Jan. 6 Was the Whitest Epiphany: White Christians, Where Do We Go from Here?
It feels like an eon ago. I awoke ebullient to learn that, on Epiphany — the day that three wise nobles outwitted a desperate, murderous despot — that the Rev. Dr. Warnock had been elected to the U.S. Senate. My spirits did an abrupt 180 and my stomach churned as I witnessed (from my couch) the violent insurrection on the U.S. Capitol orchestrated by white people. No one should have been surprised. Black and Brown people certainly were not. Many (predominately white) journalists and pundits lamented the "dark day." Womanist biblical scholar and Episcopal priest Wil Gafney aptly corrected them on Facebook:
"Today was not a 'dark day.' Today was a white day. One of the whitest days in American history."
Gafney is right 100 percent. The problem is that we white Christians still don't get it — even after witnessing the damning footage of white hoards, both gleeful and angry, as they deployed numerous assault tactics — flex cuffs, radios, earpieces, an array of weapons. They prepared for months in plain sight. Republican elected officials and off-duty police officers and fire fighters were among their ranks. After delaying the DHS report, the Department of Homeland Security Acting Director Chad Wolf (picked by the 45th President) warned us on Oct. 6 that domestic white supremacist groups "remain the most persistent and lethal threat" to our nation. Mere seconds, along with the courage and quick-thinking of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, kept them from U.S. senators.
To be sure, notable officials, many of whom identify as white, have called out the egregious, racist desecration and insurrection for what it was. Yet, the troubling and troubled silence of far too many white Christians reverberates far and wide across digital and other platforms.
It is tempting for me and others who identify as white progressive Christians to distance ourselves from the ugliness of Epiphany 2021.
We blame the exceptional "extremists" — card-carrying white supremacists and white nationalists; the radical right; neo-fascists; Q-anon disciples; Proud Boys. To do so irresponsibly ignores that among the mob (both those who stormed the Capitol and those who remained outside) were thousands of Christians. Their/our signs and symbols were everywhere. As of Dec. 20, 2020 56 percent of white evangelical Protestants and 51 percent of white Catholics hold favorable views of the 45th President.
I still clearly hear white folks defending the "good white" people who did not enter the Capitol who were merely exercising their rights to freedom of speech and assembly. As just one example, Chicago Police Union President John Catanzara:
"There was no arson, there was no burning of anything, there was no looting, there was very little destruction of property … It was a bunch of pissed-off people that feel an election was stolen … If the worst crime here is trespassing, so be it. But to call these people treasonous is beyond ridiculous and ignorant … They're individuals … They get to do what they want … They're entitled to voice their frustration."
His remarks remain revealing of predominant white mindsets: white people are "peaceful, patriots, law-abiding, Constitution-defending" — and we have a God-given right to voice our views and get angry. Implicitly, he is also saying that Black and Brown people do not. The ragged, racist litany is all-too familiar: Black and Brown people are "looters, dangerous, socialists, anarchists, criminals, welfare queens." In short, they are not Americans, not fully human. Dr. Brittney Cooper pointedly puts it this way:
"Our empathy meter is set to seeing white violence as protest and Black protest as violence."
By now, you have no excuse for not seeing the photos contrasting the police responses of Jan. 6 to that of BLM protests and marches.
Dr. Bryan Massingale makes plain what white Christians need to be able to see already for ourselves:
"What we witnessed in Washington is a direct consequence of four years of enabling complicity, cynical appeasement, and cowardly silence … It is also the consequence of the complicit silence and active support of religious leaders who refused to confront the cancer of white nationalism that this president endorses and who excused all manner of his wrongdoing, incompetence and brutality …"
So, white Christians, what's next for us? Yes, we must hold elected officials — at all levels of government (the 45th President, the Sedition Caucus led by Senators Cruz and Hawley, Rep. Mary Miller who praised Hitler for what he "got right" and the 147 lawmakers who objected to the certification of electoral votes; the newly elected West Virginia delegate who recorded himself storming into the Capitol) — accountable for their complicity. Yes, we must denounce the Capitol police who posed for selfies with the rioters and call for a full investigation into the appalling, possibly complicit, disaster of the law enforcement response.
Yet, we must do much more.
To begin, we need to own our complicity. We — white people, especially white Christians, must actively resist and dismantle the white privilege and presumption that allows white people to enact such treasonous violence with such confidence and comfort. Now is the moment to do the bold, hard work of self-reflection, repair and repentance.
We must have honest, heart-felt conversations with our white neighbors, communities, and families. We must consistently stand and show up for racial justice — and for the long haul. All clergy may sign this public statement from the National Council of Churches calling for the removal of President Trump from office. Google has all the resources — for reading, podcasts, and connecting with Christians and others doing substantive anti-racism work. Commit now and plug in — with humility and readiness to do much more listening than talking.
Jesus and his family are still on the run fleeing those who plot their death. To live the Epiphany Gospel we proclaim, white Christians must do this work.
