A 🧵 on why we need an honest conversation about poverty in America…

When Trump became the GOP’s nominee in 2016, the media was shocked. How could this have happened? JD Vance had a new book out & became the hillbilly whisperer on TV to explain why poor white folk loved Trump… But poor white people don’t necessarily love Trump. Yes, he won in 2016 by increasing turn-out in a few swing states of “non-college educated” white folks. But being white without a degree doesn’t make you poor. A lot of those folks were small business owners…

In the spring of 2003, when I was a senior in college, the US threatened to bomb innocent civilians in Iraq. I went to DC with thousands of people to protest, but the unjust war moved forward anyway. 1/4 So I went to Iraq to be w/ the ppl under the bombs. That act also didn’t stop the war, but it instilled in me a belief that we do not have to accept violence waged in the name of “security” that consumes innocent lives & the resources that could alleviate so much suffering. 2/4

I like @AsteadWesley’s reporting, so I listened to his interview w/ @albertmohler this week. Mohler says his main job is to prepare students to preach, but Christians can’t vote for Democrats b/c no moral issue is more important than preventing codification of gay marriage… If Mohler believes that, he’s free to vote for Rand Paul in KY. But his position should lead any Christian to question whether he’s qualified to do his main job. The Bible is a big book w/ lots to say, but it’s pretty clear God cares about how governments treat vulnerable ppl.

The most important public religion story in the US right now may be the realignment of white Christians around values of justice, love of neighbor & the common good. A short thread on the #RevolutionOfValues that often doesn’t make headlines… Folks who’ve been driven to extremism by the propaganda of the religious right get a lot of attention. Patriot churches. Capitol rioters w/ Jesus flags. White #ChristianNationalism is dangerous & deserves attention, but its extremism is the desperation of a shrinking minority.

It’s the 60th anniversary of 1961’s Freedom Ride this spring & today is Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday. Which reminds me of a story I learned from a SNCC friend... The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee formed after the sit-ins of 1960 to organize a new wave of direct challenges to Jim Crow segregation. The Freedom Ride—Black & White ppl together, riding interstate buses thru the South—was their first big action.

It’s outrageous that GA’s voter suppression bill makes it illegal to give food & water to voters waiting in line. But read on, b/c it gets much worse... Folks in Atlanta will bring their own water bottles & vote en masse in response to this assault on democracy. But if this law stands, a state board can override their county board & throw out their ballots if they don’t like the results.

John Eastman, who’s emerged to petition SCOTUS w/ Trump’s lies, is a fellow at the Christian nationalist Claremont Institute, which pays him $130k a year to work 15hrs/wk. Trump’s other lawyer, Jenna Ellis, is a fellow at Falkirk Center for “faith & liberty.” Trumpism was defeated at the ballot box, but it’s myths are sustained by a well funded Christian nationalist network of Institutes, radio & TV shows, & orgs that send emails to millions of Americans every day.

Local law enforcement in Alamance County, NC pepper-sprayed a permitted Souls to the Polls rally on the last day of Early Voting today. The particular site where this happened has a long history... newsobserver.com/news/local/art… During Reconstruction, local white supremacists were incensed that Gov Holden appointed Wyatt Outlaw as head of local law enforcement. A mob formed & lynched Outlaw in 1870.

Robert Graetz, the white Lutheran pastor who supported the Montgomery Bus Boycott, has died at 92. His role in the Black-led freedom struggle that catalyzed the civil rights movement is an important reminder that white folks can always choose to be anti-racist... Rev Graetz joined the NAACP in college & learned that it had been started in 1909 by Black & white folks together. When he came to pastor the church around the corner from Rosa Parks’ apartment, she was already hosting NAACP Youth Council meetings there.

At the WH conference on American history today, Allen Guelzo warns against the imagined dangers of the @ZinnEdProject. It’s a glimpse into what Trump & Co are doing w/ the culture wars, but I wanted to share b/c Guelzo was my college professor... At the Christian liberal arts school I chose b/c they were publicly committed to faith, reason & social justice, a wealthy donor who’d worked in the Reagan administration endowed an honors college. Guelzo was its 1st dean. We read classics & the neocons of the 90s.

