Racism

Eric Metaxas, evangelical author and radio host, has gotten himself into something of a pickle.

After learning the United Methodist Church [full disclosure: that's my church] was working with Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility, to produce a video series on the subject of "Deconstructing White Privilege",  Metaxas tweeted this response:

If ever there was a perfect time to pass the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, now would be it. As daily protests are held around the world to condemn the smothering of George Floyd by a policeman while other police watched, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan legislation 410 to 4.

Even though Donald Trump maintains that his tweets last week were not racist: It's part of a pattern.

After being roundly criticized for Sunday's tear gassing by U.S. border agents of asylum seekers—including children—Donald Trump defended the action claiming the agents used a "very safe" and "very minor form" of tear gas. Trump also claimed the migrants were "some very tough people." Trump had previously authorized border guards to use lethal force, claiming the caravan included more than 500 "serious criminals."

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is in hot water over his controversial claims Monday about the Civil War. The specific phrase that upset most people was his assertion that the Civil War was caused by a "lack of an ability to compromise."

By now most people have heard about this weekend's violence in Charlottesville. A protest by "alt right" white supremacists was in turn the subject of a counter-protest. One of the white supremacists drove his car into the crowd of counter-protestors, killing one and injuring 19 others.

This horrific act of terrorism was roundly condemned by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

It's one thing to make a formal declaration opposing white supremacy. But, Morgan Guyton points out, the words are meaningless if we are unable to recognize just how deeply white supremacy is embedded in Western culture, and particularly in Western Christianity.

Last week the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)—the United States' largest Protestant denomination—voted to condemn white supremacy and its latest manifestation, the alt-right movement. Were it any other denomination, this would not be news—nor would a convention vote even be necessary. But Southern Baptists always been different from other Christians.

To say Donald Trump made a controversial pick when he named Steve Bannon his chief strategist is an understatement. Bannon runs the website breitbart.org, which is in Bannon's own words "a platform for the alt-right."

I've only had a racist remark directed at me once, and it was very mild as far as racism goes. I was in college and my roommate wanted to show me what he had learned in his art class about skin tone. He held his arm next to mine and said, "Look, my arm has a healthy pink tone, but yours has an ugly brown tone."