Do Christian K-12 Schools Have a Race Problem?
A viral video of a white student at a Fresno, Calif. Christian high school casually dropping an N-bomb is the latest in a spate of racist incidents at faith-based schools, putting a spotlight on their origins.
Mason, a Fresno Christian senior at the time who has since graduated, looks into the camera, an exasperated, see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with expression on his face. That incident, along with others the teenager surreptitiously caught on camera — including another student throwing up a Nazi salute, then pretending to whip him — led Mason’s father to accuse the school of allowing racism to fester on campus.
For parents dissatisfied with local public schools, private, faith-based schools can be an option for their child to receive a quality education anchored in Christian values. But a spate of high-profile incidents points to an undercurrent of racial bias that harms Black students and undermines schools’ religious mission.
“You’re setting the team back” because people see how Christians treat a Black student — “your own people at your own school.” J. Mason told the local NBC affiliate last week.
After receiving inadequate follow-up from school leadership, J. Mason went public with the story. A video of the abuse against Jeremiah has since gone viral.
The incident at Fresno Christian is the latest in a series of racial harassment allegations involving private Christian schools in recent years.
In July, a Black Los Angeles-area mother filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, D.W., who endured years of racist bullying at his Cerritos Christian school — including being called a “monkey” and “snitch.”
Last fall, a Black student filed suit against his prestigious private Christian academy in Westlake Village, also in suburban Los Angeles. The student alleged years of racial harassment from peers, including the use of the N‑word, a mock slave auction in the cafeteria, threats of lynching, and even a whipping sound app used to intimidate him. The lawsuit claims staff witnessed some incidents but failed to intervene effectively.
And in Kentucky in 2023, a federal lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Covington alleged a Black eighth grader at St. Joseph Catholic School was harassed with racial slurs by a teacher, including the use of the N-word during a lesson. The teacher then allegedly retaliated against the girl for reporting the behavior, and she was denied Communion during Mass.
These incidents raise broader questions about the current climate for Black students in Christian schools — and whether the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies is emboldening overt acts of racism.
https://wordinblack.com/2025/07/do-white...e-problem/
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Preps for More European Court Battles
Defense fund will support Christians suing over freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is calling it the “war chest.”
To date, Christians have won a remarkable series of legal victories in Europe. Graham triumphed in his lawsuits. Activists upset by his past comments on LGBTQ people (“the enemy”) and Islam (“an evil and very wicked religion”) successfully pressured stadiums, conference halls, and theaters to cancel BGEA events, despite signed contracts. The seaside city of Blackpool, England, pulled ads from city buses, citing community complaints and “heightened tension.” Then in 2021, British courts said that was religious discrimination and not allowed under the UK Human Rights Act or the European Convention on Human Rights.
Minister Olaf Latzel triumphed in Germany in 2022, when a court ruled that his comments about homosexuality and LGBTQ people in a church marriage seminar were “strange” and “more than alienating” but not hate speech. He was acquitted on all charges.
A conservative politician and a church leader won in Finland the same year, when a court ruled that the things they said about homosexuality were “offensive, but not hate speech.” The judges found that parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and Juhana Pohjola, a bishop with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, were not trying to incite hatred but attempting to explain their views of Scripture.
JD Vance warned about Europe’s “backslide away from conscience rights” and “retreat … from some of its most fundamental values.”
Political scientist Andrea Hatcher, whose research focuses on evangelicals in the UK, said the Christian right doesn’t have the numbers to support a political movement in Europe. Electoral victories, in most places, would be impossible. Court battles, however, can be one way of broadening support.
“Framing their efforts … as ‘free speech’ is a strategic appeal to a wider, secular audience,” Hatcher said. And each lawsuit leads to more connections with more sympathizers and “well-funded global Christian nationalists.”
“We know that true hope can only be found in Jesus Christ,” Graham said when the fund was first announced in 2024, “so we need to support one another in getting the good news of Jesus Christ out, whatever it takes.”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/0...war-chest/
A viral video of a white student at a Fresno, Calif. Christian high school casually dropping an N-bomb is the latest in a spate of racist incidents at faith-based schools, putting a spotlight on their origins.
