- FW: Sunday: Call for Peace with North Korea
- FW: State Election Information For Voting
- FW: Billboards to stop the NRA.
- FW: Paul Ryan EXPOSED [the NRA owns him!]
- FW: it’s official
- FW: Public schools in Puerto Rico are headed for privatization with the assistance of Betsy DeVos
- FW: The resignation of Betsy DeVos
- FW: Racket Busting: Get rid of the NCAA amateurism rules
- FW: Tweet to end Google’s deception
- FW: Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel
From: Michelle, Aubrey, Cassandra, and the team at Win Without War
Subject: Sunday: Call for Peace with North Korea
Can you join a live global video call this Sunday, featuring Senator Bernie Sanders,
to build a diplomatic path to peace with North Korea? Click here to RSVP.
Last week, Donald Trump announced historic direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Then, Tuesday, Trump booted Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State and nominated war hark and torture supporter Mike Pompeo as his chief diplomat.
The last few days have been dizzying. But one thing is clear: This is an emergency that affects all our lives, and we can’t wait to demand solutions. If we’re going to prevent war with North Korea, we need to mobilize every voice we can to insist on true diplomacy.
That’s why this Sunday, Win Without War is joining forces with partners from more than a dozen countries around the world. Together, we’ll gather with tens of thousands of activists to hear from Sen. Bernie Sanders, policy experts, and global thought leaders on a worldwide video call for peace.
Can you join us to strategize about how we can leverage our global people power to ensure a diplomatic path to peace with North Korea? Click here to reserve your spot on the worldwide video call on Sunday, March 18 at 2 p.m. ET.
What: Global Video Call for Peace
When: Sunday, March 18th, 2pm ET / 1 p.m. CT/ 12 p.m. MT/ 11 a.m. PT
Who:
- Activists spanning 17 time zones;
- Sen. Bernie Sanders, leading activists for peace in Korea Christine Ahn and Jenny Town, and Raed Jarrar of Amnesty International, who watched from Iraq as the “coalition of the willing” rushed in;
- and you!
Details: Once you register, you’ll get a reminder on the day of the call, and you can join right from your computer, tablet, or phone. It’s as simple as that. (And your email will not be shared with any other organizations!) RSVP Here >>
Nearly 15 years ago to the day, a different president dragged us into a catastrophic war of choice in Iraq. George Bush’s deceptive rush to war was made possible by a “coalition of the willing”—a handful of nations that gave political and military cover to sidestep the United Nations and enable the invasion.
Today, our global community has the chance to write a different history. Sunday’s call is a unique chance to connect with international allies, understand the fast-changing news out of the Korean Peninsula, and discuss what Win Without War members and our partners must do.
In Seoul, dedicated activists will represent some of the most important civil society organizations in the country, despite the 3 a.m. call time. In Tel Aviv, Israeli and Palestinian activists will join together against militarism. Grassroots activists will call in from Canada, the U.K., Ireland, France, the Netherlands, South Africa, Romania, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, and Poland. Can you join us?
Take an hour this Sunday afternoon to link arms (virtually!) with people
across the globe who share Win Without War members’ unwavering and unyielding commitment to peace.
From: Honorable Dr. Doris P. Sartor, National President, Blacks In Government
Subject: State Election Information For Voting
2018 Mid-Term Elections
BLACKS IN GOVERNMENT
BIG Members Get Involved
“Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote
except the American people themselves
and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
32nd President of the United States
YOUR VOTES MATTER
Find everything you need to vote in your state election centers by clicking on your below state link name.
From: Emma, Robert, Shari, Kate, and the rest of the team, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Subject: FW: Billboards to stop the NRA.
Tens of thousands of students, from elementary school children to college students, bravely walked out of their schools today to say #Enough to the epidemic of gun violence in America and to demand stricter gun laws. A week from this Saturday, on March 24, hundreds of thousands of people, led by young activists, will join the March for Our Lives events in Washington, D.C., and in communities across the country.
MoveOn members have already helped pay for billboards exposing just how much money individual Republican members of Congress are getting from the NRA and how the NRA’s influence controls them. But we want to make sure that constituents in more districts with Republican representatives beholden to the NRA know about it and hold them accountable, so we’re asking for your help to secure even more billboards. Click here to chip in $25 now.
