Many of us shed tears of joy the evening of November 21, 2008 when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. His victory speech was exhilarating and hopeful. His election has given credence to the phrase that anyone qualified can become President. Indeed, we now know that the color barrier has been broken with Obama becoming the first black president of the United States. We are, indeed, at a new stage in the political affairs of our nation.
This may be a time for celebration for some BUT it is also a time for RIGOROUS VIGILANCE. Assassination plots on the President’s life have been uncovered. Neo-Nazi activist and radio show host Hal Turner said: “Someone will kill him! And I will celebrate!” A sign placed inside a general store in Standish, Maine, read, “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.” Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when the new president would be assassinated. On the bottom of the sign someone had written: "Let’s hope someone wins.” (1)
The “Intelligence Report,” published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, announces that in 2008 there were 926 active hate group chapters in the United States – 23 in Illinois. This is up from the 888 groups listed in 2007.
Leonard Zeskind, author of Blood and Violence: the History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to Mainstream, describes the violence and hate that is typical of the white nationalist movement. He estimates that there are 30,000 hard core members who are responsible for the killings, beatings and fire-bombing of their racist targets. But he goes on to say “there are 200,000 to 250,000 active supporters of these groups. These are the folks who read the web sites and donate money.” There may be some of these folks in the congregations of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
James von Brunn is a typical member of these groups. You may remember that on June 10 he walked into the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum with rifle in hand and began shooting. He killed black security guard Stephen Johns. Brunn is described by the Anti-Defamation League as a white supremacist and ant-Semite. He wrote a self-published book titled Kill the Best Gentiles. Jan Sadowski, Brunn’s former wife, said she divorced him 30 years ago because of his extremist views and vindictiveness.
There are three different levels of participation by people supporting these 926 active hate groups. Level one consists of the hundreds of thousand folks who read the web sites and respond with financial contributions. Level two are talkers and defenders of the narrow white supremacist focus. Their language is violent and hate-filled. These include politicians like David Duke, media personality Lou Dobbs and author Ann Coulter. Level three are the shooters and bombers and burners who carry out the violent hateful acts. Included in this category are people like James von Brunn and Timothy McVeigh.
These groups all have in common beliefs that white people no longer run the country and white people should because such is ordained by God. They view themselves as victims of a world which is affirming diversity. They dream of returning to a time when superior whites will keep people of color as chattel.
Dismantling racism calls the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to root out these tendencies of white superiority from our midst and to articulate a gospel of God’s love for all the peoples of the world. It challenges us to figure out why hate and violence is a way of life for so many in our country. It challenges us to look carefully at our own lives to root out any hate and violence in our hearts. It calls us to work attentively to follow our model, Jesus the Christ.
1) Intelligence Report: published by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2009: Issue 133, pp. 36-37.
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TEAM MEMBERS
Dwight Bailey, Chair
Karon Alexander, Brittany Barber, Darron Bowden, Gloria Carey-Branch, Minta Colburn, Ann Marie Coleman, Don Coleman, Ellen Culpepper, Carol Josefowski, Jennifer Kottler, Wookbin Moh, Leila Ward
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It is perplexing when I consider how many rally up against something (particularly as silent or secret deflectors), rather than for something. There is power in numbers and when one person or group is deemed as an enemy it is frightening to see how many bystanders (a large number of who do not take time to become well informed or even exposed to the unknown) join in with great fervor against what is perceived as evil. Perhaps some simply get involved for the "excitement factor."
While Jesus demonstrates his passion against injustice toward the poor, sick, and marginalized, he always follows such prophetic warnings with a sharing of an alternative way of being and seeing - a way of life foreign to what we've ever known before. Central to the beliefs of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity is the shared vision of God's will for all to love our One God with all our hearts, all our minds, and all our souls. Even as our faith traditions part after this junction, each faith tradition finds itself also expressing love for all things created. Can we likewise seek a vision socially and politically?
One possible question is whether our hatred stems from beliefs based on religion and nation, or if such enmity stems from something as basic as "they" are not to be trusted. There, perhaps, are at least two things "they" (Osama and Obama) have in common - both men have dark skin and both were created by God.
Who are the "theys" you stand against; what do they have in common; is it their beliefs and practices or simply that "they" are different than "you" and your friends/family/race/church/country/culture? When we reconcile our differences as acceptable (a very Disciple way of being), while simultaneously searching for what we have in common (loving God, self, and neighbor), our being in relationship may find us impassioned for a shared value.
Is the Christian American passion limited only to those things that are unjust (that which we demonize) or do we equally and consciously seek to know God in that which is foreign and strange? Does it matter whether the other is of another race, another culture, another land, another faith... Let's face it, we're uncomfortable about things we see as different, or behave differntly, than our comfortable (and privileged) way of being ourselves.
What a day it will be when all things now living become impassioned for God without feeling the need to passionately stand against that which we seem convinced is not God - a day when our sense of being "for" someone/something is not self serving and "against" someone/something other than ourselves.
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