Category: Justice

Evangelical Support for Trump and Following Jesus

Eighty percent of white evangelicals support Trump. Why? An evangelical faith adviser to Trump says the number one reason is “religious liberty.” The issue of abortion is number two.

Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, in a PBS News Hour interview, explains:

“Evangelicals experienced or felt that, in the past number of years, the past 10 years, issues of religious liberty, issues of advancing their Judeo-Christian value systems stood…threatened. Sisters of the Poor, Hobby Lobby, Supreme Court cases that to evangelicals infringed their ability to advance the Gospel of Jesus. So, all of a sudden, we have President Donald Trump, and the public policy initiatives as it pertains to faith is much more favorable to the evangelical community indeed.”

Christianity, as a religion, has had a privileged place in American society, from having chaplains for the House of Representatives to special tax breaks for clergy. Above all, Christians, along with other religions, have been legally free to worship and free to share their message with others. They must proclaim their message, however, in the midst of many other competing messages and at times in hostile environments. That is to be expected.

But compare that to the experience of Christians in the second century, when Justin Martyr pleaded with the Roman emperor, that Christians be judged justly, not merely because they went by the name Christian. Justin was addressing a situation where going by the name of Christ brought on persecution and even death. Justin himself was martyred. The issue was life and death. Even so, Christians continued to share the gospel and to serve. They had learned that they could do all things through the One who strengthened them and could proclaim the gospel in all circumstances. (Paul, in one of his imprisonments, writes that everyone guarding him was hearing the gospel.)

So, what is this concern for religious liberty on the part of “evangelicals” today? What more, in the way of liberty, is being expected from a highly secularized or “pagan” society? Apparently, the expectation is for a government that will make advancing our “Judeo-Christian value systems” less threatened, by carving out special laws that make room for our ability to take stands according to our peculiar consciences without any loss or discomfort.

I suspect that Pastor Rodriguez represents the evangelical community with some accuracy when he says that the number one white evangelical reason for voting for Trump is “public policy initiatives” that are “much more favorable to the evangelical community.” I also suspect that there are other underlying and hidden reasons. Trump’s appeal to racist and anti-immigrant attitudes is a significant factor, as it is in the general white populous. But the ostensible admission that “public policy initiatives” favorable to the evangelical community is the number one reason for continued support of Trump is surprising, given that it comes from those who say they are followers of Jesus who said, “those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”[Matthew 16:25]

Jesus’ followers, rather than securing their positions, are called to lose their lives in order to serve. From a place of humility, we are empowered to do what Jesus did: Declare God’s reign which manifests itself in compassion for those who are “harassed like sheep without a shepherd.” Jesus went to those who carried heavy burdens in order to liberate them, and he spoke against those in power who added to their burdens. Jesus ate with sinners, welcomed the outcast, healed the sick and brought good news to the poor. Jesus’ focus was not on obtaining and holding on to a place of privilege. He “didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”[Mark 10:45]

It would seem that those who go by the name of Christ, who experience God’s governance, would make their number one issue when voting for a leader, the care and uplift of others, especially the “least among us.” It would not be about themselves and gaining or holding on to a privileged position. It would be about the refugee, the hungry, the poor, the oppressed, the imprisoned, the life of the born as well as the unborn. It would seek leaders with some measure of compassion. When Christianity is true to its roots in Christ, it serves others, giving its life for others. It forgets itself and focuses on others, serving them with the good news in word and deed.

Filed under: Faith, Justice, Serving, WitnessTagged with: ,

Sit With It

Roxane Gay, in her January 12th column, “No One Is Coming to Save Us From Trump’s Racism,”[nytimes] tells us to sit down for awhile. “We need to sit with the discomfort of the president of the United States referring to several countries as ‘shitholes’ during a meeting, a meeting that continued after his comments.”

This daughter of Haitian immigrants is not going to do what people expect her to do: “remind Americans, once more, of Haiti’s value, as if we deserve consideration and a modicum of respect from the president of the United States only because as a people we are virtuous enough.”

She has “lost patience with the shock supposedly well-meaning people express every time Mr. Trump says or does something terrible but well in character.” She is “not going to turn this into a teaching moment to justify the existence of millions of Haitian or African or El Salvadoran people because of the gleeful, unchecked racism of a world leader.” Instead, she acknowledges the pain and discomfort. She writes, “Instead of trying to get past this moment, we should sit with it, wrap ourselves in the sorrow, distress, and humiliation of it.”

The first comment I read (in the comment section) understood what she was calling us to do: “As in any addiction recovery program, we have to sit down and acknowledge some fundamental truths: This is not an exceptional nation, this is not the country on a shining hill, and this is not the country that spreads democracy around the world. Donald Trump is simply the symptom of an illness we have to address.” This commenter is pointing to the first step in recovery: “We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.” It is the step we take in order to come out of the denial of our true condition. As the commenter continues: “Step 1 will confront us with uncomfortable truths, but it will address reality, not fiction.”

The United States of America, as a nation, managed to put Donald Trump into the office of the presidency. His presence there tells us about ourselves. His presence in that office is a mirror. And before we come up with another fix for how we are going to save ourselves, we need to sit in front of the mirror. We must “wrap ourselves in the sorrow, distress and humiliation” of our condition as a nation. We must acknowledge how unmanageable our life as a nation has become and how helpless we are. We must confront the addiction and disease of our racism. We must sit with it. Grieve. Desire change. Let the pain of our condition make us ready for help.

