When Did God Forsake Us?

Throughout the course of my life I've heard Christians, especially Evangelicals, argue that God has removed the blessings and covering from America we took for granted. They say all of the violence, addiction, death and destruction we are seeing is a result of losing favor with God. Let's say, for the sake of agreement, that's all true. Where was God during the genocide of this continent's original inhabitants, chattel slavery, Black codes, Jim Crow, misogynistic treatment of women and segregation?

Did God sanction those atrocities? Did a loving God turn a blind eye to the undeserved suffering of those people? Did God bless and cover those responsible for the crimes against their humanity?

When did God turn his back on America? What was the final straw? I have questions.

These aren't questions about Theodicy, bad things happen to good people all the time and we are left wondering why God allows the innocent to be victimized. These are questions about a nationalist ideology that ignores history and prioritizes the culture wars. Too many Christians refuse to address these kinds of questions. Did God bless the dehumanizing and barbaric behavior that was a fundamental part of the formation of this nation?

Who's Really Woke?

Every few weeks I get invited to join a pro black Facebook group. These groups tend to be populated with passionate brothers and sisters who use the larger platform to share their perspectives on the continued effects of colonialism, structural racism, and patriarchy on the black community. The best groups I’ve seen have been saturated with positive messages that hinge on unity, economic empowerment, and black pride. At their best, these groups are a source of daily affirmations for people in the struggle. One negative many of these groups have in common is their almost universal disdain for the black church. There are large blocks of the “new” conscious community who don’t view Christians as allies in the fight for social justice. Divisions inside Christian, Islamic, Afrocentric, and secular black movements aren’t new; there’s never been a time when these groups posited the same solutions to our shared problems, but the complete disregard for the Civil Rights accomplishments made by the black church is disrespectful. The conscious community prides itself on being woke, but in the words of Lil Duval, “Some of y’all need a nap.”

I always advise young Christian activists to accept the fact that they share struggles with people who view their religion as truncated at best, or a fundamental part of the black community’s underlying problems at worst. When Christians are confronted by nonbelievers skeptical of our commitment to fighting systemic racism we have to listen to their critiques and take them seriously. This doesn’t mean you spend all of your time and energy defending the church or explaining your personal journey of faith, but you should engage your allies’ conceptions and likely misconceptions about both. How you answer the inevitable “slave master’s religion question” and how you talk about “Prosperity Gospel” can be the difference between deconstructing the image of the church versus involuntarily taking part in its destruction.

The church has always been judged by the actions of its most visible representatives. When television cameras where pointed at the likes of Dr. King, Reverend Ralph Abernathy, and Reverend Wyatt T. Walker the perception of the church was different. These men weren’t perfect and their accomplishments didn’t negate the transgressions committed by the church during the height of their ministries, but their witness helped shape the way a generation of people viewed the church. Social media has enabled those trying to destroy the black church to reduce it to easily shareable memes about Creflo Dollar, the deceased Bishop Eddie Long, and the black pastors who supported Donald Trump. It doesn’t matter how “woke” or active Christians with small platforms are their efforts are invisible to those who view the church through the lens of social media. The silence from mega church pastors about issues important to the black community plays into the myth of a dead church. The fact that one has to do a Google search to find a statement, tweet, or sermon from some of the biggest names in Prosperity Gospel about police brutality or the resurgence of white nationalism is telling. The black church, like the black community, is indicted as a whole for the actions of the minority.

Many of the same people fighting against police racial profiling of black people don’t see the hypocrisy associated with their religious profiling of black people. The anti-Christian sentiment inside the conscious community is more complicated than social media posts and public positions taken by prominent church figures. The black community isn’t monolithic. We share similar struggles, but we don’t share similar thought processes and beliefs. Too often we seek validation in ourselves, and our beliefs, through in-group out-group distinctions that elevate one segment of our community above another. Too many Christians are judgmental and condemning of people who don’t share their beliefs, and too many in the conscious community are condescending and intolerant towards Christians. Instead of us unifying behind the commonality of our struggles we created an artificial hierarchy that doesn’t have any impact on the societal structures we’re fighting. Institutional racism doesn’t care who’s woke and who isn’t. The criminal justice system doesn’t care if you’re a Christian or an atheist. We’re in this together and we need to act like it. As an ordained member of the clergy I admit that there are churches in need of some serious reform, but isn’t it easier to clean a house than build one? The conscious community talks about building institutions and strengthening our communities, but wouldn’t this be easier with a healthy church in place?

