Misplaced Hope

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13 NLT)

"In our questions about politics and the gospel, we must be willing to ask how evangelical politics might change if we replace fear with hope, the pursuit of power with the cultivation of humility, and nostalgia with history."--Mae Elise Canon in Beyond Hashtag Activism

I am writing this on November 6th, the day after election day in 2024.  I have been preparing for this day by spending more time in prayer and meditation, anticipating that regardless of the winner of the presidential election, that many leaders and members of the churches that I have the privilege of serving, will experience significant discouragement, disappointment, and disillusionment. 

A number of friends have contacted me, checking in and sharing concerns about my welfare and the welfare of many of my friends, particularly those who are people of color.  What my concerned friends will remember is the painful experience of many people of color who are members of mostly White churches/denominations during the last 3 presidential elections.  

Let me explain.

Sociologist Michael Emerson studies the intersection of race and religion, particularly race and Christianity in America.  In his book, the Religion of Whiteness (2024) he documented how religious practices are racialized, leading to a religionizing of race.  Thats a lot to unpack, but essentially, he shows, using sociological analysis that for many American Christians, one's racial identity has become sacred, and is reflected in one's beliefs and expressions of faith. I am not introducing his work to try and convince you of the validity of his hypothesis but would encourage you to read it for yourself as an explanation of the racial polarization that exists with the body of Christ.

I brought it up because in his book he has an entire chapter on "betrayal trauma".  Betrayal trauma is the wound experienced when people experience a breach in a trust.  For example, a wife who is wounded when her husband breaks their sacred trust experiences betrayal trauma. What Emerson found was that many Black and Brown leaders felt betrayed by the choices that their White colleagues made politically. Betrayed because President Trump has made racist, sexist, and xenophobic remarks and policies that are hurtful and harmful.  Yet White evangelicals supported him overwhelmingly, even when they had other pro-life candidates without the racial baggage.  Along with the support for President Trump, there was often defense, deflecting or diminishing of his outrageous and hurtful behavior.  More often, there was simply silence. The result of betrayal trauma is deepening fracture in the body of Christ, and a tremendous breach of trust, where many leaders no longer felt safe or advocated for.  As one pastor interviewed in Emerson's book says, "We found that we were not valued." 

Betrayal trauma need not be malicious to be.  This means that if I support a leader or policy that has an adverse effect on my neighbor who is culturally distinct from me, it may still wound and cause division regardless of whether I am aware or regardless of my intent.  As an example, I may support a politician who wants radical deportation of anyone who lacks documentation not understanding that will lead to massive family disruption in many of my neighbors and returning them to places in which they may have never lived or places of persecution.  It's important to understand that in reconciliatory work (efforts to restore breached relationships), that impact must be addressed, regardless of intent.

Twenty years ago, I would have said that the problem in many churches is that they need to wake up to the spiritual and structural realities of the choices that they make and the polices that they support.  In the African American community, we call that being "woke" but like many other things, evangelical leaders made that term pejorative without a clear understanding of its use.  So I would say that churches need to be aware of the consequences of their support and its impact on others, particularly the most vulnerable in our communities.  Keep in mind that Jesus evaluated the entire ministry of his followers on "what you did for the least of these" (Mt 25)

Last week, President Trump had a rally where many of the speakers said racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, and cruel things.  I am not going to repeat them here.  However, there was an opportunity for supporters of the president to speak out against those who were targeted, but instead, there was mostly silence.  A Latino leader who has just been dehumanized, or immigrant leader who is objectified and humiliated at the rally should be able to look to their brothers and sisters in Christ to have their backs and to be in solidarity with them, according to the will of Jesus (Jn 17:22-23).  But instead, most experienced silence and separation, as in 2016, 2020, and yes, in 2024.  The result of the wounding is deeper separation.

President Trump regularly exaggerates and lies in order to produce fear.  Many of those are at the expense of immigrants (most are criminals for example), or people of color.  Once again, the expectation would be that truth and integrity are paramount, but President Trump gets a pass, particularly when the butt of his vitriol is someone who is marginalized and someone that many of his supporters are not proximate with (immigrants at the southern border, protesters with BLM, Venezuelan refugee, etc).  All of this wounds and further separates the body.

I was in prayer and doing my devotions this morning when I was arrested by this verse:

I felt as if Jesus was asking me, why was I expecting life from something (politics) that is more often used for control and exploitation.  He was asking me "Where have you placed your hope?".  Now biblical hope is not the same as optimism.  Optimism is the sense that positive things will happen because the conditions are right for them to occur.  Biblical hope is our confidence in the intervention of the divine according to God's promises and attributes.  In the same way that the women who discovered the empty tomb with angels were frightened, many pastors and leaders (including myself) are triggered and disillusioned by the choice of racist and anti-immigrant leadership, when alternatives existed.  

