There is a Movement Afoot

A growing number of very diverse Christians are confronting the white Christian nationalism that is supporting Donald Trump.

There is a movement afoot all across America.  A growing number of very diverse Christians are confronting the white Christian nationalism that is supporting Donald Trump. The message is clear: this distorted false religion vs. Jesus. So many of the attacks on others made by Trump and his enthusiastic white evangelical and charismatic supporters are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

Earlier this month I was in North Carolina, where we had four days and nights of local town meetings on faith and democracy, in both urban and rural communities. They were all multi-racial– something the organizers noted was often hard to accomplish in North Carolina. 

I remember our night in Rocky Mount, in eastern North Carolina, where there is literally a railroad track that literally separates two counties– on one side all Black and the other almost all white. We crossed those tracks a dozen times in one day. 

There are not always railroad tracks wherever we go but sometimes highways, or rivers, or carefully segregated neighborhoods that keep Christians and other people from coming to know each other as neighbors instead of making them into enemies as the Trump campaign is trying to do.

Our event was held at Truth Tabernacle, on the Black side of the tracks, so white Christians had to cross over the tracks– and many did. Given our hosting place, I quoted John 8:32 with Jesus saying, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” I have come to understand that the opposite of truth is more than just lies, it’s captivity. Truth and freedom are indivisible. I see so many Christians who are captive to lies. Instead of labeling people as good or bad, we need to ask how to set our people free.

I then found myself in Tucson, Arizona where many of the people of faith gathered together have a shared “ministry of the border” where they are trying to apply the teachings of Jesus to “welcome the stranger.” In Phoenix, I spent many hours with young pastors across many denominations who lamented how their churches were so bitterly divided across political lines. In a very interesting lunch conversation with a former Neo-Nazi skinhead, as Caleb Campbell now describes himself, who told me how he investigated the white Christian nationalist movement and became a young white evangelical pastor who now speaks against it. 

The opening panel of Test of Faith: A Summit to Defend Democracy

Two weeks ago, I compared Donald Trump’s false and ugly accusations that Haitian immigrants, in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating the beloved dogs and cats of their new neighbors–with Jesus’ Matthew 25 teachings about welcoming the “stranger”-- the word literally meaning immigrant.

Usually, a news story is over after a few days—but not this one. Even after the Republican Governor of Ohio and the Republican Mayor of Springfield both said those lies were completely untrue, Trump and J.D Vance have doubled down for almost three weeks now with their  demeaning and demonizing of non-white immigrants now core to their political campaign. 

The results stoking fear and hate often leads to violence and we have now seen the shocking bomb threats which have closed down Springfield schools and hospitals. These are not just lies but racial lies as the people Trump most lies about are immigrants of color

 After watching his rallies for the last six months, veteran reporter Peter Baker says “Immigration is everything now. This is “a single-issue campaign.” It's what “motivates” and animates” Trump Baker said as he reaches out to his angry white base.

Immigration is indeed a very complex and broken system that both parties are responsible for; and we need to find comprehensive, legal, humane, and compassionate policy changes. Policy changes exactly like those that Trump just killed in the last bi-partisan effort to reform the system. A political decision he made to keep immigration as an issue he could run. Instead Trump now says he will enact the largest deportation in American history which would have untold cost in breaking up families, losing essential workers, turning National Guard and local police into communities which will threaten the security of us all.

Therefore, many Christians around the country now are saying it’s time to bring Jesus into this conversation and are doing so. In this last teaching before his crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus said, “As you have done to the least of these–the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned, and stranger–you have done to me.” 

Some good news I just heard is that the Ohio Council of Churches has now called for a gathering for pastors all over the state to deal with the Springfield lies about dogs and cats and the resulting crisis for so many people in their state. Today, in Atlanta, Georgia, top civic leaders and former elected officials-both Republican and Democrat—are convening for a “Democracy At Risk” panel in a downtown church. This weekend, the town meetings go to Dallas, Texas, where churches are trying to overcome their “bubbles” and talk to each other.

We just finished a national summit with amazing panelists and participants convening at Georgetown for Test of Faith: A Summit to Defend Democracy, where we launched a statement “Christian Faith and Democracy” signed by a very broad cross-section of 200 Black, Hispanic, Asian American, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and Orthodox faith leaders and, already signed by almost two thousand people (and growing). And now I am hearing stories of pastors signing the statement and deciding to preach on it to their congregations.

 A movement is afoot. And that brings me hope.