We are the freest generation of African-Americans to live in this country, and much of that freedom was paid for by men and women who believed in Jesus. I’ve studied theology and philosophy for over a decade. I understand some of the Ontological arguments for and against the existence of a higher being better than most of the people making them, but I’ve yet to hear a compelling argument for why it’s necessary to diminish the religious beliefs of Christians. Many of the same people who were introduced to Nat Turner through Birth of a Nation are hell bent on destroying the institution that woke him up. I shudder when I think about how many people in the conscious community who didn’t know the name Denmark Vesey before Dylan Roof murdered nine innocent Christians in his church. The theologian Howard Thurman said, “By some amazing but vastly creative spiritual insight the slave undertook the redemption of a religion that the master had profaned in his midst.” Thurman was deeply affected by the dehumanizing evil of racism and was acutely aware of how much damage the institution of slavery did to Christianity, yet he was able to connect to the emancipatory message abolitionists pastors and believers found in the teachings of Jesus. Revolutionary Christians have always rejected the notion that slavery was ordained by God.  Believers in the 21st century should attempt to redeem Christianity from the profane uses of the gospel in our time. The legacy of the black church is worth protecting from attacks both foreign and domestic.

Grab Them By The _______ vs Stay in School: Dualism In America

Blue Ridge Mountains (n.) A place where many of the same parents who forbade their children from hearing a 2009 back to school address by President Obama now decorate their bodies, cars, and yards with campaign paraphernalia from the most vulgar candidate that’s run for office in modern history.

My neighborhood is full of Trump Pence 2016 signs. A majority of the Blue Ridge Mountains is covered in “Make America Great Again” hats, tee shirts, and campaign literature. This doesn’t bother me; I knew who many of these people were before the Trump campaign successfully normalized the latent bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and sexism that’s become synonymous with his presidential bid. I’ve read dozens of articles by people attempting to explain the lukewarm positions they publicly hold as it relates to all things Trump. “I don’t like or agree with everything he says, but he’s better than Hillary.” “He’s not a racist; he just wants America to come first.” Or (my personal favorite) “You weren’t worried about _______ (insert anything stupid or insensitive Trump has said or done that another person in history has said or done) before, why the double standard now?”

The time for making excuses for his petulant behavior expired about a calendar year ago. Every day there’s a new situation for his campaign surrogates to “Trumpsplain”. Donald Trump has pulled off one of the greatest political magic tricks our country has ever seen: he convinced his coalition of evangelicals, suburban and rust belt conservatives, and white nationalist that not only can he win the presidency without any help from the rest of the country, but that they should suspend their principles and defend his every misstep. He was right when he said, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters,”. That’s not a testament to the loyalty his supporters have for him, but an indictment of their inability to admit a mistake. Trump’s most loyal supporters have adopted his strategy of doubling down on mistakes. Pride is a powerful thing.

The same Trump supporters who have demanded perfection from President Obama over the last eight years have had to adjust their Judeo-Christian values to accept Trump's obvious character flaws. With a few months left in his final term many of them still don’t consider Mr. Obama a legitimate president. The Christian right would have never forgiven President Obama if he had five children by three different women? Who seriously believes Barack Obama could have bragged about the size of his penis in a debate and continued his campaign? Would Pat Robertson make excuses for his sexist, racist, and xenophobic comments? I knew his most loyal supporters wouldn't be fazed by an audio tape of him admitting to being a sexual predator. Many of these people excuse bigoted remarks every day.  

I sat down to write this knowing that some variation of this post has been written a thousand times, yet I can’t help but call out the blatant hypocrisy many inside the Trump tent work so hard to deny and explain away. In my community there were close to a dozen people who made a big enough fuss about President Obama’s back to school address in 2009 that all of the schools in our area had to send permission slips home so parents could decide if it's OK for their children to hear a Black man tell them education is important and to stay in school. Many of those same people spend their free time on social media circulating lies constructed by alt-right think tanks and memes generated for the sole purpose of normalizing bigotry. I don’t know if this circle of hypocrisy can be broken. The Trump Pence 2016 crowd is the McCain Palin 2008 crowd; If President Obama had said that John McCain wasn’t a war hero, there would have been calls for him to drop out of the race and he possibly would have faced censure from the U.S. Senate, yet we know these same people just chalked that up to Donald being Donald.