As the story of the empty tomb goes forward, the women go and explain what they had seen and felt, and the response was:

Their words struck the apostles as nonsense, and they didn’t believe the women. (Lk 24:11 CEB)

And this is the experience of many Black, Latino, Asian, Indigenous, and female members and leaders as they shared their pain.  The church often saw their testimonies as nonsense, the frustration of poor losers. This intensified the wounds and drove many to leave congregations.  In fact, combined with other issues of racial injustice, Black people were leaving mostly White and multi-ethnic spaces in record numbers.  The phenomena was featured in this article in the New York Times.

Today, I am reminded that my hope is in God.  I have no expectation that President Trump (or any president) or most of his supporters, regardless of our relationship in Christ, will actually choose to honor those marginalized above fidelity to access to power and position. I know it is possible and when it occurs, I am deeply appreciative, but that I am no longer expecting it.  I am not suggesting that everyone who voted for President Trump is aware of the effect of their support for President Trump on the victims of his persistent name-calling and conspiracy building. For example, He and Senator Vance amplified the lie about Haitian immigrants, resulting in threats and violence.  No apologies given and more importantly, no apologies demanded by most supporters who identify as followers of Jesus. Even more worrisome, there was no concern for people of Haitian ancestry who are now being persecuted due to President Trump's recklessness.

If one studies Martin Luther King Jr.'s journey as a civil rights leader, we begin with his genuine hope in the greater American Church despite experiencing horrific violence.  His non-violent protest methodology appealed to the morality of church folk to see African Americans as people experiencing unjust violence.  Towards the end of his life, particularly as he broadened his advocacy to anti-war movements, his confidence on the morality and inherit goodness of humanity was beginning to fade, mostly due to the unwillingness of the greater American Church to leverage their privilege to advocate for peace and change.

South African Theologian Allan Boesak (Pharaohs on Both Sides of the Blood-Red Waters, 2021) states that the authentic church is reflected in:

"The prophetic witness and faithful resistance of the multitudes of Christians whose faith led them to political activism, the church driven by a radical gospel of compassionate justice, hope, and liberation."

In other words, times like this are opportunities for unity which informs our witness.  The power of the witness is the result of a lived unity as opposed to aspirational unity. Theologian Cindy Lee (Our Unforming, 2023) states that a

"Theoretical hope of unity is not enough to change our society or our churches."

We have an opportunity to advocate against hate and join the journey of our broader Church in being agents of the Kingdom agenda of justice, peace, wholeness and dignity.  However, it means prioritizing community solidarity above obtaining political power and access to political power.  Solidarity requires a common memory (can we agree on what happened), a common vision (can we agree on what is ideal) and common experience (sacrificially journeying toward the common good).

This does not mean the members of church communities cannot have political difference.  In fact, the more diverse the better.  However, the church must make political ideology submit to its covenant relationship with God and one another as well as its command to love our neighbors.  In that scenario, political ideologies become a platform in which to express the great commandment, rather than the opposite which is the church becomes a platform for political agendas.

Throughout history, we see movements where there is a common living hope where diverse people, trusting in God, begin to change the world through devoted communities, centered in the hope of the God who acts in loving kindness, justice, and righteousness (Jer 9:23-24).  The hope is not that we can convince others to do the right things, but that we are modeling the right things as we demonstrate an alternative to "politics as usual". We are living witnesses of a loving God to a watching world!

I will pray for President Trump as that is my privilege as part of the family of Christ.  However, I will not be silent on anything he does that promotes injustice, greed, exploitation, or racism.  I will work to be a peacemaker and a witness to God's life-giving love to promote unity in the Church.  However, I desire to be part of a liberated community in transformed relationships glorifying God.  Free to worship without the "isms" and in relationships that have been transformed by the God who is love, to honor the image of God in each of us.  While no church is perfect or has arrived, those who intentionally commit to Jesus' Kingdom agenda and to one another, are on their way.  It is unfair to be part of communities where my welfare and the welfare of those like me is not on equal footing with others, regardless of why it is occurring. It is spiritually and emotionally exhausting and unsustainable. Authentic unity is preceded by love, and love seeks the best for its object.

I end with this challenge to keep the language of hope fluent despite having a dust filled throat (phrase from Alia Joy in Glorious Weakness).  After all we were created for this.

"But if the mission of the Father and the Son, according to John, is to give abundant life to the world, then the formation of a joy-filled, love-filled, hope-filled, life-filled, unified community is part of that divine mission.  To be sure, once again, there is a still greater end involved here; the existence of such a community is not the climax of the story, for it is intended to participate in God's mission of bringing love, light, and life to the whole world."--Michael Gorman in Abide and Go