Disclaimer: This was the most difficult piece I’ve done in some time. My apologies in advance for any awkwardness in this piece’s delivery. Before continuing, I want to express clearly that I am not, in any way attempting to distinguish myself as more holy, or less sinful, than anyone else. At all. There’s things in my life I do routinely that fall outside of what the Lord has determined to be “well and good”. I swear often… I smoke…I gamble… My favorite rapper is Styles P whom I listen to often… I own three guns just in case anyone makes the mistake of venturing into my home to put my and my family’s safety at risk…and I don’t attend church nearly as much as I ought to – even before COVID19. Like everyone in the Christian faith, I am a work and progress and thankfully, the Lord ain’t done with me yet!
Finally, I would be negligent if I didn’t acknowledge a motivation for this piece being influenced by some of the religious debates I have with people I ball with regularly. Not unlike many younger Black men specifically, some peers whom I hold in high regard, have rightfully taken (America’s portrayal of) Christianity to task as being the “white man’s religion”, with questions emerging pertaining to how could I, a Black man, worship the same religion white slave masters, who brutalized our ancestors for centuries, used to excuse their atrocities as well as justify their actions in doing so? Numerous such conversations occurred over the years, and so, this is my attempt to summarily address such queries that I know I am not alone in having to grapple with in rationalizing, as well as in answering. In short, what and whom America has identifies as Christian, isn’t. At all.
Last week, Trump, the Orange Demon, after continuing to downplay the world’s most deadly pandemic since the Spanish Flu of 1918, that has infected more than 7M Americans, and killed more than 211,000, got infected with coronavirus himself. Trump, in the midst of the pandemic, refused to pass a second stimulus package fully cognizant that millions are in dire need of economic support as many folks on the economic margins had their hours at work drastically reduced, that is if they weren’t laid off entirely. There have been record unemployment claims and with each passing month, our neighbors, by the millions, face impending eviction from their homes. There are, and have been, extraordinarily long lines at food pantries, giveaways and the like; cumulatively, clear indicators that people are in need of the same financial assistance our government has at its disposal and gives readily to the wealthiest corporations.
That the Orange Demon chose to play political games with the availability of needed personal protective equipment to keep folks safe for political gain; that the Orange Demon willfully limited the availability of COVID19 tests to manipulate the scope of a federal response for political gain; that the Orange Demon wanted to force kids and teachers back into unsafe school buildings by downplaying the severity and communicative nature of this virus for political gain; that the Orange Demon continued to tout “miracle” medications to combat COVID19, embodied in hydroxychloroquine (and bleach) despite medical professionals telling him and everyone listening that it was not a viable a solution (and can have severe side effects endangering the lives of those taking it) for political gain; the fact that the Orange Demon muzzled and hijacked messaging from medical doctors and researchers at the Center for Disease Control for political gain; that the Orange Demon continues to hold “super-spreader” events like those held in Tulsa, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, and New Jersey while mocking the importance of donning a mask to protect oneself and others, for political gain – the Orange Demon finally caught the coronavirus.
Shortly thereafter on social media, hashtags like #PrayersForTrump and #PrayForTrump began popping up on Twitter and Facebook, and even proclamations from politicians and new figures alike expressing their “thoughts and prayers” were with the president during this time. For me, a Black Christian, this struck me as weird, if not stone crazy. There was no way I going to make an appeal to the Lord on behalf of such an abhorrent demon who has caused so much needless pain and suffering around the world – and found pleasure in doing so. That wasn’t gonna happen. Around the same time, a headline popped up on Twitter that a “Christian” group raised $500K for Kyle Rittenhouse, the white teenager that traveled from Illinois to Kenosha, WI with his AR-15 and killed two people and maiming a third. My response: They’re Not Christians! Then, around the same time, Trump unveiled his nominee to the US Supreme Court, Amy Coney Barret who’s shown herself hostile to workers, equal rights for those in the LGBT community, and women’s access to legal abortion – and that “Christian” groups were overwhelmingly supportive of Trump’s pick. I thought: “They’re not Christians!” Despite all the Orange Demon’s actions that are openly antithetical to Christ’s teachings from bragging about grabbing “women by the pussy” to ripping babies away from their parents at the southern border, polling suggests the “Christian” Right still overwhelmingly supports Trump. My reaction interally: “That’s because they aren’t Christians.”