Together, let’s keep supporting this truly awe-inspiring youth leadership, which is changing America’s broken politics on guns and giving us hope for tomorrow. See Emma’s recent email for more details on our plans. –Anna
On Monday, Donald Trump buckled under pressure from the NRA—backing away from his call for stricter gun laws, made during a televised meeting with senators.1 At that meeting, he mocked other Republicans for being too scared of the NRA!
That’s what cowardice looks like.
And today, tens of thousands—if not hundreds of thousands—of students all across the country, in poor communities and wealthy ones, in blue states and red states, walked out of their classrooms at 10 a.m. for 17 minutes, one minute for each student murdered in the Parkland massacre. They were joined by teachers, parents, and other people of all walks of life, who are sick and tired of politicians crumbling before the NRA.
And that showed us what courage looks like.
I know which side MoveOn members are on every day—as together we make calls, tweet, sign petitions, donate, and prepare to march with hundreds of thousands of people on March 24 in Washington, D.C., and at sister marches across the county, to confront the NRA and break its stranglehold on American politics.
And that’s why we want to make sure voters know which side Republican members of Congress are on—the side of Trump and the cowards or the side of American’s schoolchildren, families, and communities.
MoveOn is launching billboards in key districts over the next 10 days—in time for the March for Our Lives actions around the country—to shine a spotlight on just how much money individual Republican lawmakers have taken from the NRA and hold them accountable. MoveOn members have already contributed enough to purchase 10 billboards, but as Congress continues to refuse to act, we want to go even bigger.
Will you chip in to allow us to double our ad buy to 20 billboards around the country? We want them up by March 24, which means we need to place our final order by this Friday, March 16. And we need to know how much MoveOn members can contribute. Will you help out?
In the wake of the Parkland massacre, student activists have succeeded in forcing a conversation about gun control at the national level. But instead of listening to them, Trump and the NRA-backed GOP have called for the arming of school teachers.2 They’ve pushed to pass a law that would make it even easier to carry concealed weapons everywhere in the United States.3 And not a single Republican has announced that they will return or refuse money from the NRA.4
They have shown their true colors, and now they need to answer for them.
These billboards will be a visible and unmistakable reminder to the constituents in key districts across the country of just how cowardly their members of Congress have been on this issue and how out of step they are with the overwhelming majority of Americans who support legislation to curb gun violence.
Media-grabbing visuals like this, in the home districts of pro-NRA Republicans, will also force Republican members of Congress to respond and be held publicly accountable for their inaction.
So let’s go big. Click below to chip in right now to help us expand this campaign to even more districts across the country.
Donate
Last week, in response to the growing backlash against them, the NRA released another one of their ominous, fearmongering ads, telling members of the public and elected officials who oppose them that our “time is running out.”5 But we know the truth: It is the NRA and their enablers who are running out of time.
Sources:
- “White House defends its walkback on gun law proposals,” CNN, March 12, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/36032?t=6&akid=201338%2E1195276%2EkCqoRt
- “Trump backs off raising age limit to buy some weapons and focuses on arming teachers,” Los Angeles Times, March 12, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/36033?t=8&akid=201338%2E1195276%2EkCqoRt
- “Congress Focuses on Leftover Gun Bill After Florida Shooting,” Slate, February 20, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/35893?t=10&akid=201338%2E1195276%2EkCqoRt
- “How the NRA won the obedience of the US government,” Quartz, March 2, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/36035?t=12&akid=201338%2E1195276%2EkCqoRt
- “Parkland student warns NRA spokeswoman: Your time is running out,” The Hill, March 6, 2018
http://act.moveon.org/go/36036?t=14&akid=201338%2E1195276%2EkCqoRt
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump’s agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation’s pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Because you’ve saved your payment information with MoveOn, your donation will go straight through. Donate
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.
From: Breaking News in Wisconsin
Subject: Paul Ryan EXPOSED [the NRA owns him!]
Paul Ryan was just HUMILIATED in Wisconsin:
We just exposed the truth behind Paul Ryan’s HUGE debt to the NRA:
That’s right! We just put up a HUGE billboard in Paul Ryan’s district to EXPOSE him.
But angry gun-nut Republicans in Ryan’s district want our billboard gone.
So we need to raise $15,000 TODAY to pay for it. Otherwise, they’ll tear it down!
Our billboard is speaking truth to power. We need to END the NRA’s all-powerful stranglehold on Congress and END Paul Ryan’s career.
