WE MUST ADMIT THE TRUTH

 

WE MUST ADMIT THE TRUTH

©Wendell Griffen, 2021

 

 

          It is time for the United States to confront truth white people have tried to avoid.  White supremacy and religious nationalism dominate US notions of democracy. 

 

This truth is not new. 

 

The United States was organized by wealthy white men to be run by wealthy white men for the convenience, benefit, and enrichment of wealthy white men.  Those wealthy white men did not intend for women to vote.  They did not intend for Black people to be free.  They did not intend for indigenous people to live in peace on their ancestral land.  They did not intend for unwealthy white people to vote, own land, or be treated as equals. 

 

Eventually, wealthy white men extended the voting franchise to unwealthy white men.  That added to the false sense of superiority unwealthy white men felt over indigenous and African people and over women. 

 

White girls were socialized to marry, sexually serve white men, and bear children (preferably male).  African women were intended to bear more children (whether sired by white men or African men) who would be enslaved for as long as white men could profit from them.  Indigenous and African men were branded criminals, beasts, and sex fiends by white men who licensed land theft, human trafficking, rape, and murder of indigenous and African people.  Indigenous women were treated as objects for white men to rape, murder, and otherwise mistreat with impunity. 

 

I know you dislike reading and hearing these words and thinking about their meaning.  That does not make the words untrue.  It only means you are uncomfortable about their truthfulness.    

 

Now comes the hardest part for you to confront.  I have not only described the hard realities of U.S. democracy.  I have also described the hard truth about white religion in the United States.

 

White religious people made slavery part of the moral, ethical, social, and political DNA of US democracy.  White religious people were blind to countless evidence of sexual harassment, abuse, and misogyny by white men against white, Black, brown, and indigenous women, and enslavement of Black children born from those crimes.  White religious people were blind to centuries of wage theft, freedom theft, and the lies that created and empowered them. 

 

White religious people have known about every massacre of indigenous and African people in this society.  They knew about every discriminatory policy practiced against indigenous, African, Immigrant, and other persons.  White religious people joined the Ku Klux Klan the same way they joined Donald Trump in 2015 when he launched his presidential campaign.   And White religious people ignored and belittled the cries of indigenous, African, Latino, Asian Pacific, and unwealthy white workers about unjust labor practices, deliberate funding disparities in education for children of color, and white unwealthy children, and about the daily abuses and recurring deaths inflicted, with impunity, by law enforcement officers. 

 

We should not sympathize with white religious people who profess shock that other white religious people flocked to Washington, DC from across the United States at the call of an openly irreverent white man known across the world as a liar, cheat, and bigot.  This is what white religious people have always done across U.S. history. 

 

Meanwhile, the same white religious people have denounced darker skinned people who are differently religious for being religious extremists.  They branded the religion of Islam a hateful religion after 19 Muslim extremists commandeered four commercial airliners, crashed two into the World Trade Towers in New York, crashed a third into the Pentagon in Washington, and were prevented by heroic passengers from crashing a fourth into the US Capitol on September 11, 2001.

 

However, white religious people did not engage in soul searching after Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 that killed 168 people, including 19 children, and injured hundreds more.  There has been no soul searching by white religious people as more white people who claim to follow Jesus openly embraced white nationalism, made wild claims that their “gun rights” were endangered, and openly expressed resentment toward equal justice for indigenous people, women, Blacks, Latinos, Asian Pacific Islanders, people who are LGBTQI, and for immigrants who are not white. 

 

Donald Trump issued presidential pardons to two white Oregon cattle ranchers who were convicted of twice committing arson on federal land (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-pardons-oregon-cattle-ranchers-center-bundy-standoff/story?id=56487437).  His first presidential pardon went to white Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio who was convicted for criminal contempt of court for violating a federal court order that prohibited his law enforcement agency from racially profiling Latinos (https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/controversial-arizona-sheriff-joe-arpaio-pardoned-president-trump/story?id=49426093).  White religious people who say they believe in “law and order” supported Trump anyway.

 

These and countless other events explain why many of us no longer believe anything white religious people say about loving God and loving their neighbors.  Why should we believe people who insist on supporting a president who lied about an election that federal officials have called the most honestly conducted in memory?  Why should we listen to white religious politicians who prattle about healing our divided populace after they spent weeks agreeing with Donald Trump’s lies, and spent years agreeing with or winking at his bigotry and vicious behavior? 

 

Why should we trust white religious politicians to be courageous about remedying longstanding injustices after so many white pastors and congregations have been silent about those injustices, silent about Trump’s bigotry, and silent about Trump’s blatant attempts to have millions of votes canceled so he can hold on to power? 

 

We have no reason to trust white religious people who have been silent or vocal supporters of Donald Trump.  We have no reason to trust their pastors, religious educators, missionaries, and church members.  We have no reason to trust their invitations to pray together.  We have no reason to attend their religious schools because we have no reason to treat them as trustworthy about God, truth, justice, accountability, and healing.  And we have no reason to trust white religious people about those subjects.

 

Instead of listening to white religious people make excuses for the domestic terrorists who tried to do Trump’s bidding on January 6, we should tell them to shut up and listen to us.  Listen as we refuse to treat Trump as if he is sick when he is plainly sinister.  Listen and learn why Trump must be tried in the U.S. Senate for the political crime of inciting insurrection against the United States.  Listen and learn why Trump must be held accountable for the deaths and injuries suffered at the hands of his “people.”  

 

White religious people will find it hard to listen and learn from others.  The hard truth is that the rest of us do not want to listen to white religious people any longer.  We have learned the hard truth that white religious people are hatefully faithful and faithfully fickle.  They are not reliable authorities concerning accountability, truth, justice, love of neighbor, and love of nation. 

 

Learning and living that truth is how we survive.  Knowing and following that truth is how we remain sane.  Honoring that truth is how we have freed our minds and why we work so hard to stay free.

 

These hard truths are painful for white religious people to hear and ponder.  They are true, nonetheless.