Since Tuesday, most of my social media feeds have been full of laments claiming the end is nigh, God’s judgment is on its way. Thanks to this election, America will no longer be the hope of the world. Leaving aside that I believe there’s only one ultimate hope of the world, Jesus, I have to say I’ve been disappointed, near-distraught by the distress of my people over the President’s re-election.
Kate reminded me Tuesday (and Wednesday) of Psalm 146 and it’s command to put not our trust in princes. Yet my brothers and sisters in the white evangelical community are in literal mourning over this election. Yesterday I even heard a DJ on the local Christian radio station consoling her audience, saying “God wasn’t surprised by these results. He’s still on the throne.” (which, for those unfamiliar with our ways, is how we usually comfort those shocked by horrible tragedies. I first heard this comment after 9/11 for instance.)
What we’re missing in our grief over here is the large numbers of people of color who wanted President Obama to win:
Obama’s share of each of those blocs was overwhelming: 93 percent of African-Americans, 71 percent of Latinos, 73 percent of Asians, 55 percent of the ladies, and 60 percent of the kids. New York Magazine
There were lots of white Christians, too, voting for Obama, but in our white evangelical communities (78 percent voting for Romney), we’re completely ignorant of the fact that Christians of color went to the polls and made a different (not immoral, different) choice.
To me, this doesn’t say that we as a Church have an ideological divide to overcome. We have a racial one. And the longer we white Christians (evangelical, Catholic, and everywhere all over/in between) claim our political choices are the only ones Christ would approve of, the bigger that gap between us and people of color becomes.
Psalm 146 is always my nonpartisan post-election prayer recommendation for anyone so inclined. It’s valuable perspective regardless whether you voted for candidates who won, lost, or both.
I could handle political disagreement with much greater ease if people would refrain from saying that there’s only one way God wants you to vote. I agree completely that what we have is a racial/cultural divide. What I’m hearing from O’Reilly and his ilk is that POC who turned out for Obama have inherently different — un-American — values and priorities than white people. Oh, and that we “want stuff” and “things.”
The direction the GOP/conservative movement has taken in recent years, their contempt (laced with thinly veiled racism) for the President, their leaders’ comments about “the end of the white establishment” and a MILLION more comments/articles/blog posts along those lines, and their dismissal of what they view as “racist identity politics” of people of color — this all creates an atmosphere in which many people of color cannot help but feel uncomfortable and unwelcome, regardless of our personal politics or religious beliefs or motivations.
I’ve had friends, fellow Christians and Catholics, accuse me of playing the race card or contributing to the “over-hyphenization of America” or becoming embittered against white people. I don’t feel that the GOP or its most avid white supporters WANT me in their party (and am increasingly feeling as though conservative Catholics don’t want me in my church) — unless I become one of those people of color who trots out the old line that race is completely unimportant to me personally and our society generally — so, for me, it’s been an easy choice not to go there where I’m neither accepted nor welcomed as the whole person I am.
also, I just read this article, and it reminded me of your post, Cayce:
Conservatives are creating their own electoral enemies. The beating heart of modern conservatism is its visceral appeal to anxieties and fears of white Christians. This is a different statement than saying the beating heart of modern conservatism is white racism or white supremacy. It’s not, or not principally. It is simply white “identity” politics, with all of the pathos and ugliness that implies. And if you don’t believe that, go read some conservative comment threads, or click over to the Drudge Report or Fox News, two outlets with a preternatural sense of the deepest anxieties of the modern conservative base. Look at the ceaseless coverage of the New Black panthers, and voter fraud and immigrants living high on the hog off government welfare, and the absolute frenzy the right whipped up over the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. Once you understand this then you can see that the Republican party’s problems are deeper than, say, Republican opposition to comprehensive immigration reform, or even the far less controversial DREAM Act. That policy opposition is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. The deeper issue is that for conservative politicians and networks and websites there is simply too much to be gained by feeding the sense of persecution and siege that many white Christians feel down to their toes. I’m not sure what is going to shift those incentives, because that insecurity, as an emotional fact is real and isn’t going away.
Sorry, last comment, I swear. I’m seeing a lot of “I don’t understand how all those people could vote for Obama!” hysteria in my FB feed. I don’t know if my friends/acquaintances are genuinely unaware of how the vote broke down, or that “those people” = the majority of POC. It’s really disconcerting to read such statements, though, especially from self-described Christians who think we’ve conquered racism.
Most people don’t have a lot of faith in God. That’s why they focus on the physical world and get worried and distressed so easily. That’s also why they claim Israel will be destroyed if the U.S. doesn’t protect it. They don’t really believe that God has any power despite claiming otherwise. It’s all about how much cash you have to buy weapons and who has the biggest military. It’s never about who is following the teachings of Jesus. It’s more about who is doing things that give more power to a particular human leader and who isn’t. I started listening to Christian Radio in the early 1980s and my mother started in the early 1970s. Let’s just say that so-called Christian Radio today has almost nothing to do with preaching the actual word of God. This is just one of many symptoms of the problem. The good news is that there are lots of people who know the truth out there too.