White Christian Nationalism Is Thriving and Black People Are Being Recruited as Foot Soldiers: The Jaden Ivey Case Study

Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Let me ask y’all something, and I want you to sit with this for a second. Is Jaden Ivey being persecuted for his faith? Or is there a difference between using your love for Jesus Christ and using it to justify hate for somebody else? Because I need us to be very clear about that distinction right now. The Chicago Bulls waived Ivey on March 30, 2026, for conduct detrimental to the team after he went on Instagram and called the NBA’s celebration of Pride Month “unrighteousness.” And immediately, the internet lit up with people screaming persecution. Christians are under attack. They’re silencing believers. And I’m sitting here like—no, we’re not doing this. Not today. Not with this history.Because here’s what I need y’all to understand: this is not about one basketball player having an opinion about the Bible. This is about the machinery of white Christian nationalism actively recruiting Black people to be its foot soldiers, and a 24-year-old man who either doesn’t know the history or doesn’t care. Either way, we have a problem. And I’m going to walk y’all through the receipts.It Is Not Religious Persecution. Full Stop.Number one, I’m going to answer the question for y’all in the back. It is not religious persecution. You cannot use your religion or faith to justify calling another group unrighteous or saying their mere presence goes against the righteousness of God. That is oppression. Period. Ivey said his conduct was detrimental to the team, and he asked why they didn’t just say they disagreed with his stance on LGBTQ people. I’ll tell you why. Because it was detrimental to the team. Instead of talking about the Bulls’ performance on the court, we’re talking about his antics, his ignorance, the way he’s trying to justify oppression in the name of Jesus.Number two, most of the time selective moral outrage comes from ignorance. Do you know that in 2016, the NBA and the WNBA became the first professional sports leagues to march in the New York City Pride Parade? That was headline news. Commissioner Adam Silver was on the float. The WNBA had already established the first league-wide Pride campaign in 2014. Jaden Ivey was born in 2002. That means the NBA has been celebrating Pride since he was approximately 13 or 14 years old. He was drafted in 2022. He signed contracts. He cashed checks. He played in a league that had been celebrating Pride for years before he ever put on a jersey. This is not a surprise. This is a choice to ignore the environment you voluntarily entered.The History They Don’t Want You to KnowNow let me give y’all the history, because this is where the consciousness comes in. Christian nationalism is not new. It is not a fringe movement. It is one of the oldest political ideologies in the Western hemisphere, and its roots are soaked in blood. In 1493, the Doctrine of Discovery gave European Christians papal authority to colonize, convert, and enslave non-Christian peoples. That single document became the legal and theological foundation for the transatlantic slave trade, the genocide of Indigenous peoples, and the construction of the racial hierarchy that still governs this country today.The New England Puritans carried this ideology to North America. They saw themselves as God’s chosen people, North America as their Promised Land, and Indigenous peoples as the Canaanites who needed to be conquered. Manifest Destiny wasn’t just a political slogan—it was a theological claim. The idea that white Christians had a divine right to rule this continent is not a distortion of Christian nationalism. It is the definition of it.By the 1930s, anti-New Deal business interests were linking American capitalism to Christianity. In 1956, Congress adopted “In God We Trust” as the national motto during the Cold War—not because of devotion, but to distinguish America from communist atheism. Christianity became a tool of geopolitics. Then in the 1960s, the Supreme Court banned school prayer, and in 1971, Green v. Connally threatened the tax-exempt status of racially segregated Christian schools. That is what birthed the modern Religious Right. Not prayer. Not abortion. Segregation. The defense of white Christian institutions that refused to integrate. That is the origin story they will never tell you.Trump’s Relationship with Christian NationalismAnd now let’s talk about the present, because Christian nationalism is no longer just a cultural phenomenon. It is federal policy. On February 6, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias.” It established a federal task force under the Attorney General to investigate alleged anti-Christian persecution in government agencies. The next day, he signed a second order creating the White House Faith Office, led by televangelist Paula White-Cain. On May 1, 2025, he launched a Religious Liberty Commission.Let’s pause and process that. Russell Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist and key architect of Project 2025, was appointed to run the Office of Management and Budget—the agency that oversees the implementation of presidential policy across the entire federal government. The architect of the blueprint is now the builder of the house. Project 2025 is over 900 pages long. It calls for a biblical definition of marriage and family, the rollback of LGBTQ protections, the elimination of the Department of Education, and the defunding of what it calls “woke progressivism.” Mariko Hirose of Americans United for Separation of Church and State called it “a road map for Christian nationalism.”And when journalists pointed out that all of this violates the separation of church and state, Trump said—and I quote