As we celebrate Labor Day in the midst of an uprising against systemic racism, I want to celebrate how the labor movement has always been most powerful when it’s anti-racist. The Knights of Labor formed after the Civil War as an interracial union, uniting poor whites & Blacks. Fusion parties that brought white Populists together w/ Black Republicans in the South during Reconstruction were able to establish public education for all, debt forgiveness, & regulation of railroads & other monopolies.

Trump has tried to ignore systemic injustice & pretend that protest is anti-American. His visit to Wilmington today is a reminder how dangerous this appeal to “our heritage” can be. A quick thread...

https://twitter.com/stengel/status/1301124375584952320

Long before the USS Wilmington cane to rest in the Cape Fear river, white supremacists led a coup in 1898, promising that the river would run w/ blood until “white rule” was restored. A little background...

Today is the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. Worth remembering as we celebrate that the people who organized it as a demand for jobs & freedom were called socialists & extremists. Gallup found only 23% of Americans had a favorable view of it in summer of ‘63. “But at least they were nonviolent” say those who oppose protest today. Well, here’s what one editorial said in ‘63: “"If Negro leaders persist in their announced plans to march 100,000-strong on the capital, they will be jeopardizing their cause....

Whatever Tom Cotton meant to say, he agrees w/ Pompeo, Gingrich, Guelzo, et al that the 1619 Project is a threat to their vision of America. But most Black folks never bought that story. The 1619 Project matters to these guys b/c it threatens their control of white ppl. To believe in their leadership, you have to believe that, whatever our faults & foibles, America has been the shining light of God’s truth to the world since we rejected tyranny in favor of the “bold vision” that propertied white men agreed to in Constitutional Hall.

Trump 2020 knows that the single most determinative indicator of a voter’s support for this administration is whether they are a Christian nationalist. This “day of prayer” is a campaign rally. I’ve spent the past couple of years researching the rise of religious nationalism in America via the pro-life/pro-family “values voter” movement.

3 black churches in Louisiana were burned over past 10 days, as well as the admin building at Highlander, a home of the Southern freedom mvmt. During this same time, a white man parked in our church lot & refused to ID himself. I need to talk to white folks on here for a min... Our church is the community center of an African-American neighborhood that’s been here over a century. The church secretary has been here 30+ yrs & knows everyone. So she was concerned when she saw this man park in our lot & sit in his car.

I promised to pray for friends in the United Methodist Church this week who worked w/ love & care for years to keep their faith family together. But this is so much bigger than them. The culture war was designed to pit traditionalists vs progressives for political gain... But, whatever your reading of the Bible, it’s unfair to call condemnation of gay marriage “traditional”—except in the sense that fear has a long tradition in all religious communities.

For the last Sunday in Black History Month, I was at home in Durham today & got to share w/ our church family what Ann Atwater taught me. America’s future depends on the wisdom of black history. I’m a witness. A thread... When Ann was a young single mother in the 1960s, struggling to make ends meet, Howard Fuller from Operation Breakthrough recruited her to come to a community meeting & learn what was possible if people organized. He helped her get her rental property repaired...

It’s been national news this week that Mark Harris campaign committed fraud in #NC09 to steal an election. But we had much bigger news today in Wake Co court... After the gerrymandered NC General Assembly put a voter ID requirement on the ballot last year, the @ncnaacp sued under state constitution, noting that the NCGA is, according to SCOTUS, illegally constituted.

After an unhinged political leader declared a fake emergency & ripped children from their parents in Bethlehem, Jesus started a poor people’s movement that brought hope & healing to the masses. #NotesFromNationalEmergency In churches across America today, his stump speech will be read aloud:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.”

I’ve spent much of my adult life trying to name & unlearn the habits of #SlaveholderReligion that I inherited as a child of the SBC. I published a book about this earlier this year. So I’ve spent much of today reading closely the @SBTS report @AMBankstw is reporting here...

https://twitter.com/ambankstw/status/1072904733696909318

I expect @albertmohler will get some pushback from angry white nationalists for simply telling the truth about the seminary’s deep complicity in America’s systemic racism. But on the whole, this is the kind of lament that makes white Christians feel good about ourselves.