Confession: I believe President-elect Trump showed us exactly who he was with his rhetoric and his actions. Perhaps I am wrong, or maybe like Glenn Beck, he too can change. I would love nothing more than for this to be the case, but if history follows the all-American trend of whitelash, I do not have that luxury.
Dear Trump Supporters (especially those I call friend)
I still love you, even though it may take time to move past the initial hurt and anger (and lets face it, fear) into relationship again. TBH white Charismatic evangelical churches probably wont feel like sanctuaries to me for a long time. You have my word.
I will not stoop to the level of petty obstruction and disrespect that President Obama endured. I will pray for our new president when the time comes and wish him policy success, where it doesn't clash with loving my neighbor. I am prepared to be a hell of a fighter, but I will only fight hatred, bigotry, fear-mongering, exclusion and xenophobia. I am a force, and if he chooses these tactics, I will use every modicum of influence I have to call them out. I will re-energize the movement of the needle of progress against them, and personally bend the moral arc of justice by creating content that causes all to look and listen. I will write and speak and rally and scream. I will protest and organize and resist these things with everything in me. If you love me, show me and join in. If you can't, don't get in my way. I have a feeling its going to be a busy four years.
The "I love you's" feel like endless platitudes at this point. And I hear your heart on voting your conscience with thought towards my community, even if I disagree with your decision. At this point, I am less focused on who my white, Charismatic evangelical friends voted for, and more concerned with whether they will stand with me if our federal government makes good on president-elect Trump's campaign suggestions like instituting nationwide stop and frisk policies which disproportionately target black men, or persecuting American Muslims for how they pray - holding them accountable for the violence too often directed towards them by ISIS. Where will they stand if undocumented immigrants are deported and their children remain here? When families are torn apart? What will they say if Mike Pence pushes on a federal level for public funding for reparative therapy, or when Americans' husbands and wives are no longer allowed a say in how their spouse is buried or the dignity of allowing them to visit the ones they have chosen if they are critically ill? What will they do if RvW is repealed, when the abortion rate rises, and women find themselves turning to unsafe procedures? Will they commit to assuring the care of the babies that are born? Will they fight for the babies' education and futures? Will they demand their disproportionately black and brown bodies be valued and that their #blacklivesmatter or will pro-life only refer to legislating the womb?
I am watching and waiting and hoping for the best, but expecting little without heavy resistance. Still, I am remembering to find confidence even in the impending darkness, because I believe that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance fulfills character, and character will always lead us to the Hope that will not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through HS.
I have spent the past several hours searching my soul for peace, for words of reconciliation and unity, and have scraped up nothing but grit and determination.
White supremacy is acceptable to half of our country.
Half of our country cosigned on a candidate who suggested Muslims be profiled and rounded up based on how they pray.
They’ve rang out a resounding yes to racism, misogyny, and sexual assault.
They’ve agreed to turn their backs on refugees, and to inciting violence against the press and black and brown bodies.
To them, using the restroom in peace is not a right that everyone should have, and they have made clear their opposition to our government protecting its people's right to spend the rest of their lives with the ones they choose.
But this nation is not defined by just that half, as much as we’d like to allow an electoral map to suggest the opposite.
If you believe this is the end, you are wrong.
Even if we lose tonight, we are still here and I promise you we will fight tooth and nail.
We will not be denied our places at the table.
We are the people of color in your congregations,
We are your daughters, your immigrant neighbors, your gay brother, your Muslim coworker, your trans friend.
We will continue to make clear that Donald Trump’s character and his policies are not representative of us, or our idea of American values.
We will demand that we live peaceably with our neighbors, building cultural bridges, not walls.
We will reject any notions of hatred and bigotry that come from Washington for the next four years with the same aplomb with which we celebrated the progressive strides of the past eight.
We have fought uphill battles our entire lives, and we are better at it than you can begin to imagine.
The fight begins tomorrow.
This is not over, it is only just beginning.