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

Note: this is a duplicate because, apparently, it was set to respond
only to alt.christnet.christnews and I did not notice that.

On Mon, 16 Feb 2026 08:21:12 -0600, Christ Rose
<[email protected]> wrote:

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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 =93What did C.S. Lewis have to say about white =
supremacy?=94
>>=20
>> And Grok replied:
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> 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:
>>=20
>> "All over the earth the White Man=92s offence =91smells to heaven=92:
>> massacres, broken treaties, theft, kidnappings, enslavement,
>> deportation, floggings, beatings-up, rape, insult, mockery, and odious
>> hypocrisy make up that smell."
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> 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.
>>=20
>> --------- end of Grok's reply ---------
>>=20
>> Do you agree with Grok's assessment?
>
>
>The opposite of trusting in Christ for salvation, is allowing people to=20
>manipulate, control, and plunder you with false guilt. For the believer=20
>in Christ, our identity is "saints". We have Christ's righteousness=20
>imputed to our accounts. I will not afflict myself with false guilt over=
=20
>sins I never committed, just so someone who resents white people can=20
>seize control and assets.

Spoken like a true racist.

But don't worry -- if you have faith, you will be saved anyway.

As will all those you despise, under the same condition.
--=20
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"