They seemed surprised, as though they didn’t see this coming. Who is they? The 60% of white Catholics and 81% of white Evangelicals who embraced President 45’s message. What is it they didn’t see coming? Children being herded like cattle into chain-link fenced warehouses, reports of nursing infants being pried away from their mothers, and government officials abusing scripture to support severing family ties.
As a candidate in 2015, the President of the 81% voiced his admiration of and intention to reproduce Operation Wetback (yes, they really called it that) of 1954:
“Dwight Eisenhower, good president, great president, people liked him. ‘I Like Ike’, right? The expression. I like Ike. Moved a million 1/2 illegal immigrants out of this country, moved them just beyond the border. They came back. Moved them again, beyond the border, they came back. Didn’t like it. Moved them way south. They never came back. Dwight Eisenhower. You don’t get nicer, you don’t get friendlier. They moved a million 1/2 people out. We have no choice.”
Clear Choice
They didn’t see it coming? The “Two Corinthians” president wasted little time pardoning the racial profiling, tent city architect, Joe Arpaio. Why not pardon a man who shares the same contempt of the courts? Doesn’t it follow that the President would pardon a man who pioneered, on a local scale, what he promised to implement nationally?
Heart-breaking Images
Why don’t they see the recent images and soundbites as the logical products of their values votes at work?
What did the defenders of family values think it was going to look and sound like when law enforcement exercises “zero tolerance” on people characterized as rapists, drug dealers, thugs, and bad hombres? Didn’t we already have photos of Arizona’s tent cities? Didn’t we already have the courts demanding a halt to the racial profiling that kept those tents full?
Haven’t many of these MAGA-church members raised funds for overseas missions after seeing heartbreaking videos of scared, lonely, grieving, hungry, parentless children? And, haven’t they read about children who have been separated from family because of natural disasters, civil unrest, disease, crime, and war? So, why didn’t they see that those images would be reproduced in our land if we implemented the political rhetoric of the last few years?
Ask about Indian boarding schools. While you are at it, ask about Japanese internment camps. Ask about the Children’s Crusade of Birmingham. The “melanated” masses know what violence against children looks and sounds like. Why don’t the Christians who supported the candidate and now the President on these issues?
What happened to their Bibles?
What happened to “If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts share its suffering. If one part is praised, all the others share in its happiness. You are Christ’s body and each of you is an individual part of it” (1 Cor. 12:26-27, God’s Word)? Why don’t the majority of “non-melanated” evangelicals empathize with the suffering that Christians of color articulate?
What happened to “He [God] makes sure orphans and widows receive justice. He loves foreigners and gives them food and clothes. So you should love foreigners, because you were foreigners living in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:18-19, God’s Word)?
What happened to “’Whoever deprives foreigners, orphans, or widows of justice will be cursed.’ Then all the people will say amen” (Deuteronomy 27:19, God’s Word)?
What happened to “The LORD protects foreigners. The LORD gives relief to orphans and widows” (Psalm 146:9, God’s Word)?
What happened to “This is what the Lord Almighty says: Judge fairly and honestly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and poor people” (Zechariah 7:9-10, New Living Translation)?
And What About What it Says About the Little Ones?
What happened to “Beware that you don’t despise a single one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10, New Living Translation)?
What happened to “And he [Jesus] will answer, ‘I assure you, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me’” (Matt. 25:45, NLT)?
What happened to “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:8-9, NKJV)?
What happened to “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10, New King James Version)?
If Jesus loves all the children of the world, why don’t His followers?