BUT we need your help to pay for our billboard. It’ll be taken down if we fall short!
So please do your part to educate voters and publicly HUMILIATE Paul Ryan.
Munsup, will you chip in $5 by MIDNIGHT to keep our billboard up in Ryan’s district?
Donate
Together we can make a difference!
From: Andrew Tierman
Subject: FW: it’s official.
I made a small contribution in response to this appeal to advance Andrew Janz’ campaign to unseat Devin Nunes and to take Congress back from the party of Trump, corruption, the flouting of democratic values, and treason. Andrew
———- Forwarded message From: Andrew Janz ————–
Today is a big day for our campaign. Today we make this thing official by filing for a spot on the ballot to retire Devin Nunes and bring the voice of California’s 22nd back to Congress!
Will you help me get to Congress by pitching in $7 right now to make sure we have the resources we need to fight back against Devin Nunes and his army of dark money donors?
For months now, we’ve been holding Nunes’ feet to the fire by calling him out for every single act of treason and betrayal. His constant missteps in Washington and his absence from the district have given us a lot to work with – but the truth is that this race isn’t about him.
This is about bringing sanity and ethics back to a broken Congress. We need someone to step in, put country over party and work to fix the system. I’m going to take that stand for my country. I always have. That’s why I’m running.
But I need you to join me by donating whatever you can now, so we can head into this election ready to fight for what we believe in! Contribute here >>
I’m beyond honored to have your support in this race. – Andrew
| Paid for by Andrew Janz for Congress |
Subject: Public schools in Puerto Rico are headed for privatization with the assistance of Betsy DeVos
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/23/1744196/-Public-schools-in-Puerto-Rico-are-headed-for-privatization-with-the-assistance-of-Betsy-DeVos
From: Ronen Kauffman
Subject: The resignation of Betsy DeVos
Betsy DeVos: Resign
Sign the Petition
Betsy DeVos has proven time and time again that she is completely unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education.
Recently, she struggled to answer even basic questions about schools in her home state of Michigan, where she implemented a private charter school system that has drained public education funds and worsened both public and private school performance statewide.
Enough is enough. Will you sign and share my petition demanding the immediate resignation of Betsy DeVos?
Sign the Petition
From: Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Jade, Johnny, Future, Corina, Chad, Mary, Angela, Saréya, Eesha, and the rest of the Color Of Change team
Subject: Racket Busting: Get rid of the NCAA amateurism rules
| The NCAA is making billions off the backs of unpaid Black athletes.
Tell the NCAA to drop the amateurism rules and allow players to profit off of their own images. |
|
March Madness begins. Over the next three weeks, student-athletes will become legends as they strive to reach the Final Four. Like many of you, I love this time of year – the frenzied pace, desperation shots, rooting for the underdogs. However, I’m also intimately familiar with the exploitative nature of college sports and how even the stars that shine this month are still just unpaid laborers supporting the billion-dollar behemoth that is the NCAA. I know this because my dad was one of those stars. While leading upstart New Mexico State to the Final Four in 1970, he earned national accolades and found himself on the cover of Sports Illustrated. But while his image was being used to sell magazines across the country, he lived in relative poverty and had to scramble to make ends meet financially.
Fast forward 50 years and things are as bad as ever for student-athletes. While the NCAA rakes in billions in TV revenue, fired coaches receive 8-figure payouts, and shoe companies flood athletic departments with multi-million-dollar apparel deals, players see none of it. In fact, they can be ruled ineligible and have their reputations sullied simply by having someone pay for their dinner.
Tell the NCAA to drop the amateurism rules and allow players to profit off of their own images.
Black athletes are disproportionately impacted by the NCAA’s draconian policies, in particular, the rules that say that in order to maintain “amateur status” and thus be eligible to play, athletes cannot accept any money or gifts. Even though Black students only make up about 3 percent of all full-time students, Black athletes make up more than half of the players on the largest revenue sports, football and basketball.1 2 In 2015, the top programs made a combined $9.1 billion, and the NCAA itself just signed $8.8 billion dollar TV deal with CBS to air its March Madness tournament. Yet these players are criminalized if they dare try and turn their skills and labor into a source of income. Because of practice and game schedules combined with their academic courses, many athletes cannot work while under scholarship and often go hungry or have difficulty paying rent as a result.3 4
This has to change – other sports institutions, like the Olympics, changed their rules about amateurism over 30 years ago to allow their athletes to financially benefit, the NCAA should follow suite.5
Removing the “amateur status” rules would also kill the black market that currently allows agents and shady middlemen to prey on young talent, with the athletes taking the fall when their hands get caught in the proverbial cookie jar.6 Even though it’s Black athletes generating the money, white coaches, corporations, agents, school administrators and predominantly white schools reap the rewards and serve as modern-day overseers.7 More than 82 percent of college basketball coaches are white, over 92 percent of top division head football coaches are white, and more than 86 percent of conference commissioners are white – with not a single person of color ever serving as commissioner of one of the “Power Five” conferences.8 9 Yet these people regularly make $500,000 a year, with some making multi-millions each year.
