By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
Sometimes writing is a joy, providing a real sense of satisfaction. Other times it can be an exercise in exhaustion. The worst part is when a thought, idea, or piece of evidence arrives in the brain after the submission deadline. It’s too late then and the writer must accept that they did their best and move on.
That’s the way it seems to be in many of life’s endeavors. Part of acceptance is to be honest with ourselves. It’s easy to think we are being honest with ourselves, but God gave us free-will and we know that can certainly tilt our perspectives. Preferences, biases, and lived experiences can all contribute to the challenge of being wholly honest.
Today’s honesty is that we lost because we didn’t fight hard enough to win. We will suffer relentlessly. As believers we took the risk that the moral high ground would prevail over a known racist and irreverent power monger. Ask yourself the simple questions: 1) who pledges allegiance to a known racist, assaulter of women and serial liar, and 2) who goes all-in for someone who couldn’t care less about you – in a representative democracy? The amoral carnival barker successfully appealed to most white Americans fearful of losing what they distinguish as “their country.”
Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of “The 1619 Project,” posted following the election, “The vote was about perceived loss of status. What elected Trump was demographic anxiety – his campaign ran explicitly on it, explicitly! – and so many people whose job it is to dispassionately deal with facts still do not want to deal with that.”
If honesty were a prerequisite for our highest elected office, Mrs. Hannah-Jones would be a superb candidate, but this is America, and she is an African-American woman.
A few months ago, our own Malaco Music Group released the latest offering from the renowned Mississippi Mass Choir. “We Still Believe,” is a two-disk project with sixteen songs, the sixth song on disc 1 is “Lord We Need You Now,” with the powerhouse Emma Curry out front. It seemed like the perfect title for this article, all things considered. The song includes the words, “we need you right now…..we need you in The White House….we need you in the Governors Mansion…we need you, oh we need you now, we need you right now.” Listening to the song, against the backdrop of trying to accept the election results, led my thoughts to the Letter of James. Despite being one of the briefest books in the Bible, its message reveals timeless truth.
James 2:14-26 instructs, with varying words and punctuation, depending upon the edition we are reading, “So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” Often summarized as “Faith without works is dead,” reminds that neither faith alone nor works alone can fulfill the law. Leading into these verses, we are told to avoid partiality – favoring one over the other – as it conflicts with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Obedience is far easier for some than others.
When we contemplate the true history of America, have we ever loved all our neighbors? This edict, in parallel with The Golden Rule, seems rapidly drawn toward irrelevance in our deeply polarized, capitalist, classist and racist society. A majority of the electorate has selected a man whose sole focus is himself, to be who – their leader! A large swath of them claim to be Christians. Were they voting for something or against something? Do you suppose they want to change the direction of America? If so, which direction do you suppose these folks want it to change? In the “good old days” white supremacy wasn’t called out for what it is – back then it was just called America. Either way, Lord we need you now.
We need your divine intervention on the hearts and minds of regular folks who are non-minorities. Non-minorities made up 71% of voters in the recent election voters. Combining both men and women, they voted 73% in favor of Donald Trump, per NBC News. Truth is inconvenient to these people – so cloaked in privilege, yet adamantly claiming grievances using the codewords freedom and liberty.
Per the online LA Progressive, “In 1973 the Justice Department charged Fred C. Trump, Donald Trump and Trump Management, Inc. with refusing to rent and negotiate rentals with blacks, requiring different rental terms and conditions because of race, and misrepresenting that apartments were not available. Thus, a half-century before his present legal troubles, Donald Trump was already being charged with violating government policies.” America fired Trump and then turned around and rehired him.
Last Sunday, just a few days before Thanksgiving, the Farish Street Baptist Church choir opened with a stirring rendition of “Jesus Promised.” You remember, “…Oh how wonderful it is, Jesus promised he’ll take care of me. Oh, how marvelous it is, Jesus promised he’ll take care of me, I don’t have to worry about the things ahead, All I have to do is live right and believe in what he said. I can call him in the morning, I can call him in the middle of the night, and when I call him, He’ll make everything alright, It does not matter, how big the problem may be, Jesus promised, Jesus promised he’ll take care of me…” The mighty and ever-present faith of believers brought to song, now America – we need your works.
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