When will we all truly speak out against the blatant racism that embodies this self-proclaimed Christian nation? We just watched hundreds of white supremacists, adorned in kkk and Nazi gear, stroll through the University of Virginia with tiki torches shouting phrases like “blood and soil” as they encircled and even attacked counter-protesters. We then watched the following day as up to a thousand white fascists rallied in this small college town and as they were met with the resistance of you know - people not okay with blatant racism - violence broke out and white terrorist drove a car into the crowd of counter-protesters killing one woman. We should all be vocally outraged - silence is not an option.
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Just because I indeed hate oppression doesn’t mean I hate the individuals who enable oppression. And just because I don’t hate the individual who enables oppression doesn’t mean that I don’t loudly speak out against their ideology.
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This past election has been one of the most divisive elections in history, it seriously sucks. But stop telling us we are not peacemakers if we vocally oppose the ideology of American Conservative Christians that leads to the oppression of others.
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This world is such a mess, it is without a doubt that the time for change is now. The pursuit of vocally opposing the gross oppression in our nation while advocating for loving others first - naturally and expectantly - brings a lot of antagonism from the Conservative American Church whose ways are being challenged. However, what has really thrown me off guard, has been some of the criticism from those who lean towards progressivism.
Those who know the issues and believe in the cause, but think we need to tone it down, take a more passive approach. Those who have told me to essentially censor how I speak about the insane oppression we see happening right before our eyes so as to not offend the oppressors.
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There are countless churches and organizations across America that have programs teaching people how to evangelize others into their version of Christianity, some that I have participated in. These groups are typically focused on the idea of trying to follow what is called ‘the Great Commission’ of Jesus, but in practice, the attitudes and actions of these organizations can sometimes produce a form of (American) Christian Supremacy.
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To My Conservative Christian Friends,
Those who support the Muslim Ban, are adamantly against universal healthcare, support drone strikes that kill thousands of children abroad, yet call themselves “pro-life.” I am trying to understand where you are coming from because I can’t for the life of me figure out how this perspective aligns with the ways of your savior.
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Telling me to lay off of calling out racism within white American Christianity would be like telling someone to lay off the Nazi party shortly before the actual start of their genocide. I mean I’m sure some of them were decent people; just trying to make Germany great again right?
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I remember the first time I realized that the god of the majority of American Christianity was basically racist. Someone dear to me was trying to make a case for Christian Zionism and as I stood in a dim lit hallway listening intensely, I felt this sort of - what the fuck, are you actually being serious right now – type of confusion.
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The label “American Christian” is largely and globally associated with negative connotations. I mean how many American Evangelical Christians supported the Muslim Ban? Who are we bombing today? What was that reason we can’t love the most vulnerable? American Christianity far too often looks nothing like its savior.
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Why does the idea of simply trying to follow Jesus, loving others, and NOT trying to convert people upset so many Christians? I posed this question on social media and naturally it rubbed quite a few people the wrong way.
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Dear America,
Self-proclaimed Christian nation, I wish the lives of others mattered to you as much as Starbucks coffee cups. I know the guy you call savior instructed you to love others as yourselves but that seems to have become more of a catchy phrase than an actual command to live by.
A few days ago, a handful of miles north of where I am sitting right now, a chemical attack massacred innocent Syrian children as they slept. As the internet floods with yet more images of small, limp, lifeless bodies piling up, my heart falls apart knowing this just adds to the atrocities the world watches yet refuses to respond to with love.
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In a few short days my husband and I will be taking a team to the Syrian border in Jordan to Love, serve, and learn from our Syrian neighbors who are refugees in the region. I’m pretty sure I am not supposed to say this but here’s the deal, I don’t feel the couple of weeks we spend abroad is some wildly meaningful act towards the wonderful people we encounter.
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What if the Great Command of Jesus – Love others- was literally the entire point of following his ways? What if you didn’t have an underlying motive of, I don’t know, conversion? What if you are not meant to be a little messiah and in your attempts to “save” others, you are actually putting yourself on a pedestal which tends to dehumanize others.
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To My Former Latinx Students,
I am truly sorry, I lied to you.
Do you remember the first week of our US History class during the Fall of 2015? We discussed America’s first national motto, E Pluribus Unum. As I explained the meaning, Out of Many, One, we agreed that a wonderful attribute of America is the many immigrants with diverse cultures that make up this nation.
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To those who feel their voice is lost in the wind, I hear you. To those who feel inherently disqualified, I believe in you. To those who choose to Love first when our world tells you that you are naïve, I stand with you.
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I have been told that I can come off too harsh in my outspoken opposition to the American white Jesus and my vocal advocacy for Loving others first. On one hand, I haven't been dropping F-bombs so I think I'm doing pretty okay with my temperament. On the other hand, yeah, I can get a bit fiery.
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I’ve never really understood that handsome, light-skinned, blue-eyed Jesus who never seems to smile in the portraits that hang on the walls of so many American churches. I’ve always had the tendency to lean towards skepticism when it came to American Christianity. I think I picked up on the hypocrisy rather early in life.
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Dear American Conservative Church,
I know I can be pretty hard on you and you deserve an explanation.
I am trying to follow the ways of Jesus, I’m sure you are too. My struggle is within the contradictions I see between your speech and actions, and the ways of your savior. The red letters are not aligning.
Man our world is a mess right now, I bet you would agree. However, I don’t quite understand your response to the chaos; the self-protection approach doesn’t make sense when it overrides Love.
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