Hillary C. is correct in calling Donald T. a racist bigot; even Paul Ryan, a Republican, agrees. Donald T. is correct in asserting that Democrats have not done much to end the endless oppression of blacks. Trump is a blatant bigot or a white nationalist; Clinton is a lady-like bigot who talks the right talk but fails to walk the walk. Neither one has renounced their own and the nation's white superiority and white privilege; to my knowledge, neither has repented, restituted nor repaired the damage American ethnocentrism and oppression has done in the black community. Both need to sit at the feet of Colin Kaepernick, the black quarterback who recently said, "I am not going to stand up and show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color." Or better yet, they should attend a week long seminar led by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow.
Democrats have passed some important laws---for example, civil rights and Medicare---but they have not ended white ethnocentrism which is alive and well today and is fueling current racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration. Most Democrats and most Republicans are more interested in preserving their white superiority and white privilege than they are in doing fundamental justice---making things right. Bigotry/ethnocentrism/oppression is an AMERICAN problem, not a political party problem. In American we never end systems of oppression such as slavery, though we think we do; we merely cleverly redesign them.
Being born white in America means being born with a silver spoon in your mouth. Both Trump and Clinton were born white in an American culture that prizes and rewards whiteness---Anglo-Saxonism. Almost automatically at birth, you are given white superiority and white privilege---a gift that keeps on giving for a lifetime. Unless Trump and Clinton have recognized this white superiority, renounced it, repented and restituted, they are benefiters from racism and bigotry whether blatant or lady-like. Which is worse is highly debatable.
Bill Clinton, sometimes called the first black president, failed American blacks in public policy. He essentially continued much of Reagan's public policy; Bill did not end mass incarceration begun by Reagan; he did not end the large racial wealth gap doubled under Reagan. So why was Clinton sometimes called the first black president: he was a genuine personal friend, he showed up on black turf, he gave blacks personal respect. Good, but he essentially failed the black community as we can see today.
My wife and I have devotions together and often I point out one scriptural teaching after another on oppression and justice; my wife often asks why I am seemingly almost the only white male who gets it. The answer is a complex one; most American evangelicals want a simple, one cause answer.
Trained as a sociologist and an anthropologist, I see life in society like a spider web, a complex network of multiple causes and connections, as more complex than the intricate human body. I am not aware of a single evangelical scholar that has written a book on the extensive biblical teaching on oppression; there is almost no theology of oppression. The same problem with the NT teaching on justice; nothing. Also nothing on the Spirit, the kingdom and justice.
The question again is: why don't white American evangelicals understand social oppression and social justice---the scriptures are full of such teaching. Here are some possible reasons:
1. Americans are highly individualistic; therefore they don't think deeply sociologically.
2. The American trinity runs wild, largely unchallenged; competes with Christian trinity.
3. White evangelicals are trained to be suspicious of social answers; it might be social gospel.
4. Evangelicals are trained to think right or wrong, either-or, not both-and; both-and answers are suspect.
5. American history has been sanitized, evil sanctified.
6. Even though there are 555 references to oppression in the OT, there is no theology on oppression.
7. American evangelicals are taught that the NT is about individual salvation, not justice.
8. The English NT has been dejusticized; no evangelical has rejusticized the NT.
9. Evangelicals have overly spiritualized and dejusticized the kingdom of God.
Next, I would like to tell you a true story; I was there, I heard it with my own ears.
For over 40 years, Phil Reed has been a faithful disciple of John Perkins who created Christian Community Development in highly oppressive Mississippi. I could create a long list of what Phil and his wife Marsha have done right---taking down-and-outers into their own home for months at a time, pastor of an interracial church for 20 years, director of Voice of Calvary Ministeries, chairperson of the Haiti Christian Development Fund Board for 30 plus years.
But for the purposes of this particular essay, I want to highlight a negative example, one that most white pastors might make. This one failure is seared in my mind. Since my own second conversion in 1968, I have been supersensitive to the biblical teaching on oppression.
On this particular Sunday, Phil was preaching from James 2---on the treatment of rich and poor in the church; he joked that he was preaching only a 2 point sermon, not the traditional 3 point sermon. But this day, the sermon demanded a punch line, a third point. Phil failed to see the reason the church was failing on the rich-poor issue was that they failed to face the glaring fact that the primary cause of poverty was oppression---oppression by the very rich they were honoring in the church.
The American church as a whole is making the same mistake; what is the result?
1. Neglect of justice and the love of God.
2. Participation in or approval of widespread American oppression.
3. Failure to repent of ethnocentrism and oppression; no restitution and repair of damage done.
4. Evangelicals self-righteously think they are or have the answer, not realizing they are part of the oppression/poverty problem.
Americans shouldn't expect too much of their politicians, but they should expect a lot from the church on oppression/justice issues. But when the church is no better than the politicians, the country is in bad shape.
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