Juneteenth and the nation's creed of freedom
Juneteenth and the nation's creed of freedom
A second Donald Trump administration will deliberately seek to make the promise of Juneteenth forever unfulfilled in America.
At our Center on Faith and Justice at Georgetown, we are in the middle of our summer intensive on faith and public life for seminarians. One speaker on Wednesday was Dr. Paul Miller, who teaches at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service and whose most recent book is The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong With Christian Nationalism.
Miller quoted Samuel Huntington, the late American political scientist who said that America was founded as an “Anglo Protestant Culture,” and needed to stay that way. Miller, who is Christian and whose work has taken him to cultures around the world, strongly disagrees with that racially nationalist, religiously nationalist and culturally nationalist “false gospel” as he called it. Instead, Miller laid out better ways forward for our country that were more consistent with his gospel faith and his view of natural law.
Miller spoke on Wednesday, June 19 – the Juneteenth holiday – and he surprised our diverse group of seminary students by calling Juneteenth “the most important national holiday for all Americans” because it “vindicated” the nation’s “creed” of freedom. Juneteenth commemorates the official end of legalized slavery in America on June 18, 1865, by finally nationally implementing Lincoln’s executive order of the Emancipation Proclamation, two years earlier, with signed federal legislation and Union soldiers moving into Texas and announcing to still enslaved people that they were now all set free.
Finally called Emancipation Day, June 19 was signed into being a national holiday by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021. Miller spoke to the meaning of Juneteenth for all Americans with its significance for American freedom, after the racial hypocrisy of America’s founding documents, which tolerated and accommodated slavery, with those original documents celebrated on the traditional July 4th holiday.
The holiday today has led me to reflect upon an update of Juneteenth for this 2024 Presidential year race.
It concerns me how the mainstream and liberal media seem to believe that their showing the facts to people who believe Trump’s lies will change their minds; that they believe reporting every detail of Trump’s unprecedented legal indictments and convictions will appall his supporters. They believe showcasing Trump’s incoherent rambling and lack of capacity for critical thinking will convince his supporters that he is unfit for the office of the presidency of the United States. Or they hope their great fears of Trump’s anger, rage and the character of his retributive government and clear promises to turn from democracy to an authoritarian and autocratic regime will turn Trump’s followers away from him when, alarmingly, the opposite seems to be occurring. Trump’s followers like the anger, retribution, and strong man talk.
All or any of the above might help persuade the 7 to 12 percent of the voting population that still seem undecided (which is quite unbelievable at this stage) and are still worried about inflation, or an aging president; but none of the above will have any effect on Trump’s true believers. What is at the core of their support for Donald Trump?
The Juneteenth national holiday brings us back to Trump’s follower’s racial resentments that keep his campaign running. There are still many white people in America who believe they are losing their country and want to take it back. And that is what is at the center of their support for Donald Trump. His followers are the white people who have panicked at the growing racial diversity of America, and the majority of them say that racism against whites is now more of a problem than racism against Blacks. Trump is the master of resentment and grievance which he effectively uses to own advantage. He obviously didn’t create the demons of white racism in American history, but Donald Trump is the master mobilizer of racial fear and division, ethnic tribalism, and White Christian Nationalism.
Trump began his political career by attacking the legitimacy of America’s first Black President and began his presidential campaign by attacking the humanity of immigrants who are people of color. To vote for Donald Trump means to vote for racism, for White Christian Nationalism, for more racial division and even real violence from white supremacist perpetrators who have won Trump's support. There are many white people in America who still believe in their version of “Anglo Protestant Culture” and want to keep and enforce it by any means necessary. And that is the base of Donald Trump.
Joe Biden on Wednesday said much about memorializing Juneteenth and moving freedom for all forward. I checked, couldn't find anything directly from Donald Trump to support this Juneteenth holiday, except for a brief statement from his new Black media task force to help reach out to Black voters.
Here’s an article on the way the two candidates honored Juneteenth.
Juneteenth does indeed validate the creed of freedom, which still is unfulfilled. And the political campaign, cultural ethos, and clear agendas for a second Donald Trump administration will deliberately seek to make the promise of Juneteenth forever unfulfilled in America.
The False White Gospel is available on Amazon and other booksellers.