Mason, a Fresno Christian senior at the time who has since graduated, looks into the camera, an exasperated, see-what-I-have-to-put-up-with expression on his face. That incident, along with others the teenager surreptitiously caught on camera — including another student throwing up a Nazi salute, then pretending to whip him — led Mason’s father to accuse the school of allowing racism to fester on campus.
For parents dissatisfied with local public schools, private, faith-based schools can be an option for their child to receive a quality education anchored in Christian values. But a spate of high-profile incidents points to an undercurrent of racial bias that harms Black students and undermines schools’ religious mission.
“You’re setting the team back” because people see how Christians treat a Black student — “your own people at your own school.” J. Mason told the local NBC affiliate last week.
After receiving inadequate follow-up from school leadership, J. Mason went public with the story. A video of the abuse against Jeremiah has since gone viral.
The incident at Fresno Christian is the latest in a series of racial harassment allegations involving private Christian schools in recent years.
In July, a Black Los Angeles-area mother filed a lawsuit on behalf of her son, D.W., who endured years of racist bullying at his Cerritos Christian school — including being called a “monkey” and “snitch.”
Last fall, a Black student filed suit against his prestigious private Christian academy in Westlake Village, also in suburban Los Angeles. The student alleged years of racial harassment from peers, including the use of the N‑word, a mock slave auction in the cafeteria, threats of lynching, and even a whipping sound app used to intimidate him. The lawsuit claims staff witnessed some incidents but failed to intervene effectively.
And in Kentucky in 2023, a federal lawsuit filed against the Diocese of Covington alleged a Black eighth grader at St. Joseph Catholic School was harassed with racial slurs by a teacher, including the use of the N-word during a lesson. The teacher then allegedly retaliated against the girl for reporting the behavior, and she was denied Communion during Mass.
These incidents raise broader questions about the current climate for Black students in Christian schools — and whether the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies is emboldening overt acts of racism.
https://wordinblack.com/2025/07/do-white...e-problem/
Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Preps for More European Court Battles
Defense fund will support Christians suing over freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) is calling it the “war chest.”
To date, Christians have won a remarkable series of legal victories in Europe. Graham triumphed in his lawsuits. Activists upset by his past comments on LGBTQ people (“the enemy”) and Islam (“an evil and very wicked religion”) successfully pressured stadiums, conference halls, and theaters to cancel BGEA events, despite signed contracts. The seaside city of Blackpool, England, pulled ads from city buses, citing community complaints and “heightened tension.” Then in 2021, British courts said that was religious discrimination and not allowed under the UK Human Rights Act or the European Convention on Human Rights.
Minister Olaf Latzel triumphed in Germany in 2022, when a court ruled that his comments about homosexuality and LGBTQ people in a church marriage seminar were “strange” and “more than alienating” but not hate speech. He was acquitted on all charges.
A conservative politician and a church leader won in Finland the same year, when a court ruled that the things they said about homosexuality were “offensive, but not hate speech.” The judges found that parliamentarian Päivi Räsänen and Juhana Pohjola, a bishop with the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese of Finland, were not trying to incite hatred but attempting to explain their views of Scripture.
JD Vance warned about Europe’s “backslide away from conscience rights” and “retreat … from some of its most fundamental values.”
Political scientist Andrea Hatcher, whose research focuses on evangelicals in the UK, said the Christian right doesn’t have the numbers to support a political movement in Europe. Electoral victories, in most places, would be impossible. Court battles, however, can be one way of broadening support.
“Framing their efforts … as ‘free speech’ is a strategic appeal to a wider, secular audience,” Hatcher said. And each lawsuit leads to more connections with more sympathizers and “well-funded global Christian nationalists.”
“We know that true hope can only be found in Jesus Christ,” Graham said when the fund was first announced in 2024, “so we need to support one another in getting the good news of Jesus Christ out, whatever it takes.”
https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/0...war-chest/
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