Before President Obama gave his 2009 national address to school students the prevailing sentiments of many in opposition to his speech was that it was a form of Socialist indoctrination or he hasn’t earned our trust yet. I went back and found quotes from old stories on right-wing websites that covered the outrage. This is a sampling of what the "Make America Great Again" crowd thought about protecting their children's delicate sensitivities.  

"It's a form of indoctrination, and I think, really, it's indicative of the culture that the Obama administration is trying to create," "It's very socialistic."

"I have to sign permission slips for my kids to watch R-rated movies in school," Moore said, explaining that she felt parents were being blindsided by the president's address. "It was simply presented, 'Hey, we're going to do this, this is when it's going to air and you're going to show it to your kids.'"

“I think this president has done nothing to earn our trust or respect. I’m obviously politically biased, I also hated Bill Clinton but wouldn’t have minded him speaking to our students. I truly do not trust this man. The office of the presidency is one to be respected, however the man himself must earn that respect. In this particular instance, I do believe his intentions to be pure, but i just can’t trust anything he does. I will not do anything to curb my teachers from showing the speech, but my daughter and I will have a lengthy discussion about government and principals this nation was founded on. Perhaps that’s the issue here, parenting!!!”

“The idea of having Obama speak directly to children without so much as a permission slip being sent home just "makes you feel a little funny," said Beth Milledge of Winterset, Iowa. She said she plans on going to school with her 8-year-old son to watch the address with him.”

Conservatives and Evangelicals have permanently suspended their right to ever challenge another politician's character. Almost a decade after announcing his bid for The White House President Obama still has to be perfect in a way many Americans refuse to admit is rooted in a deeply racist embrace of white supremacy. Donald Trump has done something President Obama didn't do: make us believe anyone could become president.

I'm Not Going to Write About Mike Brown

The body of unarmed teenager Mike Brown
 four hours after he was shot 10 times
by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. 

I'm not going to write about the murder of #MikeBrown in #Ferguson Missouri. The truth is: my Facebook "friends" and the people in my community don't care about arbitrary rule of law, police brutality or mass incarceration. A large portion of them will immediately ask: what was he doing? As if shooting an unarmed teenager 10 times could be explained. I live a peaceful life tucked away in a rural suburb away from the "others". An unarmed kid getting shot 10 times by the police is of no consequence to my peer group.

 I hope all of my Christian friends are comfortable today as they give thanks to Jesus for shedding his blood on Calvary. I'm naive enough to believe that blood was the same blood that inspired the 25th chapter of Matthew: 35-46. It's funny: Jesus starts with the least of these, yet we often avoid the very ones he called us to serve. We're passionate about the conflicts in the Middle east, yet ignore the genocide in our streets. This is the point in my rant where people stop reading and classify me as an angry black man. Well for the first time in my life I'm going to embrace that title. I'm mad as hell. I'm tired of watching the news and seeing kids killed by those who swore to protect and serve. This is where someone mentions violence in the inner cities. Well guess what: I hate that too. It's possible to do more than one thing at a time. 

This October there will be hundreds of functions around the country in solidarity with the stop mass incarceration and end police brutality movements. I have donated time and money for this cause, and will wear orange on the 30th as a show of my solidarity with this movement. I'm glad I don't have any children. How could I teach a child to respect and bow down to an authority figure who doesn't even respect their humanity? I know all cops aren't bad; likewise, I  know all black kids aren't angels, but I also know that if black cops were killing white teenagers at the same rate we would have solved that problem a long time ago. Why do you think we don't have an epidemic of black cops killing suburban and rural teens? It's not that black cops are better or more moral, it's because they know it won't be tolerated by greater society. Until we change the system it will stay the same.

Where's our righteous indignation? Jesus flipped out in the temple, that's the kind of Holy anger we should have about injustice in our time. I thank God for Christians like John Brown and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They weren't afraid of cutting against the grain. That blood shed on Calvary meant something to them. This rant is why I have very few friends. I would rather be by myself than buck dance and try to assimilate into a normative gaze that views me as other. I pray for the family of Mike Brown and all of the kids who will lose their lives in similar fashion.