Demand the NCAA immediately allow student-athletes to profit off of their likenesses.
In the big-money sports environment, where the historical pattern of white profit from Black bodies is regularly apparent, it’s time that the NCAA let athletes financially benefit from their work to build this exploitative sporting empire.
References:
- “The difference in how much money schools make off of college sports is jarring, and it is the biggest obstacle to paying athletes”, Business Insider, 14 October 2016 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/28175?t=8&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “The NCAA’s new March Madness TV deal will make them a billion dollars a year”, SB Nation, 12 April 2016 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/25769?t=10&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “National champ U-Conn.’s Napier says he goes to bed starving”, Washington Post, 4 April 2016 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28176?t=12&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “Ole Miss’ Bo Wallace: Shabazz Napier was right, players go hungry at night”, CBS Sports, 17 July 2014 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28177?t=14&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “OLYMPICS TO ALLOW PROS IN 3 SPORTS”, New York Times, 1 March 1985 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28178?t=16&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “This Is How To Pay College Athletes”, Deadspin, 6 March 2018 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28179?t=18&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “College sports exploits unpaid black athletes. But they could force a change.”, Washington Post, 8 January 2016 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28179?t=20&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: College Sport,” The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida (UCF), 10 July 2013 https://act.colorofchange.org/go/28180?t=22&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
- “Regression throughout Collegiate Athletic Leadership: Assessing Diversity among Campus and Conference Leaders for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Schools in the 2015-16 Academic Year,” The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at the University of Central Florida (UCF), 11 November 2015 http://act.colorofchange.org/go/28181?t=24&akid=9930%2E239715%2E9Q1dHh
Color Of Change is building a movement to elevate the voices of Black folks and our allies, and win real social and political change. Help keep our movement strong.
From: Nita, Shaunna, Kat, Karin, Adam, Holly, Kathy, Susan, Anathea, Audine, Shannon, Emma, Pilar, Natalie, Melody, Pam, Lindsay, and Ryan, the UltraViolet team
Subject: Tweet to end Google’s deception
Google is still running ads that allow anti-choice clinics to pose as abortion clinics.
When a woman searches for “abortion clinic near me,” Google Search or Google Maps will include ads for fake clinics that manipulate women out of seeking abortion treatment–rather than offering the health care they purport to provide.1 These clinics tell women all kinds of medically inaccurate information, like abortion will increase one’s risk of breast cancer, infertility, and even suicide.2
Google said it is investigating, but it hasn’t taken action yet, so we need to ramp up the pressure.
Google execs pay attention to social media, so it’s a great way to increase the pressure and force them to take down these ads–and stop new ones from showing up. Can you take a second to tweet at Google and demand it stop deceiving women?
Hey @Google, take down ads that allow anti-choice clinics to pose as abortion clinics! #ExposeFakeClinics
Hey @Google, stop lying to women. Take down ads from FAKE clinics that lure, lie to, and shame pregnant women. #ExposeFakeClinics
Hey @Google, when women search for abortion care, they should see factually accurate results–NOT fake clinics run by anti-choice extremists. #ExposeFakeClinics
When I use @Google I expect accurate results, not lies. So why do some women see ads for FAKE health clinics? Google needs to stop. #ExposeFakeClinics
Sources:
- Google search results for abortion services promote anti-abortion centers, The Guardian, February 13, 2018
Google points abortion-seekers toward anti-abortion clinics, East Bay Times, February 12, 2018
- The Truth about Crisis Pregnancy Centers, NARAL Pro-Choice America, accessed March 4, 2018
Want to support our work? UltraViolet is funded by members like you, and our tiny staff ensures small contributions go a long way. Chip in here.
