by Jim Phillips
Last week, Peace House editor Kerul Dyer reported on some recent local activities of the Salt Shakers, a group of self-identified Christian fundamentalists who stage protests, apparently against anything they decide is “immoral.” Their concept of what is immoral apparently includes anything to do with normal human sexuality or human diversity. They and others like them have become an American version of the morality police. One can imagine what they would do if they actually had political power to enforce their beliefs. But this is exactly what they and others of like mind are currently trying hard to accomplish but taking over local school boards, town councils, police departments, county commissions, the state legislature, and other steps to political power in Oregon. This is happening here and now.
Historically, Oregon has had its share of bigotry and anti-diversity violence, but also a history of group and community resistance to such bigotry and violence. The list of victims of bigotry and violence in Oregon is long— Native Americans and Pacific Islanders, Chinese and Japanese, Mexicans, African Americans, Jews, Catholics, women, and members of the LGBTQ community. Stories of racial and religious bigotry abound. Many people are aware that in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan marched openly and proudly in Fourth of July parades in Ashland. The Mayor of Medford was a Klansman, as were members of the Oregon legislature. The Klan’s special targets in Oregon were Jews and Catholics, and any people of color they could find. The Klansmen were conspiracy theorists. They said Catholics were drunkards and sinners who were trying to overthrow the U.S. government and install the Pope as a dictator. The Klan preached a toxic mixture of religious and racial bigotry in order to defend “Americanism.” The country must be white, Christian, and male dominated, or it would sink into moral and political oblivion.
In the 1920s, the Klan brought a legal case against St. Mary’s Academy to get it closed or brought under secular control because they thought Catholics were not true Christians. This bigotry and religious censorship prompted a group of Protestant clergy and Oregon lawyers (some of whom had no religious affiliation) to provide critical support for the nuns at St. Mary’s in their defense as the case went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Klan lost the case, but its claim to be protecting American values and “true” Christianity continues to be the message of other, more recent groups that try to claim the mantle of Christian exclusively for their blend of bigotry, hate, and fear. This is not the Jesus who inspired Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.
Claiming Christian identity for bigoted beliefs and threatening and violent actions is often a false front that uses concepts of “sin” and “immorality” as political weapons against whoever is different. The absolute certainty and self-righteousness of those who condemn others is not religious faith, since faith implies uncertainty and humility. If I am certain, I have no need of faith. Religious fascism goes hand in hand with political fascism, and it thrives on dualistic thinking— uniformity is godly, diversity is satanic. It is worth noting that the brutal military dictatorships of Latin America in the 1970s all shared this dualistic ideology. In their eyes, diversity was dangerous because it encouraged tolerance and freedom, which equated to immorality in the warped mentality of fascism. The current movement of Christian Nationalism in Oregon and the United States is neither Christian nor nationalist, if by nationalist we mean support for the essence of the American experiment—our democratic diversity and tolerance.
Bigotry in Oregon’s history has often invoked public resistance and response. The Protestant clergy who supported the nuns of St. Mary’s is one example. Our current example is provided by the Pepper Shakers, the group of high school students in the Rogue Valley who provide immediate, in-person, protection for those targeted by the Salt Shakers. They make protection of the targeted groups their primary objective, not direct confrontation. Practical action done with conviction and humility. These initiatives need our support in whatever ways we can help, and especially in community with others, if we are to stop religious and political fascism from growing in our lives. The Pepper Shakers website: rvpeppershakers.com
Jim Phillips, a former Peace House Board Chairperson, was a Jesuit seminarian for fourteen years and a student of religion and social change. As an anthropologist, he has studied the roles of church and state in Latin America since the 1970s. His unpublished manuscript on southern Oregon is entitled, A Short History of Tolerance in the State of Jefferson.