America’s “Christian Right” or “Evangelical Christians’” attachment to, and ally-ship with, our nation’s politics has been troubling to say the least, oftentimes racist, and overtly contrary to the values Jesus of Nazareth espoused. And, if being Christian is to be “like Christ” or “Christ like” I am prepared to declare, as I do often on social media, that those groups who call themselves Christians, are not Christians at all. They are, however, frauds and conmen. And while it is taboo within the Faith to judge anyone else’s Walk within the Faith, with the latest events, it’s time that those of us who aspire to be (better) followers of Christ, begin habitually identifying those institutions like the “Christian” Right whose actions and value-systems run counter to that which Jesus dedicated his life to. Allow me to amplify that I am drawing a clear distinction between a Christian who sins, (which obviously applies to all Believers, separating none of us in the fact that we all have, and will sin) and an American pseudo-“Christian” body that willfully disregards everything Christ held dear.
To be sure, people far more knowledgeable in theology and Christology have made distinctions from the “Christian” values of the American Right, and those held by Jesus Christ. Pastors and theologians like Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King, Samuel DeWitt Proctor, Cornel West, Chris Hedges, and more recently, Howard-John Wesley have, in their unique way, identified and decried America’s so-called Christians as racist, patriarchal, hypocritical, and patently, anti-Christ. For centuries, America’s powerful and literate weaponized Christianity to justify the mistreat of anyone not white, and not male, but especially Black people. Deliberate misapplication of biblical texts were used to justify slavery of Africans into the Americas, the annihilation of Indigenous Peoples, the subjugation of women in domestic and public life, the alienation of the LGBTQ community, the sustained structural oppression of Black and Latinx citizens today, the unyielding turning of blind eyes to the poverty and suffering of millions of Americans, the persistent alignment with American capitalism, as well as American imperialistic endeavors abroad resulting in endless deaths of innocents and exploitation of the Earth’s natural resources.
Often America’s Evangelical Right trumpet their gifts and volunteerism to charity and missionary work in a perfunctory and surface-level attempt to address human suffering, at least conceptually and theoretically, but what is lacking is the substantive political and social alignment to that which Christ based his entire Gospel. Within the Four Gospels where Christ is alive and present, His messages of Love, Grace, Justice, and Forgiveness are seldom exhibited among millions of those calling themselves Christians. For deliberate reasons, however, America’s so-called “Christian” evangelicals watered down the Message of Jesus, as well as his radical political inclinations that prompted Him to confront agents in the world. And as much as the American “Christian” Right tries to appropriate the life and message of Jesus, and have been effective in doing so over hundreds of years, here’s what many of those so-called “Christians” ought to consider:
- Jesus was NOT a blonde-haired, blue-eyed flag-waving American. While John in Revelations describes Jesus as having hair of wool and feet the color of burnt bronze, while on Earth the Scripture says in Matthew 2:13-14, “Out of Egypt, I called My Son” and Jesus is also referenced to hail from Nazareth in Galilee situated in Northern Israel. And though we may not know for certain the hue of Jesus’ skin, we know for certain Jesus did not look like the images depicted in movies, or on the fans and windows found in many churches, including Black churches, still. Why has the physical image of Jesus been altered to mirror that of white European-Americans like Neil Patrick Harris or Ryan Gosling? Could it be that a more accurate depiction of Jesus as a person of color would remind all those hijacking Christianity to sustain white supremacy based on skin color, as schizophrenic and hypocritical? (Yes.)
- Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus espouse the virtues of “free-markets”, capitalism, privatization, or neoliberalism. Nowhere in the Word, does Jesus reveal himself to be a proponent or advocate of amassing massive personal or material wealth. This begs the question: Why is America’s “Christian” Right so allied with an economic system reliant on cheap labor and the exploitation both of other American citizens, and humans around the world to financially benefit the few? What would Jesus have to say about that?
- Why is the American “Christian” Right so aligned in both their politics and message with those in Power when Jesus was never on the side of the politically powerful or the wealthy? Jesus repeatedly stood against those with institutional powerful, instead defending the dignity and humanity of those suffering, and those without – and was executed by Government because of it.
- Why have “Christian” churches, by and large, shamed congregants into believing that being justifiably infuriated with social injustice in anti-Christian, when even Jesus had limits for how much injustice He was willing to witness before lashing out in (Holy) anger? The idea that it is un-Christian to get angry in the face of exploitation and act on it, but alternatively to remain passive and pray, in the face injustice is not substantiated in the example set by Christ.
- Why are so-called “Christians” touting their “God-given right” to own firearms? Where in the Word is the right own deadly weaponry substantiated? What does the Lord have to do with Americans owning an AR-15s, or a Sig Sauer? What would Jesus have to say about His “followers” committed to the idea that they should own weaponry designed for the sole purpose or murdering and maiming as many people as possible? The Word only references Jesus carrying a weapon once, a whip – not a lance or sword, prior to entering the temple to turn it upside down in righteous rage.
- What would Jesus has said to “Christians” steadfastly supportive of building walls to keep (darker skinned) immigrants out who are also part of Christ’s family? What would Jesus have said to armed militias who call themselves “Christian” organizations standing at the border preventing entrance into the United States from those who are moved by such desperation to traverse untold dangers to arrive in a place supposedly, “better”? Would Jesus have turned our immigrant brethren away?
- What gives American “Christians” the idea that Jesus would have been an advocate for the death penalty as so many on the supposed “Christian” Right support? Where in the Scriptures, has Jesus advocated the taking of a life as an appropriate response to criminality? In the Gospels, Jesus saves a woman who, by Jewish law was to be put to death.
- What Biblically justifies American “Christians’” affinity for fiscal conservatism? Would Jesus have supported the withholding of healthcare, or food stamps for those in need in efforts to minimize wealthier “followers’” tax burden? Would Jesus have disparaged those need vital social services as “lazy”, or “takers”?
- The “Christian” Right ought to be mindful that Jesus’ advocacy for the oppressed, was not limited to charitable event, as it was present also in His politics, allyship, and activism as a member of the oppressed against those in power looking to exploit the vulnerable. Acts of charity alone, without activism and challenging authority to cure the physical, social, and economic suffering among the masses is insufficient for Christians with the availability to do more. Jesus did not only just heal the infirmed and feed the hungry, He fought for them as well.
- Christ’s life was an exemplar to all His followers that they should be a counterweight to the powerful looking to dehumanize the vulnerable. And, though Jesus was sent to bring to all people salvation from sin, and heal a fractured relationship between mankind and God, while on Earth, Jesus was a political disruptor who continuously challenged structural Power. Where are so-called “Christians” as an opposing force to governmental power on behalf of those in need?
Given the sustained rejection of the values Christ espoused by millions of so-called “Christians”, the responsibility is incumbent upon the rest of us dedicated to the Faith to call out the hypocrisy exhibited by those calling themselves “Christians” but choosing to ignore His message for personal benefit. If to be Christian is to be Christ-like, millions of people calling themselves “Christians” simply, are not. Distinctions need to be made between the “Christianity” Franklin Graham espouses and that of Reverend William Barber; between Pat Robertson and Reverend CT Vivian, their respective parishioners, and lines need to be clearly drawn. And as the “Christian” Right have appropriated the label of Christian despite their complicity with, and silence on, oppression, those working abide by the example set by Christ’s life must distinguish Christians from “Christians”. And for what it’s worth, this was my attempt in trying to do just that.
