Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Why do I grieve for this election?

I have never cried over an election before.

It sounds even odd to write it, but it is true.  I cried.

Why?  Because I am a bleeding heart liberal? Perhaps,but the number that really got to me was that 80% of my white evangelical brothers and sisters voted for him.  That's not even close.

What do white evangelicals see?

My tears come from what they do NOT see.  Like this . . .
  • The three young immigrants who started in my job program last week who expect to have their eligibility to work revoked on January 20. 
  • The young black man from my church who walks in the rain because if he ran he might get stopped and frisked by the police or worse still.
  • The LGBTQ teens who are 2-3 times more likely to attempt suicide.  
  • The infant death rate in minority communities for lack of good prenatal care.
  • The thousands who will die when we "carpet bomb ISIS" 
  • The sparrow who falls or in this case entire species who we were commanded by our Creator to care for.
  • The young women who dismisses threats of sexual assault as "just locker room talk" until it is too late.
  • The millions around the world who confuse the "Christian" label with imperialism, a point of confusion that doesn't seem much like confusion when you have centuries of hard evidence behind it.
  • The meager life that welfare brings in spite of the persistent caricature of the "free loader" who is living well at other's expense.
  • The host of really smart, well-developed programs that lift people out of poverty only to be dismissed as "big government" and defunded in favor of tax breaks for those making more than 250K.
  • The 200 hate incidents ranging from swastikas and physical threats that occurred in the week after the election. (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/11/12/bad-year-for-minorities/93637192/)
And this might be the biggest issue for me. I grieve that the white church doesn't see the black and brown churches, that us whites don't stop and think that maybe our brothers of color have some spiritual discernment on issues of politics.  The voting patterns incidentally are almost reversed among churches of color.  Why can't we see that there are two sides to the issues in our culture, and Jesus was clear that, if anything, the marginalized have generally better Spiritual discernment than those "rich in this world's goods."  White folks cling to six or seven isolated verses that support their political position, while the world roles their eyes.  Christianity is being laughed at or feared in dark blue places like NYC.

I will concede that God is not on the side of either particular candidate.  Is it too much to ask that the church would listen to each other, and start being the conscience of society rather than just a reflection of the racism and polarity.  There has got to be a better way!









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