What role did biblical literalism play in the KKK’s recruitment and propaganda?
Executive summary
Biblical literalism and Protestant tone were central tools the 20th-century Ku Klux Klan used to recruit, normalize and sacralize its agenda: the second Klan explicitly framed itself as restoring Protestant values and attracted preachers whose biblical literalism and nativism appealed to Klan members [1] [2]. Local reporting and historians document Klan recruitment inside churches and the use of Christian hymns, sermons and adapted creeds to present Klan goals as religious duty [3] [2] [4].
1. How the Klan wrapped politics in scripture
The second Ku Klux Klan (reconstituted in 1915) deliberately positioned itself as a Protestant movement intent on “reestablish[ing] Protestant values in America” and targeted Catholics, Jews and immigrants as threats to that religious-national order, making religion an ideological foundation for its political aims [1]. Historians note that the Klan’s rhetoric, creeds and even adapted hymns made ties to evangelical Christianity explicit; one Klan song was set to the tune of the church hymn “The Old Rugged Cross,” signaling a strategy of religious legitimation [2].
2. Biblical literalism as a recruitment magnet
Prominent traveling preachers known for biblical literalism and nativism — Billy Sunday among them — were attractive to Klan members because their sermons fused strict scriptural readings with cultural conservatism; newspapers and scholarly accounts link such preachers’ style to the Klan’s appeal [4] [2]. That overlap helped the Klan present membership not merely as a civic stance but as a continuation of a literal-reading Christian faith, lowering barriers for churchgoers to join or sympathize [2].
3. Churches as recruitment venues and social cover
Contemporary local reporting and archival research show church spaces were used for Klan proselytizing: regional chapters were allowed to “proselytize their own version of the gospel” in churches during the 1920s surge, turning worship spaces into recruitment venues and giving the movement local legitimacy [3]. This strategy converted religious infrastructure and trust into an organizing advantage for the Klan [3].
4. Messaging: “True Americanism” cloaked in scripture
The Klan recycled slogans such as “true Americanism” and “America for Americans” while framing those themes as consistent with Protestant biblical values; watchdog and historical summaries note those rhetorical continuities from the 1920s into later Klan literature [5] [1]. By fusing nativist politics with religious language, the organization recast exclusionary policies as the defense of an ordained social order [1].
5. Not all religion equals endorsement — historians’ caution
Scholars caution against a simple equation of Protestantism with the Klan: while the second Klan explicitly used Protestant frameworks, some historians have “dismissed direct connections” between mainstream churches and Klan institutions even as evidence shows overlapping personnel, music and sermons [2]. Academic and public sources document both active clergy support and significant clerical repudiation, so the relationship is complex and contested in the scholarship [2].
6. Modern echoes and recruitment tactics today
Contemporary incidents show the Klan still attempts recruitment using culturally resonant language — flyers in 2025 recruited “white Protestants” and urged “self-deport” for migrants, demonstrating that appeals to Protestant identity and nativism remain operational tactics [6]. Extremist monitors likewise find that Klan and splinter groups today reuse nationalist and religious frames to seek mainstream legitimacy amid shifting factional dynamics [5] [6].
7. Sources, limitations and alternative viewpoints
Primary claims here come from historical analyses (e.g., scholarship and commentary on Klan hymns and clergy ties), local reporting on church-hosted recruitment, and summary files from watchdog groups and encyclopedic entries [4] [3] [2] [5] [1] [6]. Available sources document strong use of biblical literalism by some clergy and by the Klan’s messaging, but they also note disagreement among historians about how direct or universal the church–Klan link was [2]. Sources provided do not offer quantitative measures of how many recruits were converted specifically by literalist sermons; that statistic is not found in current reporting.
8. Bottom line for readers
Biblical literalism functioned as both a recruitment magnet and a rhetorical shield for the Klan: it helped frame racist, nativist politics as the defense of Protestant religious order, and it allowed the Klan to use churches, hymns and sympathetic preachers to normalize and grow its membership — even as historians debate the uniformity and depth of institutional church complicity [4] [3] [2] [1].