Re: What did C.S. Lewis think of White Supremacy?

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Mon, 16 Feb 2026 06:47:43 +0200
<[email protected]>
Steve Hayes <[email protected]> wrote:
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> I asked Grok “What did C.S. Lewis have to say about white supremacy?”
> 
> And Grok replied:
> 
> C.S. Lewis did not directly address "white supremacy" as a specific
> modern ideological term (which gained prominence later), but he did
> comment on racial issues, colonialism, and the evils associated with
> claims of racial or national superiority in ways that strongly condemn
> the attitudes underlying white supremacy.
> 
> In his essay collection Christian Reflections (in the piece discussing
> the imprecatory Psalms and applying their spirit of cursing evil),
> Lewis wrote powerfully against the historical abuses committed by
> white Europeans during the colonial era. He described the "White Man's
> offence" in these terms:
> 
> "All over the earth the White Man’s offence ‘smells to heaven’:
> massacres, broken treaties, theft, kidnappings, enslavement,
> deportation, floggings, beatings-up, rape, insult, mockery, and odious
> hypocrisy make up that smell."
> 
> This passage reflects a deep moral outrage at the pattern of
> exploitation, violence, and hypocrisy perpetrated by white colonizers
> against other peoples (whom he refers to as "Red men, and Black, and
> Brown and Yellow"). It directly indicts the kind of racialized
> domination and assumed superiority that characterized much of European
> imperialism and aligns with a rejection of white supremacist practices
> and attitudes.
> 
> Lewis was also critical of nationalism when it escalates into claims
> of inherent superiority. In The Four Loves (in the chapter on
> "Patriotism" or love of country), he warned against the progression
> from healthy love of one's home and culture to demonic forms of
> nationalism that claim racial or national supremacy, leading to
> cruelty, oppression, and even extermination. He described how such
> distorted patriotism can declare, "Dogs! Know your betters!"-a clear
> repudiation of supremacist hierarchies.
> 
> He further critiqued the modern obsession with equality in a way that
> highlights his opposition to envy-driven resentment of any
> superiority, but he supported practical equality of rights and dignity
> under God, while rejecting any idealization of flat equality that
> denies natural differences or hierarchies of virtue.
> 
> Some critics have accused Lewis of unconscious racial bias or
> "Orientalism" in his fiction-particularly in The Chronicles of Narnia,
> where the Calormenes (a desert people inspired by Middle Eastern/Arab
> cultures) are often portrayed as antagonists with stereotypical traits
> (dark-skinned, turban-wearing, expansionist). Authors like Philip
> Pullman and some academic analyses have labeled elements of his work
> as implicitly racist or tied to white supremacist assumptions of the
> era. Defenders argue these reflect common literary conventions of his
> time (pseudo-medieval crusader-Saracen dynamics) rather than
> deliberate advocacy, and point to positive elements like the
> redemptive arc of a Calormene character (Emeth) in The Last Battle or
> the depiction of an interracial marriage in the series.
> 
> Overall, Lewis's explicit statements condemn racial oppression,
> colonial atrocities, and supremacist arrogance-rooted in his Christian
> belief in the equal dignity of all people before God-while some of his
> fictional portrayals have been seen by later readers as reflecting
> unexamined cultural prejudices of mid-20th-century Britain. He did not
> endorse white supremacy; where he addressed related evils, he
> denounced them.
> 
> --------- end of Grok's reply ---------
> 
> Do you agree with Grok's assessment?


The opposite of trusting in Christ for salvation, is allowing people to 
manipulate, control, and plunder you with false guilt. For the believer 
in Christ, our identity is "saints". We have Christ's righteousness 
imputed to our accounts. I will not afflict myself with false guilt over 
sins I never committed, just so someone who resents white people can 
seize control and assets.

-- 
Have you heard the good news Christ died for our sins (†), and God 
raised Him from the dead?

That Christ died for our sins shows we're sinners who deserve the death 
penalty. That God raised Him from the dead shows Christ's death 
satisfied God's righteous demands against our sin (Romans 3:25; 1 John 
2:1-2). This means God can now remain just, while forgiving you of your 
sins, and saving you from eternal damnation.

On the basis of Christ's death and resurrection for our sins, call on 
the name of the Lord to save you: "For 'everyone who calls on the name 
of the Lord will be saved'" (Romans 10:13, ESV).

https://christrose.news/salvation

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