OPINION: You Cannot Claim to be Christian and Support President Trump. Period.
Celeste Coslett Clark
Feat manifests in my heart as I write this. As I consider releasing these thoughts onto paper, my chest grows tight and my breath slowly fades. I think about George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Ahmaud Arbery. Sandra Bland. Trayvon Martin. Ella Crowley. And far too many more. I think about their dreams, their passions, their hearts. I think about their families, their friends, their most beloved. I close my eyes, simply trying to imagine their last minutes of life as they died at the hands of hatred, prejudice, and racism. I accept that my fear does not matter. People are dying. The truth is being manipulated. And my silence as a privileged white woman is no longer an option.
Our country is burning. It is shattering before our hopeful eyes. We are killing our brothers and sisters. And we are growing in sin each and every moment we do not rise against injustice.
It was a late Monday evening. Like so many, my heart was heavy for my fellow black neighbors. I felt useless, as if there was nothing more I could do to present my allegiance to their movement. Yet as I prayed, I came to realize that showing up matters. And whether that be through words or in person, white people can always be allies. White people can admit they will never fully understand, and still stand beside the ones hurting the most as they listen and as they learn in true, honest humility.
I then reach to read the news, a move that nerves me to my bones. I worry about the possibility of there being even worse stories to hear. But truthfully, my fear is weak. It is weak compared to the terror that black people face each and every day. Their fear is real. Mine is not.
At this moment, there is one event that overwhelms my body with such immense anger that I am initially so unsure of what to do with. For a long time, I have grown more and more petrified by the deception of the Bible — of false preachers speaking to the masses about untrue and volatile doctrine while holding the beauty of God’s word in their hands. I worry about their listeners leaving with the belief that Jesus himself was filled with hatred just as these people are. And I question my role in my own faith, as if this darkness disguised as light has gotten under my wings as well.
I came across a picture of President Trump, a leader whose messages I have personally condemned ever since his political presence became known, holding a holy Bible in front of a Washington, D.C. church that was just recently damaged in one of a number of riots throughout our country during the past few days. I then find a video of this photo-op, one that turns out to be a narcissistic political ploy, and realize that he is holding the Bible upside-down, clutching it as if it is unfamiliar and has no appreciation for the grace etched in its thin pages. I hear someone in the crowd ask him, “Is this your Bible?” to which he responds, “It’s a Bible.” So impersonal. So vial. So unlike the beautiful, joyful author of this book.
Outside of this fraudulence, American citizens are being assaulted with tear gas. Earlier that evening, explosions can be heard in the distance as he delivers a vengeful speech in the Rose Garden. It sounds as if a war is brewing in our land, a kind that is continuing to kill the soul of our nation.
What infuriates me more than anything is not only that the people meant to serve and protect our loved ones have blood on their hands, but that the word of God that has love laced in each and every verse is being twisted to support his demonic remarks. In a time when the life of Jesus can heal our nation’s hearts and teach us everything we will ever need to know about acceptance, love, and justice, lies are being spread about this kind truth. And I wish there were more Christian leaders who would stand up against it.
As D.C. Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde stated, “Let me be clear: The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus... We hold the teachings of our sacred texts to be so, so grounding to our lives and everything we do. It is about love of neighbor and sacrificial love and justice.”
This man claims to be a follower of Jesus. He claims to support the teachings of the Bible. He claims to understand the message. His actions show us he does not.
Truly, he is the exact opposite of who Jesus was. Jesus was kind. He loved. He healed. He stood up against injustice.
While our country is burning, this man is manipulating the word of God. He is not a Christian. Anyone who defends, supports, and votes for him cannot claim to be either.
This man is racist. Jesus was accepting. This man is narcissistic. Jesus was humble. This man is darkness. Jesus was light.
I pray we all let Jesus be our example. For healing. And for life. Because black lives matter.