The election was not about Trump. Even less about Harris. It is not primarily about the economy or world affairs.
The election was the high-water mark of the 60-year cultural movement that began in resistance to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Trump, whose only values are power and money, simply got in front of the parade and picked up the pace.
The movement began in the South. There, white ministers, politicians, and business leaders continued what they had been doing for 80 years: resisting true repentance for slavery and instead embracing revenge. Hence, eight decades of segregation, Jim Crow, and lynching.
Like the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement featured the federal government intervening in local and state affairs to ensure fair treatment of racial minorities. Or, at least they tried. This angered the locals and set their hearts against the Yankee soldiers who dared to intervene in the White Supremacy of the American South.
Twice, the white establishment in the region that stretches from Virginia to Texas, from Florida to Oklahoma, resisted true repentance—turning around and heading in a righteous direction—and embraced resistance, revenge, and retaliation. Plus, victimhood—they, the true white Christian community, were the victims of misunderstanding, mistreatment, and violence; or so they said.
It happened again, after the deaths of George Floyd and others, including Ahmaud Arbery in my own county. These fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, yet another populist effort to speak up for justice on behalf of black citizens. Yet again, instead of hearing the cry for justice from those without power, the white establishment, especially across the American South, pushed back. They negated Affirmative Action, denounced efforts at Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and reasserted their own claim as victims. The newly conservative (and Catholic!) Supreme Court heard their cries and granted their desires. Once again, they abandoned the way of repentance and chose the way of revenge.
What started out as resistance to black rights gradually added women’s rights and gay rights to their list of grievances. In more recent days, the rights of immigrants, refugees, and transgender people were added to the list. All of these are among the most vulnerable demographic groups in our country, which is one reason they have been easy targets of the rhetoric of the Right.
The irony in this century and a half of non-repentance is the text of Holy Scripture they have quoted for decades. It is from the Hebrew Bible, itself is the story of a mistreated minority and their search for justice.
“If my people … will humble themselves … and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
What our nation needed after the Civil War was repentance on the part of the slave-holding culture of the South, once dominated by the Christian religion, primarily Baptists and Methodists. It did not happen. What our nation needed during the Civil Rights Movement was repentance on the part of white masters everywhere but especially in the South. It did not happen.
Instead, the White Supremist leaders, mostly men, switched moral issues: they dumped the one that called them to repent and embraced the one that called the women to quit. They gave up on equal rights and took up abortion. The campaign against abortion required (and requires) nothing from the men who run the religious and political establishments; it only prescribes behavior for somebody else—the women.
This movement away from personal and social repentance and toward the repression of an even wider spectrum of human rights is the defining moral dynamic of modern religious and political life in these United States.
This movement of resistance rather than repentance gained traction throughout the South, as we witnessed the mass conversion of people and politicians to the Republican Party. They organized into things like Moral Majority and Christian Coalition. They took over the Southern Baptist Convention, then the Republican Party. They captured state governments across the South and Midwest, then the White House, the Supreme Court, and now the entire federal government.
It may be the most powerful and successful populist movement in the history of the United States. It is destined to reshape every aspect of American life. It offers little hope to racial, religious, and gender minorities; it offers a bright future for Christian Nationalism. It bodes ill for environmental justice and the regulation of business practices. The wealthy will prosper, and the poor will suffer.
Liberty and justice for all will fade as a national value. Lady Liberty will recede as a monument of hope. The gospel itself will stay twisted into a justification for economic and political self-interest.
It is little wonder that the poorest and least educated states in the country are those dominated by religious and political structures that have, for 150 years, refused to repent and instead embraced the spirit of resistance and revenge.
The election was not about Trump. Even less about Harris. It is not primarily about the economy or world affairs.
The election was the high-water mark of the 60-year cultural movement that began in resistance to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Trump, whose only values are power and money, simply got in front of the parade and picked up the pace.
The movement began in the South. There, white ministers, politicians, and business leaders continued what they had been doing for 80 years: resisting true repentance for slavery and instead embracing revenge. Hence, eight decades of segregation, Jim Crow, and lynching.
Like the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement featured the federal government intervening in local and state affairs to ensure fair treatment of racial minorities. Or, at least they tried. This angered the locals and set their hearts against the Yankee soldiers who dared to intervene in the White Supremacy of the American South.
Twice, the white establishment in the region that stretches from Virginia to Texas, from Florida to Oklahoma, resisted true repentance—turning around and heading in a righteous direction—and embraced resistance, revenge, and retaliation. Plus, victimhood—they, the true white Christian community, were the victims of misunderstanding, mistreatment, and violence; or so they said.
It happened again, after the deaths of George Floyd and others, including Ahmaud Arbery in my own county. These fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, yet another populist effort to speak up for justice on behalf of black citizens. Yet again, instead of hearing the cry for justice from those without power, the white establishment, especially across the American South, pushed back. They negated Affirmative Action, denounced efforts at Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion, and reasserted their own claim as victims. The newly conservative (and Catholic!) Supreme Court heard their cries and granted their desires. Once again, they abandoned the way of repentance and chose the way of revenge.
What started out as resistance to black rights gradually added women’s rights and gay rights to their list of grievances. In more recent days, the rights of immigrants, refugees, and transgender people were added to the list. All of these are among the most vulnerable demographic groups in our country, which is one reason they have been easy targets of the rhetoric of the Right.
The irony in this century and a half of non-repentance is the text of Holy Scripture they have quoted for decades. It is from the Hebrew Bible, itself is the story of a mistreated minority and their search for justice.
“If my people … will humble themselves … and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
What our nation needed after the Civil War was repentance on the part of the slave-holding culture of the South, once dominated by the Christian religion, primarily Baptists and Methodists. It did not happen. What our nation needed during the Civil Rights Movement was repentance on the part of white masters everywhere but especially in the South. It did not happen.
Instead, the White Supremist leaders, mostly men, switched moral issues: they dumped the one that called them to repent and embraced the one that called the women to quit. They gave up on equal rights and took up abortion. The campaign against abortion required (and requires) nothing from the men who run the religious and political establishments; it only prescribes behavior for somebody else—the women.
This movement away from personal and social repentance and toward the repression of an even wider spectrum of human rights is the defining moral dynamic of modern religious and political life in these United States.
This movement of resistance rather than repentance gained traction throughout the South, as we witnessed the mass conversion of people and politicians to the Republican Party. They organized into things like Moral Majority and Christian Coalition. They took over the Southern Baptist Convention, then the Republican Party. They captured state governments across the South and Midwest, then the White House, the Supreme Court, and now the entire federal government.
It may be the most powerful and successful populist movement in the history of the United States. It is destined to reshape every aspect of American life. It offers little hope to racial, religious, and gender minorities; it offers a bright future for Christian Nationalism. It bodes ill for environmental justice and the regulation of business practices. The wealthy will prosper, and the poor will suffer.
Liberty and justice for all will fade as a national value. Lady Liberty will recede as a monument of hope. The gospel itself will stay twisted into a justification for economic and political self-interest.
It is little wonder that the poorest and least educated states in the country are those dominated by religious and political structures that have, for 150 years, refused to repent and instead embraced the spirit of resistance and revenge.
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