Thread on Christian privilege and the coming attempt to whitewash the sins of white evangelicals:
We have entered new territory now that the House is moving forward with a formal impeachment inquiry. The news from today about Trump’s pressuring the leaders of Australia portends what could be an avalanche of damning information.
Given that the number of Americans who favor impeachment has increased in just a week, and in light of a few Republican condemnations of Trump’s quid pro quo with Ukraine, here’s my question: Are white evangelicals finally ready to abandon the President?
If we check in on prominent white evangelical leaders, it seems the answer is no.
Rick Wiles, founder of TruNews, said this: "I don't care who is in the White House, if you support the overthrow of the president, you are a domestic enemy of the republic."
Rick Wiles, founder of TruNews, said this: "I don't care who is in the White House, if you support the overthrow of the president, you are a domestic enemy of the republic."
Robert Jeffress, Trump's favorite #courtevangelical, caused a stir when he said impeaching the president would lead to a civil war.
nytimes.com/2018/05/14/wor…
nytimes.com/2018/05/14/wor…
Franklin Graham is taking a break from slandering Muslims and claiming the piety of the president in order to attend to one of his other interests--transphobia.
However, there are signs of a soft repentance campaign.
In a recent piece at RNS, Thomas Kidd claims too much has been made of white evangelical support for Trump. religionnews.com/2019/09/23/who…
In a recent piece at RNS, Thomas Kidd claims too much has been made of white evangelical support for Trump. religionnews.com/2019/09/23/who…
First, Kidd observes that prominent evangelical figures like John Piper and Beth Moore have registered objections to Trump, and they somehow are more influential than Jeffress, the pastor of a 13,000 person megachurch, or Wiles, the founder of TruNews.
Kidd claims that the media ignores evangelicals of color. Untrue. Not only have commentators drawn attention to how evangelicals of color differ from their counterparts, but so much attention has been given to the latter precisely because of their abominable—support for Trump.
Kidd then goes on to the evangelicals who don’t vote as proof that not all evangelicals are Trumpian. Kidd makes a rhetorical sleight of hand by claiming the media doesn’t pay attention to non-voting evangelicals in its pieces on religion and politics.
All those pieces on religion and politics focus on how white evangelicals vote exist precisely because they are the only religious group a majority of whom support the president and their votes helped usher him into the White House.
Why would the media focus their political stories on those who abstain from politics?
Kidd's conclusion: “The absurd outcome of these factors together is that a tiny slice of the global evangelical community — white, GOP-centered self-identified evangelicals — is now the image we have of the whole.”
Who is the “we” here? Many of us know that evangelicals of color and a small percentage of white evangelicals are not like them in terms of how they vote and approach a range of social and political issues.
This whole piece feels like an indirect, mushy attempt at repentance. A soft beginning to this line: "it’s too hard to figure out which evangelicals were with Trump. It wasn’t all of them. We can’t pinpoint the bad actors. What’s important—moving on and healing the country."
My response: No.
As @C_Stroop says, Christian privilege passes over toxicity in order to give them the benefit of the doubt as good people. The assumption is that they are the standard American—the heartland, old-time Gospel, work hard, go to church, and pay your taxes Americans.
Guess what? We know they are the ones who oppose immigrants, refugees, Muslims, and the LGBT community in ways that other Americans do not. @ProfJanelleWong 's book shows us this:
amazon.com/Immigrants-Eva…
amazon.com/Immigrants-Eva…
In short: white evangelicals have supported Trump in order to prevent the rest of us from thinking we are the real Americans. We covered this on Straight White American Jesus:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the…
I’m not here for the half-apology, can’t we just move on to make the country whole again. Not after they spent all this time working to do everything else possible. Not after the abhorrent support for a racist, xenophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic President.
What do y'all think?
