Recently, a Texas “Christian” minister has caused considerable consternation and has found himself under fierce and frantic fire after informing White parents they’re “failing” their kids if they don’t warn them to stay away from Black people. The clip exploded throughout the blogger sphere and blew up online. Joel Webbon, a self-described Christian nationalist and Matt Walsh (another far right public figure), look alike who heads Covenant Bible Church in suburban Austin, espoused the remarks on his Right Response Ministries podcast and insisted that a crowd of Black strangers is “30 times more dangerous” that white parents must instruct their children to fear and not to interact with Black people  -  and that any parent who teaches children to be loving and accepting of all races is feeding them a lie that could put their lives in perilous danger.

In the sermon, Webbon urges white Christian parents to have what he refers to “The Talk,” not about police safety, the version Black families have long had to give their kids, but about staying away from certain neighborhoods and, pointedly, from Black people they don’t know. He declares his message as life-saving “truth,” accusing parents who teach racial equality of lying to their children. Monitors who posted the clip highlight the language and its intent, painting an entire group as a threat.

“If you’re a Christian white parent who loves the Lord and loves your children, you need to have The Talk,” said Webbon. “The Talk that we’re referencing is the talk that takes your children, according to their maturity, at the proper time, the appropriate time, and says, there are certain parts of town that you cannot go. And there are certain people that you cannot be around.”

“If there’s someone who is Black in our church, and they’ve been in our church and we know them and they love the Lord Jesus Christ, great. We’re not talking about that person. But we’re talking about when you go into a crowd of people  -  if you go into a crowd of strangers  -  and they’re white strangers, there’s some danger. If they’re Black strangers, there is 30 times more danger. Them’s the facts.” Mind you these are the word of a supposedly “Christian” minister.

The response was vociferous and swift. Civil-rights advocates and journalists called the sermon out for what it is, what it is, rabid, racial fear-mongering packaged as parental advice, while researchers warned that preaching bogus “crime math” fuels division and can green-light discrimination in everyday life. The truth is that the disingenuous rhetoric Webbon spouted are not so-called “facts” Rather, they are draconian, acidic, reductive white supremacist/nationalist talking points that are the hallmark of historically, endemic white supremacy itself.

The usual criminal databases, where bigoted white people receive their “Black-on-Black crime” statistics, and the data that shows Black people commit crimes disproportionately (while completely ignoring or downplaying the structural, systemic and systemic reasons for why such circumstances might exist), demonstrate that violent crime has been diminishing downward for decades, additionally, such information reveals that the overwhelming majority of Black people (like people of all races and ethnicities) do not commit violent crimes in any given year. Thus, such indisputable realities do not satisfy deeply bigoted individuals and nationalists like Webbon and Walsh, President Trump, your average Fox News host, right wing incels and others of similar ilk are obsessed with embracing the dishonest and perverse narrative about Black people being inherently rapacious, wanton, vile etc. which, eventually and consistently renders all of us hostage to the aggrieved, spiteful and unhinged whims of white supremacists.

Truth be told, when white people start reciting Black criminality statistics to deflect from the subject of systemic anti-Black racism, there is only a remote or nil likelihood that they’re speaking with one of those supposedly “belligerent and dangerous” Black people who are responsible for such grim statistics. To add insult to injury, Webbon is blatantly urging his fellow whites to pass down their discriminatory racism to their children, while strongly urging white people to stay away from people like me, similar to the manner in which Dilbert creator Scott Adams suggested, (I wrote about his shameful, racist antics as well) when he declared that Black people are a “hate group” in response to some Black people’s response to an obvious question about whether “it’s OK to be white.” Additionally, Webbon has argued women shouldn’t have the right to vote, when asked to describe one aspect of a “Christian nation” during a 2023 podcast. His ministry says it deems homosexuality as immoral.

Webbon, for his part, has remained steadfast in his position. He has interacted with conservative influencers cheering him on and cast the outrage as proof he’s telling uncomfortable truths. Specifically, he points to the online support he has received from the Hodge twins. On social media, Webbon replied to and singled out the duo known as the “Hodgetwins,” who said on X that they agreed with his comments about the dangers presented by Black people. “Appreciate it, @hodgetwins,” Webbon wrote. “Let me know if you ever need an extra guest for your show.” The Hodgetwins, Black, bi-racial brothers Keith and Kevin Hodge, are a stand-up comedy and conservative political commentary duo with more than three million subscribers on their Conservative Twins YouTube channel. The twins are trump supporters, and appeared on trump’s Real News Update webcast. They oppose the Black Lives Matter political and social movement. This has allowed Webbon to resort to the “there Black people agree with me, thus I am not racist” stance. Hardly a ringing endorsement of solid Black support or absolving of racial prejudice...

Christian nationalists understand themselves to be playing a character. They are drawn into a narrative that says, you are at the last battle. You have a chance to do something that is much bigger than you. Will you answer that call? Will you come to D.C. on January 6? Will you ride with us to the southern border? Because these are the moments, these are the battles that will shape our country. This is the cosmic war between good and evil. Are you really going to sit on the sidelines?

Some of you can decide to laugh that off. We can think that that’s a fringe ideal, and yet January 6 was not something to dismiss lightly. Many events that have transpired since then, the swatting of judges’ houses, the evacuations of capitals due to bomb threats, so many more examples, little fires everywhere, and are not things we can laugh off. Authoritarian fascism is a malignant social cancer. Christian nationalism is a significant source of such a repressive and sinister movement that it must be defeated for the sake of preserving our democracy.