Commentary
In America, too many white Christians say the solution to racism is public acts of prayer and unity while they simultaneously deny the enduring power of white supremacy and their complicity in it. As recently as last month, a high-profile Southern Baptist seminary decided to offer $5 million of their $89.7 million endowment to scholarships for Black students while holding on to the racist narrative, legacy, and structure of their slaveholding founders. As Joseph Gerth in the Louisville Courier Journal points out, pollster Robert P. Jones calls this “the White Christian Shuffle” — white Christians publicly engage in acts of charity while simultaneously holding on to the white supremacist rot that lays at the foundation.
Poll workers process absentee ballots the night of Election Day at Milwaukee Central Count in Milwaukee, Nov. 3, 2020. REUTERS/Bing Guan
It was a fitful night of what I can only generously describe as sleep. Maybe you can relate. I drifted off to sleep early, only to be awakened at midnight by my wife, who had received the latest election alert on her phone. My 7- and 9-year-old sons were also one edge almost all Election Day, worried about my day trip to Philadelphia and showing an uncanny degree of interest in the constant news coverage.
Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with president of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition and co-lead pastor of The Gathering Place, Rev. Gabriel Salguero, about the Latinx vote. Salguero discusses where the evangelical Hispanic vote is going in this election and the mindset behind the Latino/Latina voter.
Voters line up outside a polling location at the Church of Saint Luke & The Epiphany on Election Day in Philadelphia, Nov. 3, 2020. Photo by Ben Von Klemperer / Shutterstock
Nearly 100 million Americans have already cast their ballots. It’s a staggering and hopeful number that makes this Election Day unlike any other. Today, the nation decides whether it will follow the path to a more inclusive, multiracial democracy — or spiral further into the violent abyss of white supremacy. Today we decide what kind of nation we want to become.
A woman decorates her car at an event encouraging community members to vote at an early voting site in Houston, Oct. 25, 2020. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare/File Photo
While groups like CatholicVote and others have narrowed in on pro-life, pro-Trump messaging, many other Catholic groups are urging Catholics to think more holistically when they enter the voting booth. “Pro-life,” they argue, extends to honoring the dignity all life from the womb to the tomb, which behooves voters to consider issues like health care, housing, education, racism, climate justice, migration, and criminal justice reform while voting.
President Donald Trump participates in a prayer before speaking at an Evangelicals for Trump Coalition Launch at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami. Jan. 3, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
One of the things that makes America a can-do nation of innovation is that we find ways to work together, using our disagreements and diversity as an asset. Because we don’t swallow the status quo and bow down in reverence to group-think, we have been able to land on the moon, cure cancers, and invent the internet.
A person casts his ballot for the upcoming presidential election during early voting in Sumter, S.C., Oct. 9, 2020. REUTERS/Micah Green/File Photo
Racism is on the ballot next week. Democracy is on the ballot next week. These two things two are inextricably linked because racism has disfigured American democracy from the founding of our nation. The road to a more perfect union has been long and uneven. And this road requires that we continually become a more perfect democracy and more just nation. And while our democracy will never be perfect, we must continually defend the rights, institutions, and laws that help safeguard our freedoms and advance the common good. Increasingly this election represents a test of whether we embrace and will work to realize a truly inclusive, multiracial democracy with liberty and justice for all.
Rev. Jim Wallis speaks with the founder and director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, John Carr.
President Donald Trump and former Vice President John Biden at the first presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2020. Image via Shutterstock.com
In the 2020 election cycle, most of the Democratic primary candidates provided videos, including Vice President Joe Biden. The Christian leaders in the Circle of Protection have asked for a video and/or statement on poverty policy from President Trump, but his campaign has not responded to repeated requests.
Demonstrators take part in an interfaith rally in Philadelphia in 2017. Photo: Michael Candelori / Shutterstock.com
People of diverse faiths have a moral obligation to protect the integrity of the election. Right this minute, people all across the country are voting early or by mail, or making plans to vote in person. As religious and spiritual leaders, we are prepared to take to the streets peacefully if it becomes clear that votes are not being counted or if a legitimate election outcome is being subverted.
Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, offers a sermon on the prophetic witness of the church ahead of the 2020 election.
Dr. Stephen Schneck, executive director of Franciscan Action Network, offers a Roman Catholic reflection on the deep, structural racism of American life. Beyond individual virtue, what is needed is political and social action to address the systemic and embedded racism in American institutions, social practices, and culture.
Nikki Toyama-Szeto, executive director of Christians for Social Action, offers a sermon on Acts 17:24-28, describing us as God's offspring. Toyama-Szeto explores this picture of a reality in which all people, made in the imago dei, are able to flourish.
"To be an antiracist church is not a political statement, it is a deeply theological Christian statement."
Halloween decorations and support for President Donald Trump in Warren, Ohio. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Techno-authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, election fairness, and other stories about things we fear and how to get us all through safely.
Sean Feucht performing in Seattle, Sept. 10, 2020. Screengrab from YouTube.
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth,” Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:24. But when our worship is based in a denial of truth and runs counter to the nature and character of God is it truly worship? This is a question I have been pondering in considering a series of worship events organized by Sean Feucht, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, worship leader, and politician.
Photo by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash
The work of unlearning racism and undoing our habit of exploitation — of the earth, of other bodies, and other neighborhoods — is long.
In this special SOTN episode, Rev. Jim Wallis joins Peter Eisner and Jonathan Winer, hosts of District Productive's Unconventional Threat, to discuss Lawyers and Collars, an initiative that seeks to ensure that everyone--including our most vulnerable citizens — is able to safely and effectively exercise their right to vote.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump joined a Las Vegas church service where a pastor pronounced that God told her Trump would receive a “second wind” and introduced the president against the backdrop of dancers waving American flags with the Statue of Liberty on them. On Tuesday, televangelist Pat Robertson said God told him Trump would win re-election, and it would set off a series of events ushering in the End Times.
Photo by Tiffany Tertipes on Unsplash
In the midst of a tumultuous election season, Christians in the United States are discerning faithful ways to engage with politics. Christian discernment involves understanding ourselves, our relationship to God, our connection to our neighbors, and our most deeply held values.