because I cannot make this up—during a Rose Garden event celebrating National Prayer Day: “They say separation between church and state. I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time.” The President of the United States said let’s forget about the First Amendment. On camera. In the Rose Garden. And somehow Jaden Ivey thinks he’s the one being persecuted? Come on, man.Antiblackness and White Supremacy: Baked Into the FoundationHere’s the part that should make every Black person reading this stop and think for a second. Antiblackness is not a side effect of Christian nationalism. It is a foundational ingredient. The Confederacy wrote God into its constitution explicitly—the U.S. Constitution does not mention God. The Confederate project was a Christian nationalist project, and its central institution was the enslavement of Black people.Southern theologians constructed entire theological frameworks to justify slavery. They used the “Curse of Ham” from Genesis 9, claiming Black people were cursed by God and destined for servitude. The text says nothing about skin color. The curse was on Canaan, not all of Ham’s descendants. It was a fabrication—a lie built on a misreading and upheld by white supremacist power. They created a Slave Bible that literally removed every liberation story from Scripture—including the Exodus—and kept only the passages about obedience. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how this works, nothing will.The Southern Baptist Convention was founded in 1845 because Northern Baptists refused to accept slaveholders as missionaries. The Methodist Episcopal Church split over slavery in 1844. The Presbyterians split in 1861. These denominations were literally born from the defense of chattel slavery using the Bible. And after slavery ended, the same theology propped up Jim Crow. White pastors preached that racial mixing violated God’s natural order. The Klan burned crosses—that wasn’t a random choice of symbol. Christianity was the scaffolding for American apartheid.Today, PRRI research shows that 66% of white evangelical Protestants—the demographic most aligned with Christian nationalism—believe discrimination against Christians is as serious as discrimination against other groups. Meanwhile, Black people face documented disparities in housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice, and wealth. Christian nationalism has always needed a racial hierarchy. It needs Black people at the bottom or, increasingly, Black people willing to participate in their own subjugation. When a Jaden Ivey parrots Christian nationalist talking points, he’s not exercising faith. He’s being recruited.It Always Blows My MindIt always blows my mind when people that look like me try to use the Bible to justify denying the humanity of somebody else. Like we ain’t experienced that. Like that ain’t our history. The same book that was used to tell our ancestors to obey their masters. The same book that was edited—literally edited—to remove the stories of liberation. And now we’re using it to target someone else? The amnesia is the emergency.Number five on my list of receipts: Christian nationalism is thriving and we should all be concerned. What you see is all the ways that the Christian nationalists—the white folks, the white supremacists—use the Bible to justify the denial of a whole bunch of things. Like Black education. They’re going to use what’s happening with Jaden Ivey to say look at this, Christians are being persecuted because we believe we have the right to say messed up things about entire identities because it goes against our beliefs. Because their beliefs have to conform to your identity.And to the Christians of all colors who are watching this: the entire government in America is run by Christians. Every branch of government. Every entity and industry in this country is dominated by Christians. That means not only is nobody oppressing you or persecuting you for your religious belief—it means the claim is delusional. And that takes me to a very important point. Jaden Ivey is either engaging in selective moral outrage out of ignorance, or this man might be experiencing a mental health crisis. His coach, Billy Donovan, acknowledged as much, saying he’s not a doctor but that mental health is a real issue. Ivey himself has spoken about dealing with depression. I say this not to mock him but to be honest: the behavior was spiraling, and the people around him need to make sure he’s okay.Chex Mix ChristianityA lot of y’all treat the Bible like a bag of Chex Mix. You love the pretzels but you don’t like the croutons, so you throw those out. Where is the outrage when folks are mixing their polyester with their silk? That’s in Leviticus. Where is the outrage when y’all got that swine on your mind? That’s in the Bible too. But none of these folks are on Instagram condemning the bacon cheeseburger. They’re only interested in the parts that let them target someone else.Christian nationalism sounds great until you realize it means Christian supremacy. It’s bad because the people who want to make you live by Christian values don’t follow those Christian values themselves. The people who use your religion corruptly to try and persuade the masses to do what they want—that’s why it’s bad. One of the cornerstones of this experiment called America was religious freedom. The idea that you wouldn’t be persecuted for practicing your religion. It’s the first line of the First Amendment. All your different books that you follow—you’re allowed to do that in America without the other one establishing laws over you. That’s the whole point.Consciousness Precedes TransformationSo where does that leave us? It leaves us with a choice. You can be recruited into a movement that was built on the subjugation of your ancestors, or