Can the black church rescue Jesus’ reputation from Trump? Maybe. At least the African Methodist Episcopal Church is bravely trying to. Eighty one percent of white evangelical America handed Trump the White House, put the alt-right white supremacist Bannon in the power seat and trashed the name of Jesus at the same time. Hear the word evangelical now and the KKK comes to mind, not the Middle Eastern brown Jew carpenter.

Now as detailed in an important op-ed in the Washington Post (“AME bishops sound a battle cry against the Trump administration” by Colbert I. King February 4) black Christian leaders have stepped forward to try and rescue Jesus’ reputation–and America’s honor–from a bigot/fraud masquerading as a so-called president.

While Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. back the bigot black leaders are standing up. As the op-ed notes:

Has anything like this ever occurred with a newly elected president? Less than two weeks after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, “the first protestant denomination formed on American soil,” has called upon its more than 1 million members in 39 countries, including the United States, to do all they can to see that a host of decisions and actions by the Trump administration, described by the bishops as “clearly demonic acts,” “do not last.” The bishops are calling for concerted grass-roots action, including bringing pressure on Congress.

In a Jan. 31 Episcopal Statement, the bishops said that they didn’t come to their decision quickly. They watched with dismay, they said, as presidential candidate Trump showed insensitivity and callous disregard for the rights and well-being of countless Americans. They were troubled to see him go around the country expressing views and policy positions that threatened to divide and polarize the nation.

The bishops said they had hoped that Trump’s campaign stances would be altered during the transition and after he had a chance to gain the wisdom of more experienced heads in government.

That, they said, has not been the case.

Citing his election-night promise to unify the nation, the bishops told their AME congregations: “President Trump has demonstrated that his word is not to be trusted.”

The appointment of Stephen K. Bannon (he “has spoken and written racist rants against minorities and Jews”) — they call for his removal; the nomination for attorney general of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) — “a history of racial indifference … and a controversial record as it related to decisions regarding racial matters” — the AME bishops call for his rejection by the Senate.

The bishops also expressed their opposition to Trump’s executive orders from undoing the finances of the Affordable Care Act, to the construction of a wall along the nation’s southern border, to the travel ban on immigrants from seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Trump and his racist father once worked to keep blacks out of housing and had to be sued by the US government. Today Trump calls a judge a “so-called” judge and disparages the law because he still wants to discriminate in the name of national safety. Jews were left out of a Holocaust remembrance issued by his alt-right anti-Semite advisors, Frederick Douglass seems to be a new name to Trump… and we’re only 12 days into his so-called presidency.

We’re in a fight for the life and honor of America. Many thanks to the bishops of the AME for doing what so many so-called white Christians won’t do: that is to actually Follow Jesus.

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P.S. If you want to know a little more about where I’m coming from and my perspective on politics, religion and the intersection of faith and life– here’s a new movie about me. (It’s below the poster on YouTube) scroll down and watch it for free…