Join our rapid response team — sign up for UltraViolet text updates.
From: Eric Kramer
Subject: Forbes.com : Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel
Rather interestingly (or, perhaps, suspiciously) this op-ep piece was apparently scrubbed from the Forbes website within 24 hours of it first appearing. Apparently, some important hackles were raised….However, I’d somehow stumbled upon it, just after it was first posted, and thought it interesting enough to actually copy and paste, in its entirety, into the draft of an email, which I now share with you, which now seems rather fortuitous. Any thoughts?? – Eric
Politics #TrumpsAmerica
MAR 11, 2018 @ 12:50 PM
Why White Evangelicalism Is So Cruel
Chris Ladd , CONTRIBUTOR Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisladd/2018/03/11/why-white-evangelicalism-is-so-cruel/#16f345b271f6
Robert Jeffress, Pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas and an avid supporter of Donald Trump, earned headlines this week for his defense of the president’s adultery with a porn star. Regarding the affair and subsequent financial payments, Jeffress explained, “Even if it’s true, it doesn’t matter.”
Such a casual attitude toward adultery and prostitution might seem odd from a guy who blamed 9/11 on America’s sinfulness. However, seen through the lens of white evangelicals’ real priorities, Jeffress’ disinterest in Trump’s sordid lifestyle makes sense. Religion is inseparable from culture, and culture is inseparable from history. Modern, white evangelicalism emerged from the interplay between race and religion in the slave states. What today we call “evangelical Christianity,” is the product of centuries of conditioning, in which religious practices were adapted to nurture a slave economy. The calloused insensitivity of modern white evangelicals was shaped by the economic and cultural priorities that forged their theology over centuries.
Many Christian movements take the title “evangelical,” including many African-American denominations. However, evangelicalism today has been coopted as a preferred description for Christians who were looking to shed an older, largely discredited title: Fundamentalist. A quick glance at a map showing concentrations of adherents and weekly church attendance reveals the evangelical movement’s center of gravity in the Old South. And among those evangelical churches, one denomination remains by far the leader in membership, theological pull, and political influence.
There is still today a Southern Baptist Church. More than a century and a half after the Civil War, and decades after the Methodists and Presbyterians reunited with their Yankee neighbors, America’s most powerful evangelical denomination remains defined, right down to the name over the door, by an 1845 split over slavery.
Southern denominations faced enormous social and political pressure from plantation owners. Public expressions of dissent on the subject of slavery in the South were not merely outlawed, they were a death sentence. Baptist ministers who rejected slavery, like South Carolina’s William Henry Brisbane, were forced to flee to the North. Otherwise, they would end up like Methodist minister Anthony Bewley, who was lynched in Texas in 1860, his bones left exposed at a local store to be played with by children. Whiteness offered protection from many of the South’s cruelties, but that protection stopped at the subject of race. No one who dared speak truth to power on the subject of slavery, or later Jim Crow, could expect protection.
Generation after generation, Southern pastors adapted their theology to thrive under a terrorist state. Principled critics were exiled or murdered, leaving voices of dissent few and scattered. Southern Christianity evolved in strange directions under ever-increasing isolation. Preachers learned to tailor their message to protect themselves. If all you knew about Christianity came from a close reading of the New Testament, you’d expect that Christians would be hostile to wealth, emphatic in protection of justice, sympathetic to the point of personal pain toward the sick, persecuted and the migrant, and almost socialist in their economic practices. None of these consistent Christian themes served the interests of slave owners, so pastors could either abandon them, obscure them, or flee.
What developed in the South was a theology carefully tailored to meet the needs of a slave state. Biblical emphasis on social justice was rendered miraculously invisible. A book constructed around the central metaphor of slaves finding their freedom was reinterpreted. Messages which might have questioned the inherent superiority of the white race, constrained the authority of property owners, or inspired some interest in the poor or less fortunate could not be taught from a pulpit. Any Christian suggestion of social justice was carefully and safely relegated to “the sweet by and by” where all would be made right at no cost to white worshippers. In the forge of slavery and Jim Crow, a Christian message of courage, love, compassion, and service to others was burned away.