you can educate yourself about why that movement exists and who it actually serves. The Slave Bible is in a museum. The executive orders are on the White House website. Project 2025 is available to read in its entirety. The receipts are everywhere. The only question is whether you’re willing to look at them.This is why I do what I do. Research over me searching. Facts over feelings. And the fact is, Christian nationalism has never been about Christ. It has been about power. It has been about control. And it has always—always—depended on Black people not knowing their own history. That’s why they’re banning books. That’s why they’re defunding public education. That’s why Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the Department of Education. Because an educated populace cannot be recruited. An informed community cannot be fooled and a conscious people cannot be weaponized against themselves. Education is elevation. Explicit Ask to become Paid Subscriber Everything you just read—the history of the Slave Bible, the receipts on Trump’s executive orders, the connection between the Doctrine of Discovery and today’s Christian nationalist policy agenda, the data on who actually runs every branch of government—this is the kind of research, documentation, and teaching that is being systematically erased from public education. This is the work that nobody else is doing at this scale, with this level of specificity, and with this commitment to telling the truth about what’s really happening.I’m fighting to fill a critical void left by the retreat of public education media. I document and teach the histories, legal frameworks, and cultural knowledge that are being systematically erased or distorted. With no corporate backing or wealthy sponsors, this work depends entirely on readers like you. As a Black educator and researcher, my work depends entirely on a community of readers, not corporate sponsors. If everyone reading this became a paid subscriber, we could build a full-time digital sanctuary: a new, independent source of PBS-depth reporting and curriculum, centered on Black expertise. But right now, less than 1% of my followers are paid subscribers.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.5 Key Takeaways1. This Is Not Religious Persecution — It Is Selective Moral OutrageJaden Ivey was not persecuted for his faith. He was held accountable by his employer for conduct detrimental to the team. The NBA and WNBA have been celebrating Pride since 2014 and 2016 respectively. He entered a league with established values around inclusion and then publicly condemned those values. That is not martyrdom. That is a contractual and professional consequence.2. Christian Nationalism Is Federal Policy Right NowBetween Trump’s “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” executive order, the White House Faith Office, and the Religious Liberty Commission—all launched in 2025—Christian nationalism has moved from the margins to the machinery of government. Project 2025 is the blueprint, and its architects are now in charge of implementation.3. Antiblackness Is Structural to the Christian Nationalist ProjectFrom the Doctrine of Discovery to the Slave Bible to the founding of the Southern Baptist Convention in defense of slaveholding, white Christian nationalism has always required a racial hierarchy. When Black people are recruited into this movement, they are being asked to serve a system that was designed to subjugate them.4. The Bible Has Been Weaponized Before — And Black People Were the TargetThe same selective, proof-texting method being used to condemn LGBTQ people today was used to justify chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation. The methodology has not changed. The target has shifted. But the people wielding the weapon remain the same.5. Consciousness Precedes TransformationUnderstanding the history of Christian nationalism is not an academic exercise. It is a survival skill. When you know that the Confederacy wrote God into its constitution, when you know that they made a Slave Bible, when you know that the modern Religious Right was organized around segregation—not prayer—you can see the pattern. And once you see it, you can’t be recruited into it.Thanks for reading Education Is Elevation! This post is public so feel free to share it.1. Gorski, Philip S. and Perry, Samuel L. The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to American Democracy. Oxford University Press, 2022. A data-driven examination of how white Christian nationalism operates as a political ideology, its correlation with racial resentment, and its role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.2. Jones, Robert P. The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future. Simon & Schuster, 2023. Traces white Christian nationalism to the Doctrine of Discovery in 1493, connecting papal authority, colonial ideology, and contemporary racial politics.3. Du Mez, Kristin Kobes. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. Liveright Publishing, 2020. Documents how white evangelical culture weaponized masculinity and militarism, creating the foundation for today’s Christian nationalist movement.4. Tisby, Jemar. The Color of Compromise: The Truth About the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. Zondervan, 2019. A history of the American church’s active participation in racial injustice from slavery through the civil rights era and beyond.5. Whitehead, Andrew L. and Perry, Samuel L. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2020. Defines Christian nationalism through survey data and examines its relationship to attitudes on race, gender, immigration, and authoritarianism.Education Is Elevation is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theconsciouslee.substack.com/subscribe