Silence is Enabling
I do not intend to respond every time Donald Trump masturbates on Twitter, but his racist tirade against four women of color and escalating race-baiting require a response from every Christian and every responsible American. Silence is enabling. We must object loudly.
For the Christian, racism is sin. All humans are created in the image of God, and Jesus calls us to treat others as we want to be treated ourselves.
“Send them back!” his followers chanted at a rally last week. Trump calls these people “patriots.” They are not. They are white nationalists. The two are far from the same.
As historian Jill Lepore says, patriots are those who love their country. Nationalists are those who hate people from other countries. Patriotism is love. White nationalism is hate. Racism is hate. Jesus calls us to love, not to hate.
The elevation of love and eradication of hate is not a political issue, certainly not a partisan issue. It’s an issue of basic morality.
Most of our problems as a nation are spiritual and cultural in nature, and they will be solved only through spiritual and cultural transformation.
No, we don’t need a “revival.” You can’t revive what’s not there. We need a conversion from hatred to love. If the American experiment is to survive our generation, such a conversion is the only chance we’ve got.
