Dear America, I’m sorely disappointed in you today.
Thirty-six hours ago, I was planning to write a very different article, one that highlighted the deplorable mindset of America as a whole that led to the rise of a possible future that by the grace of God we avoided. Today, I am left without any commendation, only displeasure.
From the outside, it seemed like this nation had made such progress towards the nation we wanted to be, one in which we truly believed all people were created equal. Eight years ago, we elected our first African-American president, once for all settling the matter that we had left behind our legacy of rampant racism and discrimination. But as the events of 2015 unrolled, it revealed the face behind the facade: racial tension that erupted in violence. In the violence of ISIS, we shriveled in fear and settled for xenophobia. In California, we let privilege exonerate a young man for an atrocious sexual assault, showing just how little we actually valued women. And then the 2016 election happened.
Truth be told, I’m not that angry at Trump himself. He’s just one man. One man with a huge ego and disproportionately little moral rectitude. No, I’m frustrated by the American people, who let a culture of racism, sexism, and xenophobia thrive, fueling open hatred and violence, creating the only environment in which a candidate like Trump could thrive.
American Christians, I’m most disappointed in you.
Apparently eighty percent of white evangelical Christians voted for Trump. Trump stands against everything that Christ stands for, everything that Christ died for. I’m ashamed, religious right, of seeing you capitulate to someone who looks more like a golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar than the Jesus whose name you bear. Despite Trump’s claims to be a Christian, his life declares just the opposite: a lack of respect for women, an inability to take responsibility, and a refusal to seek God’s forgiveness as offered in the gospel; Christianity Today rightly calls him a fool. From Wayne Grudem to Eric Metaxas to Jerry Falwell Jr., these prominent Christian figures have backed Trump as the candidate Christians should choose. On what grounds? His policies. Policies over character. Because a character as unreliable as Trump will surely be faithful to the policies he promises.
But Trump’s policies themselves are only a symptom of the disease, a reflection of what the religious right wants. I’m sick of what “conservative” America has come to stand for. What are we trying to conserve anyway? It sure isn’t morality if we elected Trump. Conservatism, at its core, has become all about self-preservation, preserving our way of life, our safety, our wealth, our comfort, without any regard for those who aren’t us. Christ-followers, when did considering persecution “pure joy” dissolve into clawing for our right to practice religion in public spaces, our right to insist on our morality becoming the national standard? When did our security and our unwillingness to become victims lead us into victimizing the very people on God’s heart? When we develop excuses to disobey God’s command to love those who are foreigners and welcome them with open arms? Have we forgotten that we ourselves are foreigners on this earth?
Yes, my God is pro-life, but He’s not just myopically focused on unborn lives, but pro-refugee lives, pro-black lives, pro-prisoner life (Hebrews 13:3), pro-life for the poor, the mistreated, the disenfranchised. But no, we’ve hoarded our wealth and decided that their lives aren’t worth laying down our American dream of comfort and security. We’ve masqueraded in the name of God, the God who “defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18), with not a trace of his love, only selfishness and a despicable tolerance of racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
America, I’m disappointed in you, but I still love you
Not in that warm fuzzy way. Truth be told, I’m quite angry at you, but I will choose to love you. And that’s by not leaving you.
Planning to immigrate to Canada and crashing their immigration site isn’t the answer to America’s problems. Nor is petitioning for your state to leave the union. It’s not the way, not the way of Jesus. When we had defiled our souls and invited chaos into our world, He refused to leave us to our own devices. No, He didn’t run away in order to distance Himself from our brokenness, but instead He came to dwell in our muck, to suffer with us, and ultimately to suffer for us. Jesus gave of Himself in order to restore His beloved to her intended beauty. And so, if we love America, if we love our fellow Americans, we will stay in the mess we have collectively made, and we will give sacrificially of ourselves to redeem her. So stay, and stand up for the victims of America’s choice to choose the way of fear and hatred over love.
a cup of kimitea 