Vita protestanter, brinnande kors : Ku Klux Klan, pan-protestantism och myten om Amerika

The aim of this thesis is to analyse how and to what extent Ku Klux Klan constructed a pan-Protestant interpretation of Christianity based on its “myth of America” (Americanism) during the years 1915–30. Using hermeneutic content analysis and a theoretical approach based on Gramscian “cultural hegemony” and historian of religions Bruce Lincoln’s theory of myth, I examine the construction through three analytical themes: the Klan and the myth of America, the Klan’s pan-Protestantism, the Klan and religious patriotism. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s advocated a theological position where race and religious confession are intimately entwined, and its members hence believed that the white race is God’s chosen people and Unites States a God-ordained nation. Opposing the idea of multiculturalism, Klan members stressed the notion of America as a nation imagined to be threatened by Jews, Catholics, and blacks. Therefore, every white Protestant American had to unite in order to combat these alleged national and racial menaces. This worldview was permeated by aspects of love. It was mostly because of love to God, race and nation – not primarily due to hate – the Klan constructed its interpretation of Protestant Christianity. The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s truly imagined themselves as guard-ians, or Knights, of an endangered culture