Recently, a Texas minister 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.

Joel Webbon, a self-described Christian nationalist who heads the Covenant Bible Church in suburban Austin, Tx., made the remarks on his Right Response Ministries podcast. He insisted a crowd of Black strangers is “30 times more dangerous,” than white parents,  and any parent who teaches children to be loving and accepting of all races is feeding them a lie that could put their lives in danger.

Not surprising, the response has been vociferous and swift. Civil rights advocates and journalists called the sermon out for 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 the disingenuous rhetoric Webbon spouted serves to create white supremacist talking points, and as intended, they comments spread quickly on social media.

The usual criminal databases that bigoted white people receive their “Black-on-Black crime” statistics from, and the data that show Black people commit crimes disproportionately (while completely ignoring or downplaying the structural and systemic reasons for why such circumstances might exist), demonstrate that violent crime has been diminishing downward for decades. The overwhelming majority of Black people (like people of all races and ethnicities) do not commit violent crimes in any given year.

Such indisputable realities do not satisfy deeply bigoted individuals and nationalists like Webbon, President Trump, and your average Fox News host, who are obsessed with embracing their dishonest and perverse narratives about Black people. Eventually and consistently, these narratives render all of us hostage to the aggrieved, spiteful, and unhinged whims of white supremacists.

When white people start reciting Black criminality statistics to deflect from the subject of systemic anti-Black racism, there is only a remote likelihood they are 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 declared Black people are a “hate group.”

Additionally, Webbon has argued that 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 who cheer him on and frame the outrage as proof he’s telling uncomfortable truths. Specifically, he points to the online support he has received from the Hodge twins — Black, biracial brothers Keith and Kevin Hodge — 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 have allowed Webbon to resort to the “there, Black people agree with me, thus I am not racist” stance.

This is hardly a ringing endorsement of solid Black support or something absolving him 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 this is a fringe ideal, but 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 —are not things we can laugh off.

Authoritarian fascism is a malignant social cancer. Christian nationalism is a significant symptom and source of such a repressive and sinister movement that must be ruthlessly defeated for the sake of preserving our democracy.

–

Copyright 2025 Elwood Watson, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate

Elwood Watson is a professor of history, Black studies, and gender and sexuality studies at East Tennessee State University. He is also an author and public speaker.