said.
If fetuses are positioned as the new hyper-marginalized group, then defending them becomes akin to participating in a new civil rights movement, the professor said.
She said comparing abortion to “slavery, the Holocaust, issues around really extreme forms of either racism or like societal violence … legitimizes their position.”
“And we can also see in this movement, really a way to help consolidate white political power without having to say, talk about whiteness,” she said.
The professor also said the “anti-abortion movement” and “climate change denial” are “innately tied,” that both stem from evangelical support for capitalism and a theology that prioritizes human life over nature.
There is a “long history of organized opposition to environmentalism within evangelicalism,” she said.
She criticized evangelical theology for limiting the “moral theater” to humans, with a disposable view of the planet. Focusing only on abortion is a way to “pivot away from other issues,” she said.
“And I think that that is really what allows for them to consolidate their power within a broader conservative agenda” that “hurts a lot of people,” Bjork-James said.
Within “Christian nationalism,” capitalism is sacred, and environmental regulations are seen as threats to freedom, she said.
“And the fact that catastrophic ongoing climate change is a threat not only to the more than human life, but human, at least organized human existence, remains outside of their purview in many different ways,” Bjork-James said.
“So white evangelicals remain the largest demographic group in the US … and thus the world … denying the reality of climate change,” she said.
Another speaker, University of Tennessee Knoxville Assistant Professor Brooklyn Walker, criticized Christian nationalism, which she defined as “a set of beliefs that the country is of, by, and for Christians.”
She said Christian nationalism often takes quotes “out of context” and “in misleading ways … to link America’s founding documents and principles to the Bible.”
Further, the speaker said it is associated with reduced tolerance and discriminatory attitudes.
Walker cited examples in which Christian nationalists used the Bible to justify voter suppression, oppose same-sex marriage, and support political violence.
“So instead of holding space in the public square for those they disagree with, Christian nationalists show an openness to using force and power to intimidate or silence others,” she said.
“Christian nationalism is a powerful force today because its adherents have found themselves at the epicenter of political power. Christian nationalists were at the center of the January 6th insurrection, the first transition of presidential power to be steeped in violence,” she said.
Finally, Walker introduced the concept of “anti-Christian nationalism,” a worldview she said is rooted in themes of religious pluralism, tolerance, and “respect for all.”
She concluded that “the Bible is multivocal” as “it has themes that are both exclusionary and inclusive.”
“And consequently, the Bible can inform multiple worldviews,” Walker said.
The final speaker, Ohio State University Assistant Professor Michael Fisher, also criticized Christian nationalism, saying it is often tied to “white racial identity” and “white supremacy.” He accused President Donald Trump of using his authority to enforce a Christian nationalist agenda.
Fisher also questioned the existence of black Christian nationalists, arguing “that the content of Christianity for a sizable percentage of black Christians is fundamentally different than white Americans who qualify as Christian nationalists.”
