On the Farm

Two juxtaposing visions of America.

As the Republican National Convention took place in Milwaukee, I was at Haley Farm in rural Tennessee. Alex Haley, the author of this historic book Roots, bought the beautiful land with lots of green, trees, and a gorgeous pond many years ago. It was later purchased by Marian Wright Edelman’s Children's Defense Fund and serves as the annual site for the Hall-Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy that features Black Church preachers each year. I was humbled and blessed to be there this week as a “Theologian in Residence.” 

On Wednesday night of the Republican Convention, Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance started his speech by saying, “Tonight is a celebration of what America once was and, with God’s grace, will soon be again.” Those on the farm weren’t watching Vance or the RNC. Instead preeminent Black preachers spoke to a predominantly Black audience reminding them that, despite how they are treated in America, they are created in the image of God.

Had they been listening to Vance with the overwhelmingly white audience at the RNC, they would have again remembered what the longed for American past meant for Black people and what the leaders of white Christian nationalism mean when they tell their followers to “Make America Great Again. Instead of listening to white nostalgia, the people on the farm were focusing on the ongoing poverty experienced by a third of Black children in America– a stark contrast to the one in ten white kids experiencing poverty in America.

It was pointed out on a panel at Haley Farm, that America didn’t have a real democracy until 1965, when the Voting Rights Act was passed– finally including Black Americans in full citizenship. That means we have only had a genuine democracy in America for 60 years. 

When thought of in this historical context, America is really a new democracy that is now trying to navigate our changing demographics that is moving us to become, for the first time ever, away from being a majority white nation. A reality that stokes the fear at the heart of Donald Trump’s campaign. 

The people on the farm this week understand that Black Americans have never lived in a real democracy for most of American history, as they continue to struggle to make democracy true for them and their children.

I was struck once again, at how powerfully Black preachers can recount how their communities have long survived without equal democracy and will again find ways to live faithfully if democracy fails them again.

White liberals and progressives are feeling terrified and even paralyzed by the potential coming of an autocratic Trump regime. But while Black Christians see the problem better than anybody, they are less overwhelmed by it, and know they will find ways to survive and live their lives no matter what happens. At the farm, preacher after preacher spoke of persevering with the help and grace of God. Being protected by God in the midst of great danger and real suffering is at the core of Black Church faith. 

But all week in Milwaukee we saw an increase of religious fervor at the RNC convention, about how Donald Trump was protected from assassination by God and is now divinely chosen to lead America. Even before the assassination attempt, from which Donald Trump gratefully escaped, many of his followers in the MAGA movement already saw Trump as their messiah and chosen one, despite being a man who has never shown any faith in his life or lived by its moral principles. 

Trump’s speech at the culmination of the convention was a moment everyone was waiting for, after his surviving the weekend attack against him. There were predictions of a softer Donald Trump, moved spiritually by his brush with death, grateful to God for his spared life, offering to be a unifying and even healing leader of all people in America. Excerpts from the speech were passed out to journalists before which many said sounded like a Trump people were not used to– perhaps a new Trump.

That more somber and quieter Trump lasted for about 30 minutes on his teleprompter. He spoke personally about his feelings in the moments after he was shot. It sounded more human and reflective than we have ever heard him before. He spoke against “discord” and “division,” and promised to be President for all the people in America, to bring us together. From that event, Donald Trump then claimed, “I had God on my side.”

But then, Trump went off script as he always does, and went back to being himself in the longest speech ever given by a presidential nominee at a convention. The Republican candidate for President went on another rambling and incoherent tirade, repeating many of his usual lies about the economy, inflation, crime, illegitimate elections, foreign policy ,and judicial witch hunts against him, which didn’t survive any fact checking afterward–but his followers don’t care about the facts. 

It was all grievance and anger again, with rapturous cheers from his crowd (until even they got tired) energized again by his usual vitriolic attacks on his political opponents and those who have dared to stand against him, or hold him accountable to the law. And, as always, Trump’s passion rose with his usual false and vicious attacks on the “invasion” of immigrants, calling them “criminals and killers” and promising the most massive deportation in American history, without saying how and avoiding issues like family separation with Republican good family values. 

It is worth noting that the fear and hatred of immigrants is now the key issue for every right-wing authoritarian movement in the world today. Trump actually went on in his speech to praise several of the world's strongmen who are his friends and told us how well he gets along with them.

This new iteration of white Christian nationalism has risen up now because we are closer now to a genuine multi-racial democracy in this country than we have ever been before and are therefore in a final battle with the idolatries of racism and nationalism which are fighting back with everything they have and by any means necessary. 

“Fight, fight, fight,” the crowd kept chanting after the raised fist cry of their bloodied hero earlier this week. Retaining white culture and control is what “the fight” is finally most about.

It is absolutely  absurd and preposterous how the American political leader, who has fueled more angry divisiveness and promoted more political violence than any modern presidential figure, is now naming himself as the one chosen by God to unite the country.

Being at Haley Farm in the midst of the Republican National Convention was just what I needed. It reminded me that true and deep faith stands tall, and will continue– no matter what happens in the election. 

A rambling, lying, and narcissistic would-be dictator will offer a clear binary moral choice with whatever Democratic candidate is finally chosen. Faith will need to speak up and stand tall to name the faith values that should shape our voting in November. 

One of my elders, Rev. Otis Moss Jr. now in his eighties, preached just before I spoke at the farm. He recounted my favorite 23rd Psalm, which I needed to remember.  “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me.” Sitting next to Dr. Moss as often as I could this week was like the “rod” and “staff” the Psalmist said will comfort us as we go forward into these few months. That consistency of faith is why many of us look to the Black churches as our spiritual home.

My book is available on Amazon and other booksellers.