Stripped of its compassion and integrity, little remained of the Christian message. What survived was a perverse emphasis on sexual purity as the sole expression of righteousness, along with a creepy obsession with the unquestionable sexual authority of white men. In a culture where race defined one’s claim to basic humanity, women took on a special religious interest. Christianity’s historic emphasis on sexual purity as a form of ascetic self-denial was transformed into an obsession with women and sex. For Southerners, righteousness had little meaning beyond sex, and sexual mores had far less importance for men than for women. Guarding women’s sexual purity meant guarding the purity of the white race. There was no higher moral demand.
Changes brought by the Civil War only heightened the need to protect white racial superiority. Churches were the lynchpin of Jim Crow. By the time the Civil Rights movement gained force in the South, Dallas’ First Baptist Church, where Jeffress is the pastor today, was a bulwark of segregation and white supremacy. As the wider culture nationally has struggled to free itself from the burdens of racism, white evangelicals have fought this development while the violence escalated. What happened to ministers who resisted slavery happened again to those who resisted segregation. White Episcopal Seminary student, Jonathan Daniels, went to Alabama in 1965 to support voting rights protests. After being released from jail, he was murdered by an off-duty sheriff’s deputy, who was acquitted by a jury. Dozens of white activists joined the innumerable black Americans murdered fighting for civil rights in the 60’s, but very few of them were Southern.
White Evangelical Christians opposed desegregation tooth and nail. Where pressed, they made cheap, cosmetic compromises, like Billy Graham’s concession to allow black worshipers at his crusades. Graham never made any difficult statements on race, never appeared on stage with his “black friend” Martin Luther King after 1957, and he never marched with King. When King delivered his “I Have a Dream Speech,” Graham responded with this passive-aggressive gem of Southern theology, “Only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black children.” For white Southern evangelicals, justice and compassion belong only to the dead.
Churches like First Baptist in Dallas did not become stalwart defenders of segregation by accident. Like the wider white evangelical movement, it was then and remains today an obstacle to Christian notions of social justice thanks to a long, dismal heritage. There is no changing the white evangelical movement without a wholesale reconsideration of their theology. No sign of such a reckoning is apparent.
Those waiting to see the bottom of white evangelical cruelty have little source of optimism. Men like Pastor Jeffress can dismiss Trump’s racist abuses as easily as they dismiss his fondness for porn stars. When asked about Trump’s treatment of immigrants, Jeffress shared these comments: “Solving DACA without strengthening borders ignores the teachings of the Bible. In fact, Christians who support open borders, or blanket amnesty, are cherry-picking Scriptures to suit their own agendas.”
For those unfamiliar with Christian scriptures, it might helpful to point out what Jesus reportedly said about this subject, and about the wider question of our compassion for the poor and the suffering: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.”
What did Jesus say about abortion, the favorite subject of Jeffress and the rest of the evangelical movement? Nothing. What does the Bible say about abortion, a practice as old as civilization? Nothing. Not one word. The Bible’s exhortations to compassion for immigrants and the poor stretch long enough to comprise a sizeable book of their own, but no matter. White evangelicals will not let their political ambitions be constrained by something as pliable as scripture.
Why is the religious right obsessed with subjects like abortion while unmoved by the plight of immigrants, minorities, the poor, the uninsured, and those slaughtered in pointless gun violence? No white man has ever been denied an abortion. Few if any white men are affected by the deportation of migrants. White men are not kept from attending college by laws persecuting Dreamers. White evangelical Christianity has a bottomless well of compassion for the interests of straight white men, and not a drop to be spared for anyone else at their expense. The cruelty of white evangelical churches in politics, and in their treatment of their own gay or minority parishioners, is no accident. It is an institution born in slavery, tuned to serve the needs of Jim Crow, and entirely unwilling to confront either of those realities.
Men like Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy group, are trying to reform the Southern Baptist church in increments, much like Billy Graham before him. His statements on subjects like the Confederate Flag and sexual harassment are bold, but only relative to previous church proclamations. He’s still about three decades behind the rest of American culture in recognition of the basic human rights of the country’s non-white, non-male citizens. Resistance he is facing from evangelicals will continue so long as the theology informing white evangelical religion remains unconsidered and unchallenged.
While white evangelical religion remains dedicated to its roots, it will perpetuate its heritage. What this religious heritage produced in the 2016 election, when white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump by a record margin, is the truest expression of its moral character.
You will know a tree by its fruit.
Chris Ladd, former GOP Precinct Committeeman, author of The Politics of Crazy and creator of PoliticalOrphans.
