Normally when I do a blog I try to stay in the third person.
Nonetheless yesterday’s insurrection awakened many different emotions. I have emotions towards the fundamentalist white church, police, Republicans, and black conservatives, all who have given license to the psychopath who presently resides in the oval office.
I remember when the late Billy Graham was on his last crusade. As they usually did when planing their crusades, Billy Graham representatives came to the office of the Metropolitan New York Synod, as they did with all denominations, to seek endorsement of their crusade. At that time, I was serving as assistant to the Lutheran Bishop of New York ,the Reverend Dr. Stephen Bouman. One of the issues was whether Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, would be involved with the crusade.
As this fell under my portfolio of duties, my role was to meet with them to provide our support. Prior to this however, I was summoned into the office of Dr. Bouman and was told summarily that if Franklin Graham, who had made incendiary remarks about Islam after the 911 attacks, had anything to do with this we would pull our support. Needless to say we received assurances, as did all other denominations, that Franklin would not have anything to do with the crusade. Dr. Bouman was correct in his demand and remains correct given how Franklin has behaved over the last several years.
What angers me is the notion of mainline denominational church leaders who will issue weak pathetic calls for prayer without calling out the sinful nature of this nation. Prayer is not a useful tool in lieu of action. If prayer by itself was that effective , Dr. King would not have had to march, BLM would not be needed and children would not have been separated from their parents at the border. Fannie Lou Hamer once said “You can pray until you faint , but unless you get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.”
The challenge for denominational leaders is to tell their pastors to tell the dam truth.
On Sunday many pastors will arise in their pulpits and lie by parroting the nonsensical statements of democrats and republicans that this is not who we are. The truth however, is that this is who we are as a nation. Yesterday’s insurrection was another example that points this out. We are a violent, racist and xenophobic nation. I am well aware that more people voted for Biden than Trump but the fact remains that a large segment of the population supports this clear and present danger named Trump. Sadly many of these supporters will be sitting in pews on Sunday including the ELCA.
The reason why the church is necessary is that it is the job of religious leaders to consistently remind their flock of grace but also of their sinfulness including racism, sexism, homophobia or Islamaphobia and the need for repentance.
As we look back on June 2 during the Black Lives Matter march we saw a military presence that looked as if they were repairing for an invasion by another nation. If you look at the response to yesterday’s insurrection despite advanced information and the president himself calling for his supporters to go to the capital you had a totally different response including some officers taking selfies with the insurrectionists and in some cases removing barricades to let the insurrectionists in.
Dr. Jeremiah Wright once said “God Dam America” and he was unfairly excoriated. Perhaps we need more pastors from the pulpit saying” God dam America.”
Colin Kaepernick knelt peacefully for justice and was excoriated. White insurrectionists stormed the capital and Republicans including Franklin Graham are spreading conspiracy theories that these insurrectionists are not Trump supporters but members of Antifa. Have no doubt that there will be some pastors who will parrot this on Sunday.
I know black conservatives will denounce those who raise the issue of racism in regards to the difference of response to the insurrectionists as opposed to the BLM March on June 2nd. They have consistently been used to assuage the conscience of white conservatives Americans and have been compensated for their treacherous work. While A.R. Bernard was on TBN with Mike Huckabee (who is an ordained minister of the racist Southern Baptist Convention) last night his inability or unwillingness to call out the evil of Trump was quite embarrassing.
The fundamentalist church has for many years lifted Trump as being sent from god and their comments after the insurrection rings hollow.
Mainline denominational leadership should go on record by calling for the resignation of the president of United States. I would urge all mainline denominational leaders to request time on the airways to denounce these events and to begin talking about what real Christianity is.
According to the National Catholic Reporter after a conference call with Trump “Dolan was the first to speak, whom the president hailed as a “great gentleman” and a “great friend of mine,” adding that he respects what the cardinal “asks for. “The New York cardinal said he was “honored to be the lead-off batter, and the feelings are mutual sir,” noting that the two had been on the phone often in recent months and joking that the cardinal’s 90-year-old mom in Missouri says “I call you more than I call her.” Dolan has been silent about the insurrection and the Protestant community should immediate step into the breach because Dolan has no credibility on this issue.
Over seventy million people voted for this psychopath and the reality is that some of them are members of mainline denominational congregations like the ELCA, LCMS and certainly the Roman Catholic Church and other mainline denominations. As a result public statements with platitudes about god is in control and Jesus loves all will be spoken because of the fear of losing congregants.
The Protestant mainline church needs to take back the idea of what Christianity means as the fundamental church like John Hagee, Robert Jeffress and even the cherubic Timothy Dolan has coddled a psychopath and blood is on their hands.
Reconciliation is a valued aspect of a Christian life but it must not be placed above the vocal pronouncement of the sin before us.
The fundamentalist church is a lost cause but the mainline denominational church particularly Protestants have an opportunity to speak actual truth to power. Their first test comes on Sunday.