By Rev. Earle J. Fisher, Special to The New Tri-State Defender
I’m not really surprised. But, I am grief-stricken and traumatized.
Yes, I knew that the vestiges of white supremacy and sexism are in the structural DNA of our country. I knew the bigoted dog whistles were not landing on deaf ears. I knew closeted racists would come home to roost. I knew that the freedom struggle ebbs and flows in the most inconvenient of waves.
I knew Trump could become president.
I just didn’t want it to be so.
I also knew that calls for an immediate unity and superficial peace would soon follow. Photo ops and revisionist histories are being produced as we speak. I’ll trust historians, sociologists and political scientists will uncover most of the truths about the moment. But, as a spiritual leader and social activist I will not let the faith community camouflage its hypocrisy.
Let’s call a spade a Trump.
What the president-elect expressed as his platform was intentionally and unapologetically exclusionary, divisive and hateful. These tenets are inconsistent with what most people of faith claim as ideals.
One of ‘The Donald’s’ top surrogates, Rudy Giuliani (aka Mr. Stop-And-Frisk), tweeted during Election Day, “We cannot let blacks and Hispanics alone decide this election for Hillary!”
Wow.
Trump’s animus towards inclusivity and diversity, which many mainstream Christians appeal to as hallmarks of the faith, was front and center. And still. Over 80 percent of white Evangelicals (4 out of 5) punched the ballot for a divorcee, self-proclaimed adulterer, alleged sexual assaulter and professed tax-evader.
So much for rendering unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.
Nevertheless, Mr. Trump knew what scriptures to (mis)quote. He knew what hymns to hum and how to obtain the blessing of the Christian right (which might be better titled the Christian “wrong” after this election). The day after the election, Kate Shellnut wrote that while Hillary Clinton neglected outreach efforts to evangelicals, “Trump spent much of the months leading up to Election Day directly courting evangelical support. Those voters – particularly in battleground states such as Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida – proved to be one of his strongest support bases.”
Steve McQuilkin of the USA Today inquired, “How did people of faith reconcile the teaching of Christ with the tough rhetoric of the reality star and real estate mogul?” He rationalized that, “For many, it came down to a few major issues, such as abortion and Supreme Court appointments. They also were swayed by party loyalty and fear of a government under Hillary Clinton.”
Let me do McQuilkin and the rest of us a solid. It’s called – hypocrisy.
The White Church has never been able to overcome (or collectively repent from) its imperial theology, which allowed its members to stand in the sermonic support of slavery while saying they believed in freedom and liberty for all. White evangelicals, by and large, preach about being pro-life but also cling to guns and war tighter than the Apostle’s Creed.
Christian conservatives for decades have tried to claim a moral high ground as progenitors of the Prince of Peace. Nevertheless, they walked in droves into a ballot box more private than their prayer closet and inserted Trump/Pence into the holy grail of democracy.
If the White Church is sincere about its current calls for reconciliation, I’d suggest they start with some collective, public and documented confessions.
Meanwhile, the Black Church quite often parrots most of the religious tenets and ideologies of White Evangelicalism. It’s blasphemous.
True, only about 22 percent of evangelicals of color publicly confessed a commitment to Trump, but we do know how people are prone to sin in secret. Thirteen percent of African-American men voted Trump. They said, “Give us Barabbas.” Clearly, the residue of white supremacist patriarchy that is masked in Christian faith rubbed off in this election.
Nevertheless, although we meet this moment with, at best, some cognitive dissonance, we can still chart a more positive, progressive and prophetic path forward.
God is not mocked.
Although there are some that believe a Trump/Pence presidency will lead to a resurgence of religious fervor and church attendance, I beg to differ. In fact, the Black Church is currently unprepared for such a revival.
For now, all of us must consider how much what Trump preached on the stump resonates with American Christianity. We need reclamation of the type of faith that serves as a conscious of a society and not the compass of political opportunism. We must continually challenge the church to be a better reflection of the values we have bragged about. We have to recapture the courage needed to reject parts of Biblical literature and culture that are appropriated to justify bigotry, hatred, cultish conquest and violence against “others.” In these perilous times, we need to establish a necessary infrastructure for the Church to be a safe haven for those who need refuge in this renewed environment of overt racism.
The Black Church is still the institution with the most potential for leveraging what we need for a Black Liberation that will help “justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Let the Church say, “Amen.” Or, nah.
(The Rev. Earle Fisher is senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church and co-spokesperson for the Memphis Grassroots Organizations Coalition.)
