Do Christians Need To Be Reminded That Racism Is Immoral?

Do Christians need to be reminded that racism is immoral? Evidently.

In the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and convicted felon Donald Trump, Trump abandoned his usual, thinly-veiled racist dog whistles and went full volume with the ridiculous lie that black people eat their neighbor’s pets.

“A lot of towns don’t want to talk about it because they’re so embarrassed by it. In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating – they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” – Donald J. Trump

This isn’t the nonsensical ramblings of an obese 78-year-old man showing signs of cognitive decline. This is prejudice projected into the public conversation, emboldening bigots and endangering and terrorizing millions of innocent people.

In the days that followed, Racist in Chief Trump repeated the lie and added the preposterous idea that people were somehow taking geese from the local parks of Springfield, Mo.

Hate groups are flocking to Springfield to menace the community with racist rallies and multiple bomb threats.

If elected, Trump pledges to destroy tens of thousands of families and separate parents and children again with massive, racist roundups and deportations of Spanish speaking people living and working in the United States.

Trump’s repulsive rhetoric reflects the racism that simmers just beneath the surface for millions of Americans and has destroyed countless lives.

Racism is Immoral

At his January 1963 inauguration, Alabama Gov. George Wallace proudly proclaimed, “segregation today. Segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever.”

In September, bloody Birmingham saw four black churches bombed by white men, including the 16th Street Baptist Church.

The massive explosion on Sept. 15 wounded and maimed nearly two dozen mostly women and children and killed Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Denise McNair.

16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing_girls — *The four girls murdered Sept. 15, 1963. Clockwise from top left: Addie Mae Collins, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, Carole Robertson, 14, and Denise McNair, 11.*

Four little girls were murdered in a terrorist attack perpetrated by white, American men emboldened by a racist leader.

Sound familiar?

It’s too easy to simply shake our heads sadly and overlook the reality of the racism that ignited the fuse.

Racism rampant in 1963 is still alive and festering today.

Donald Trump was 17-years-old when racists dynamited dozens of black churches across the south.

Ten years later, the federal government sued Trump for racist business practices: “In October 1973, the Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against Trump Management Company, Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump, alleging that African Americans and Puerto Ricans were systematically excluded from apartments.”

The Birmingham church bombings came just months after Martin Luther King, Jr. was arrested for protesting in the city and wrote, “the judgment of God is upon the church as never before.”

“If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”

Humanity has the capacity for evil — to blow up churches. To turn blind eyes to suffering. To excuse racism. To accuse black people of eating household pets.

But humanity is blessed with the divine calling to demand justice and love mercy. To stand up for others, the way Christ taught us to.

Churches and the good people in them must stand up for the victims and stand up to racists or rightfully be condemned as irrelevant hypocrites.

Now is the time to stand up for today’s victims in the spirit of those murdered long ago.

Racists must be confronted and justice must be expected.