We need to sit with it until we know we truly need help. And be open for the help. Wait with the truth of our condition and be open. Only then will we find the additional steps that we must take. They will be given to us.

Filed under: Justice, Racism

Listening: The Road out of Racism

I heard a news report, recently, about a group of teenagers detained by police during a theft investigation. One of the teens questioned why they were being detained: “Because I’m a teen? Because I have baggy pants?” The flippant words got a flippant answer from an officer with a Hispanic surname: “Because you’re white.” The mother of this teen later complained to the police chief and to a news reporter for NBC: “I was outraged. I was very upset. I felt like we were being outcasted because we’re white, which is just unheard of.”

The next day, in the Chicago Tribune, I read about an African American young man who attempted to hang himself in a police holding cell. He survived with massive brain injuries, no longer able to move or speak and spending the past year on life support. This young man, who had no criminal record, experienced a series of events that day that can only be described as gross injustice and racial profiling—these events being the “top of the iceberg” of his young experience. At one point he said to a Chicago police officer, “I’m so tired of racism, bro.”

I am reflecting on these two statements, one by a white woman (“I felt like we were being outcasted because we’re white, which is just unheard of.”) and the other by a young African American man (“I’m so tired of racism.”). There is a great distance between the experiences these statements express—the sense of privilege (it is unheard of to be outcasted because we are white), on the one hand, and the heavy weight of injustice, hurt and anger engendered by racism, on the other.

I write with white people in mind, myself, my family, my white friends and others who experience privileges that racism gives, whether we acknowledge it or not. I am reflecting on the distance that must be traveled between these two statements and experiences to gain understanding and how the journey is made or begun to be made. What does the road out of our racism look like?

It looks like listening. But it begins with repentance. Whatever we are able to recognize in the way of prejudice, we must turn from. Whatever we have assumed about privilege and power as legitimately ours, but which have had their source in racism, we must turn from. We must repent in order to begin to have ears that hear. And then we must listen. As we gain clarity, we must continue to turn, to make changes in our thinking and attitudes and actions. As we keep turning (repenting), we gain better hearing. To whom are we to listen? Those who have been affected by our racism and the racism of this society. Those who daily experience injustice and oppression from both personal affronts and systemic racism. We must hear the cries of those who are hurt by the injustices of our society, and we must listen to those who articulate their experiences and provide guidance for societal change.

In the sixth chapter of Acts, we read that “the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.” In order to prevent this from continuing, the apostles chose “seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” to administrate the food distribution. What is particularly interesting is that all seven of the men had Hellenist names. Apparently, the apostles felt that being “full of the Spirit and of wisdom” was not enough. Those who had experienced the injustice needed to be the ones who administrated a just distribution. They were in the best position to identify and correct the injustice.

Those of us who are white must stop listening to ourselves on how to administrate justice. We must listen to those who have the experience and knowledge to point the way. We must be guided by them. So, the word is: Listen!

Filed under: Justice, Racism

Privileged Or Servant

Recently, I participated in a People’s Lobby gathering in Chicago. This progressive community organization has been focusing on, among other things, ending mass incarceration, renewable energy, fair elections and corporations paying their fair share. There were commitments made, by various office holders, to our agenda. There was a celebration of new people—about three dozen, many young adults, running for office with commitments to social justice.

I have been involved with faith-based community organizing for years: the Calumet Community Religious Conference (responding to the closing of steel mills), Witness for Peace, the Developing Communities Project (with Barack Obama as our organizer), Metropolitan Alliance of Congregations and SOUL (Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation). These organizations were led by clergy and people of faith. They were heavily Christian. Some included Jewish and Muslim leaders. People’s Lobby, however, is not a faith-based organization. It includes, among other elements, a “Faith Liberation Movement” of clergy and people of faith, but the organization itself is broad-based. It is made up of a diversity of ethnic groups, urban and suburban, religious and non-religious (agnostic and atheist), all of which are represented in the leadership. What we have in common is a commitment to social justice.

I like the nature of this organization. Christians do not have a privileged place. We are one group among many others. We are engaged in a common mission of bringing about change in our society oriented to justice. We share from a place of faith—of a particular faith. Others share from other places. We are able to serve the common good along with others. We are able to be what Jesus called us to be, salt, light, and yeast. We can hardly be these without being engaged in our world which includes embracing the gifts and visions of others.

Early on in the program, various groups, perhaps a dozen, were given an opportunity to make some noise indicating their presence among us. By the level of noise, it was clear that there was a sizable group of faith leaders. I was grateful for this witness that linked our faith to social justice, especially given that many, with little experience with Christians, have (through the media) associated Christians with reactionary impulses: anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-others, narrow, mean-spirited, and judgmental. The impression is given that Christians are looking out for themselves and are pressing for a privileged place for Christianity in American society and law.

A pastor, an African American, ended the meeting with a prayer. Before praying, he acknowledged that what he was about to do came from his faith tradition and that there were many others who did not share in this tradition or in any faith tradition. He encouraged others to reach out to God in the way they thought of God, or if they did not believe in God, to simply share in the spirit of the work we were doing together. He did not speak from a place of special privilege but from a place alongside others and as a servant to others. Certainly, this is where Jesus, who was the servant of all, has called us to be.

Filed under: Justice, Witness