No Room at the Inn for Racism
Where is the outrage for Jerry Falwell, Jr.?
“After the best week ever for @realDonaldTrump — no obstruction, no collusion, NYT admits @BarackObama did spy on his campaign, & the economy is soaring. I now support reparations-Trump should have 2 yrs added to his 1st term as pay back for time stolen by this corrupt failed coup” — Jerry Falwell, Jr., Twitter, May 4, 2019
“People need to get their sense of humor back,” Jerry Falwell, Jr. told Roanoke reporter Dan Casey regarding his tweet.
It’s easy to dismiss the top comment as a joke, due to it’s sheer absurdity, but I’m not here to discuss absurdities. I’m here to discuss racism, which has no place in what Jerry Fallwell, Jr. deems is a lapse in our nation’s sense of humor.
While everyone was distracted by the obvious fallacy of his comment, few publicly dug in on the truly racist statement so grossly lacquered into it’s core. “I now support reparations.”
It’s shocking to me, that any one, much less an evangelical leader, would find the topic of reparations to be something to joke about. Liberty University currently hosts over 75,000 students between their Virginia and online campuses. A student population that claims over 10,000 minorities. The idea that the pain, suffering, and unspeakable treatment of their ancestors (and easily assumed experiences of racism in their own lives) is worthy of a joke, much less a public political joke shared and reshared to countless millions of individuals, is something I fail to comprehend.
What I also don’t comprehend more than anything else is why there isn’t a larger white evangelical voice shouting about how truly disgusting these statements are towards our fellow man.
Where is the outrage?
Where are the denouncements?
Where is the petition to get Jerry Falwell, Jr. removed as the president of Liberty University?
Of course, resting snug in my liberal bubble I wouldn’t understand…I couldn’t understand. I couldn’t understand how pained the white evangelical community has been over the tenure of the last decade. I couldn’t understand how hard it’s been for the white evangelical community to have to face the populations they so quickly dismissed. I couldn’t understand what it’s like for the white evangelical community to do anything at all thats asked of them in a society where all individuals are considered equal.
Bullshit.
I understand just fine.
It isn’t like I don’t know this world, I grew up in this world. I was a self-identifying Christian well into my twenties. I’ve been on the Liberty University campus many times; when I experienced terrible things in my life I begged Father God to help, not my parents; and I have spent more than one summer in service to the Almighty. I get it. I’ve been there, and a lot of my family and what I would consider friends are there. And to be painfully honest, I’ve given this white evangelical world a lot of front-facing leeway in my liberal bubble over the past few years. While I have been more acquainted with dismissal than understanding from the white evangelical tribe, I have near always had their back as individuals when they weren’t in the room, despite never understanding them as a whole.
How can you still be friends with someone that voted for that monster?
How can you care about them when they will never truly care about you?
How can you even talk to someone who disavows the LGBTQ community?
I can because that’s what my early beliefs in Jesus Christ taught me. I was taught that no matter who we were, we were all precious in his sight. I didn’t remember some clause stating that only applies if it’s convenient or others agree or it’s the cool thing to do. Everyone is precious. Every. Single. One.
While I am no longer a believer in the evangelical faith, I am still very connected to the core principles that I have believed in since my youth. And it’s those beliefs that inspire me to write this today. I have always believed that perceived trends of behavior don’t represent an individual, but I also believe great outcomes are built by individual actions. I further believe individual lack of action and accountability have led us to where we are.
These statements made by Jerry Falwell, Jr. are wrong. There is no moral grey area here, they are wrong. They are discounting and insulting to an enormous population, and they were shouted from the highest pulpit. There is nothing in the actions, statements, or behaviors of Jerry Fallwell, Jr. on the current stage he occupies that amplifies the message of Jesus Christ. Sure, it’s easy to say faith is about the relationship with the higher being, and the actions of one man don’t reflect the beliefs of another. Of course, that’s common sense. I don’t think any of you are believers in Jerry Falwell, Jr….yet, you support those beliefs by sending your children to Liberty University, allowing their online programming in your homeschools, and have pride in being part of a greater community that carries Liberty University as a badge of higher education prowess.
Plain and simple, silence in the face of wrong is support of that wrong. I’ll be the first person to admit I’ve been guilty, and have been for a lifetime. This is a challenge to myself, as much as it is to you. We have influence in our communities, no matter how small those communities are, and it is our voices that will make the difference, even if that difference isn’t fully realized in a conversation, or a lifetime.
Not saying anything when you carry influence in the community he operates in, says everything. Supporting Liberty University, even in silence, supports Jerry Falwell, Jr’s racist comments and strengthens the platform from which he can espouse them. A platform that some of our nation’s highest leaders will be strengthening by their presence at Liberty University’s commencement ceremonies this year.
What’s that? It’s uncomfortable?
Damn right it’s uncomfortable.
It’s uncomfortable to have our leaders openly mock the pain of someone’s and their ancestor’s experiences. It’s uncomfortable to watch a community pretending to hold itself to a higher standard, yet continually adjust its ethical line to accommodate their own comforts. It should be more than uncomfortable to look at people of color and pretend like you’ve done more than you have to support them.
It’s not uncomfortable to say something, it’s the right thing to do.
I believe our actions define us, which sets me apart from a great many evangelicals. A community that frequently insists our actions on earth have no intrinsic value to our outcome, thereby reducing those actions to negligible fodder. A community that, I believe, is doing wrong by not speaking out against these racist statements and the making light of the generational pain and suffering minorities in this country have experienced. The lessening of their history, their stories, and their selves.
Too many times have I stood silently by and let someone make a comment that I should have quickly objected to, and I’m ashamed. I am ashamed because more than once I’ve taken the easy way out, exhausted with defending the obvious to only lose more family and friends over “being difficult”, but honestly, if the cost of me asking you to not support ignorance and discrimination is being difficult, then I’m not sure what I’ve been defending.
Tribalism pains me, and I have actively resisted falling into it, but there is no way for me to support anyone supporting these activities or actions. This is not about an us-them divide, this is about right and wrong.
There is no evangelical creed that suggests the path to heaven is lined with your cultural ease. Start realizing it.
*******
To those out there that have better language than I do in addressing this, I apologize if I have spoken poorly or misrepresented the cause. This has been heavy on my heart for some time and I can no longer be silent.
The views expressed on this post are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
