Blood, Cross and Flag : The Influence of Race on Ku Klux Klan Theology in the 1920s

This article addresses the influence of race on Ku Klux Klan theology in the 1920s in order to highlight possible relations between Protestant theology and white radical nationalism. Through the analytical concept of ‘racial exegesis’—meaning a biblically based view on the supposed origin of human races—the main argument is that the Klan did not invent anything in the racial and theological domains. The Klan’s self-proclaimed mission to uphold white Protestant hegemony in America resulted not only in the identification of imagined racial and cultural threats. As important were mythical interpretations of history, according to which the white race was believed to be destined by God to thrive on American soil. The synthesis of racial ideology and Protestant theology in the Klan resulted in a self-identified vanguard of white, native-born, Protestant Americans seeking to follow Christ as ‘Criterion of Character’ by which Klansmen hoped to enhance the resurgence of American nation in accordance with the Founding Fathers’ alleged religious and racial ideals