Krugminator2
04-01-2018, 06:27 PM
On Easter Sunday, Christians must remember how easily and often our faith is used to defend white supremacy. As a white evangelical in America, I can't celebrate Easter in 2018 without working to reclaim the concept of redemption.
Easter Sunday, when Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is also —and not accidentally — a tragic anniversary in American history.
On Easter Sunday 1873, 145 years ago, hundreds of white men in Colfax County, Louisiana, took up arms after Sunday morning worship services and marched to their county courthouse to reclaim control of the local government from representatives who had been democratically elected by black and white people voting together. Standing their ground in the hopes that federal reinforcements would arrive in time, every defender of democracy at the Colfax County courthouse (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Wilentz.t.html) was murdered.
Trump’s own slogan — “Make America Great Again” — is a redemption story in a nutshell. It assumes a fall from which must now be saved. It may be tempting for some to point to 2008 and hang this white anxiety on America’s first black president. But Barack Obama, as a person, remains too popular among all Americans (http://news.gallup.com/poll/226994/obama-first-retrospective-job-approval-rating.aspx) for this theory to be true. No, the redemption narrative that gave us Trump is not so much about Obama as it is about the black, brown and younger white coalition that made Obama’s presidency possible. No one stated this white anxiety more clearly than Michele Bachmann, in an address (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/02/did-michele-bachmann-just-predict-the-death-of-american-democracy-if-hillary-clinton-wins/?utm_term=.6a9d270926a7) to the Values Voter Summit before the 2016 election. “It’s a math problem of demographics,” she noted, claiming “this is the last election when we even have a chance to vote for somebody who will stand up for godly moral principles.”
A helpful remind from NBC Think that Easter is about white supremacy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/easter-sunday-christians-must-remember-how-easily-often-our-faith-ncna861796?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma
Easter Sunday, when Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is also —and not accidentally — a tragic anniversary in American history.
On Easter Sunday 1873, 145 years ago, hundreds of white men in Colfax County, Louisiana, took up arms after Sunday morning worship services and marched to their county courthouse to reclaim control of the local government from representatives who had been democratically elected by black and white people voting together. Standing their ground in the hopes that federal reinforcements would arrive in time, every defender of democracy at the Colfax County courthouse (https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Wilentz.t.html) was murdered.
Trump’s own slogan — “Make America Great Again” — is a redemption story in a nutshell. It assumes a fall from which must now be saved. It may be tempting for some to point to 2008 and hang this white anxiety on America’s first black president. But Barack Obama, as a person, remains too popular among all Americans (http://news.gallup.com/poll/226994/obama-first-retrospective-job-approval-rating.aspx) for this theory to be true. No, the redemption narrative that gave us Trump is not so much about Obama as it is about the black, brown and younger white coalition that made Obama’s presidency possible. No one stated this white anxiety more clearly than Michele Bachmann, in an address (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/02/did-michele-bachmann-just-predict-the-death-of-american-democracy-if-hillary-clinton-wins/?utm_term=.6a9d270926a7) to the Values Voter Summit before the 2016 election. “It’s a math problem of demographics,” she noted, claiming “this is the last election when we even have a chance to vote for somebody who will stand up for godly moral principles.”
A helpful remind from NBC Think that Easter is about white supremacy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/easter-sunday-christians-must-remember-how-easily-often-our-faith-ncna861796?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma