The Christian Reaction to Charlottesville

Good Morning, my tone in what follows might verge on passionate at times, so before you read I want everyone to know that I love you, and I tried not to pick a side between left and right here. We are on God's side, and I hope that you see that in what I've written. 

The events that happened in Charlottesville were shocking, and people reacted in different ways. But how should Christians react? 

The political left saw this as an opportunity to smear these white supremacists who they believe are emboldened by a president who secretly shares their beliefs. They believe these Klansmen and Nazis represent an undercurrent in the Republican party. Democrats called this act of racial violence wrong and associated it with Trump. They say Trump didn't disavow these people quickly enough. They then went tearing down and stomping monuments. I don't think we see a Christian reaction to wrong-doing here... 

The political right did not do much to disavow these alt-right racists. Instead of saying "nah that ain't me," they seem to be DEFENDING the KKK! I've seen people posting defense of the origins of the Klan, the right they had to be protesting, and calling their protest peaceful. Then they turn around and look at Black Lives Matter and say "YOU TOO!" If you throw a rock at Tommy, would your mother say "that's okay" because Tommy thew a rock at Susie last week? No? Then why does this "you too" keep popping up every time there is some conflict between left and right. This doesn't quite seem to fit the criteria of WWJD. 

At the bottom it says "sorry if you're butthurt." Nothing helps you win friends and influence people for the cause of Christ quite like letting others know you don't care about their feelings. 

The Christian response. 

Unfortunately the title of "Christian" often comes after the title of "Republican" or "Democrat" on someone's Facebook page. It is clear from some of what I've read this week that we have a bad habit of letting our political leanings decide our actions instead of our Christian leanings.

Regardless of what the left-leaning counter protesters did, Christians have GOT to completely disavow the KKK, Nazi, and Alt-Right protesters. These protesters do not represent Christianity. What they did this weekend, even before violence broke out, was wrong. We have to condemn their actions both before and after things went sideways. That includes what they stand for, their organizations, their methods, their thinking. 

This isn't just an opportunity for condemnation of their beliefs, but also an opportunity to offer a place of peace to our brothers and sisters affected by this. I live nowhere near the violence, but people outside of Charlottesville are still affected by knowing that there are still racist groups out there that want them dead or out of what they call "their country". The words "safe space" have gotten a bad rap lately, but the church should be a safe space where these people should find out that the whole world isn't like that. There should be no question that we stand against racism and that people of all colors are welcome wherever Christ's family is gathered. 

Furthermore,

we worship a Christ who was born to a brown family and who had brown skin. We worship a Christ who calls us "brother" and we are brothers and sisters to him and all of his siblings regardless of skin color. There is no longer "Jew nor Greek." There is no longer "[former] slave nor free." We are one people called to love one another regardless of what color our skin is.

I don't believe that most of us have a problem with racism, but we DO live in the South, close to the place that the KKK began. There are things that we say without thinking. There are words we have GOT to extinguish from our vocabulary.  We have to stop this way of thinking from infecting our youth. We have to stop giving Christians a pass on this, because we are called out of the world, not to be a part of it, but separated from it.

Christ handled racism (and sexism) by speaking to the Samaritan woman, by speaking to the rulers who viewed his race as scum, by telling a parable about a Samaritan do-gooder, and by announcing that his house will be a house of prayer for all nations. We must follow his example and make sure that his Church is a house of prayer for all races.