THIS IS NOT US . . .

and other lies we tell ourselves

They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD (Jeremiah 8:11-12). This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: Where is the good way? Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.” But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’ (6:16)

We in America might be at a crossroads. It is time to ask, “What are the ancient paths? Where is the good way?”

Killing The Light

For many in the Christian tradition, January 6 of 2021 was marked as Epiphany—the day to celebrate the star in the sky, the magi, and their Holy Land pilgrimage. We remember John’s gospel proclaiming that the “light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” On the holy day of Epiphany, Christians around the world eat, drink, and make merry because in the person of Jesus, the Light of the World, God became one of us.

Unfortunately, for most Americans going forward, January 6 will not be remembered as a day of light but of darkness. Hopefully, the depth of the darkness will be felt most acutely by those who more than any other single group killed the light, namely, white American Christians.

The Insurrection

Let’s summarize what happened in the capital of the world’s oldest democracy. On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, a mob made up almost entirely of white people stormed the Capitol, overwhelmed the police, entered the building, and ransacked the place. This gathering of 30,000 strong acted under a variety of banners, most notably, the Confederate flag, and disgustingly, signs boldly proclaiming the name that for Christians is above all other names, the name of Jesus.

As I along with millions at home and around the world watched the insurrection unfold, I confess feeling some relief. “Finally,” I thought, “the veil has been torn away and we see reflected before us the true face of Trumpism.” Along with the relief from finally getting an indisputable indicator of the disease came a sadness in realizing that my faith tradition, the one centered around the person of Jesus, is the infected body.

A Fearless Inventory

Christianity is the faith I’ve inherited and chosen as my own, so in making this clear diagnosis, I have no choice but to look inward. What I see is that American white Christianity is one of the “whitewashed tombs” that Jesus referred to in Matthew 23:27-28. We look beautiful on the outside with our buildings and programs for every age and worship teams of excellence and missions around the world and weekly messages of “love wins,” but on the inside. . . .

Here’s the inconvenient truth: white Christians elected Donald Trump as President. My demographic group put him in power. Having done so, we gave everyone an X-ray into our internals. The image reveals mean-spiritedness to the point of cruelty, me-first-ness to the point of greed, self-righteousness to the point of arrogance, and entitlement to the point of feeling no shame at the words and actions of one of the most self-serving individuals ever elected to public office.

Rationalization Is Not Hindsight

Hindsight—“If I knew then what I know now.” Rationalization—“Well, he was better then Hillary!” No, he was not. The proof is in the way each handled losing as character is best judged in times of failure. When Hillary lost, she conceded, offered her best wishes, and showed up at Trump’s inauguration. Trump?—none of the above.

“But we got our judges and we’re going to save babies.” Yes, we did, and I pray you’re right. But we could have accomplished as much if not more by working with the many who care about birthing babies as much as we do. Together we could make choosing life the best option for any pregnant woman. We could work to ensure that women who give birth have child care and insurance and training for jobs and food for their children and quality schools and on and on and on.

Who Are We?

“This is not us!” Hear the white Christian cry of defense, and of course, we believe it entirely. On a friend’s Facebook page, a woman wrote: “This [violence] could not have been conservative Christians, this is not who we are.” The implication is that others (liberals, BLM people, Muslims) are violent, but not us. 

In the melee of January 6, a burly man in an orange jacket came to the rescue of a CNN film crew that was being attacked by the violent pro-Trump crowd. The big guy is heard shouting, “This is not us! This is not us!” When the CNN crew was safe, the reporter, a veteran war correspondent said, “I’m grateful for the guy in the orange jacket’s help, but this is exactly who you are.” 

It’s illuminating to see ourselves from the perspective of others. A city cop was overpowered by the force of this mob at the Capitol. They beat him with his own baton. As he lay there defenseless, they went for his weapon shouting, “Kill him with his own gun!” The officer begged for his life. Others in the crowd, seeing what was happening, came to his rescue. They surrounded the officer to protect him. In later describing this terrifying experience, he remembers saying to his protectors: “Thank you, but what the f*** are you doing here?”

Facing Our Past

The officer asks a fair question: What are we doing here? The sad truth is that we white Christians have been here before, again and again and again. Christianity is as violent a religion as any that has been formed. We have 2000 years of being where we should not be, doing what we should not be doing (colonialism, crusades, anti-Semitic pogroms, American slavery, Native American genocide, the KKK, Selma, Alabama). These are just examples of the many times white Christians have used physical violence to get what they wanted. This is exactly who we are. 

Thankfully, it is not all that we are, nor is it all we can be. But it is a part of our history and our theology. What we all witnessed on January 6 reminds us that when push comes to shove and white Christians feel threatened, we are as prone to violence as any other people group. This is us!

The Ancient Path

So what is needed from us, from white Christians? Perhaps we look to the “ancient paths.” Maybe we seek the good way that leads to reconciliation, not only with fellow Christians, but with fellow Americans and our global neighbors. The difficult but necessary step in reconciliation is repentance. White Christianity needs to acknowledge her violent past and stop declaring that this is not us. That truth-telling is the first step in healing. We are responsible for Donald Trump and therefore for the damage he has done to the entire world.

Pope John Paul II showed us the good way of repentance. On a visit to Senegal he begged forgiveness for the part Christians had played in the Atlantic slave trade. When visiting the Czech Republic, he asked forgiveness for the persecution inflicted by Catholics on Protestants. He repeatedly expressed remorse for Christian anti-Semitism and the Christian role in the Holocaust. In 2001, he issued a formal apology to the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands for injustices perpetrated by Roman Catholic missions. And in Greece, he made a sweeping apology for wrongs committed by Roman Catholics against Orthodox Christians. These gestures attracted criticism from various quarters and for various reasons, but John Paul recognized something important: as the novelist William Faulkner put it in Requiem for a Nun, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

(Note: Sadly, Pope John Paul II did not walk the good way as it concerned pedophilia in the priesthood. Thankfully Pope Francis has since taken strong measures to address this centuries-long scandal within the Catholic Church.)

Confessing as a Body, One by One

The place to begin for white Christianity is to confess the sins of the church collective. This corporate responsibility is every bit as important as confessing individual sin. As individual Christians we cannot expect some official body (our churches, seminaries, colleges, denominations) to repent for us. What you and I can do, if so inclined, is own the violent past of our faith tradition. We can repent of whatever role we played in bringing both our country and our church to this present dysfunction. The American white church of which I am a part, gave the world Donald Trump. We owe the world a sincere and deep apology.