THE RACIAL UNDERCURRENTS OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA
(FOR THE ATTENTION OF OUR NIGERIAN CHRISTIAN BROTHERS AND SISTERS)
0LASIJI VINCENT OSHIN
Election periods in America as in other parts of the world, are very exciting. Political parties and individual candidates seeking to be elected into offices come out to convince potential voters they are the right candidate for the office. They are called to articulate their programs, spelling out what they plan to do for the people. Politics in the most advanced capitalist economy and richest nation in the world, is driven by big money and special interests. Here is a nation where the top two percent owns 80 per cent of national wealth, while the 90 percent population live, in good time, from “pay check to pay check” leaving millions in a bad time, without jobs and sometimes homeless.
It is interesting to note that the current (2020) elections, especially to the office of the president, has, beyond measure, attracted the interests of some Nigerian Christians who are getting involved in campaigning for President Donald Trump of the Republican party perceived by them as the anointed of God to advance the cause of Christianity in America.
President Trump has on several occasions presented himself in that light. He has boasted blasphemously of having done more for Christianity than Jesus. He sought to portray himself as a Bible believing president by holding up a Bible in a Photo-Op in front of Presbyterian Church in Washington attracting condemnation from the Bishop. This is the same president who in an interview during a television show told the world he has never confessed his sins to God, adding he does not bring God into what he does, but went on to boast about his membership of the Church of Vincent Norman Peal of “Positive Speaking” fame. Donald Trump simply does not believe he has committed any sin worthy of confession to God.
Given the role it has played in the history of the nation, the Church, and in recent times, the white evangelical Christian groups have assumed front and center stage in electioneering, throwing their weight in support of one of the two dominant parties, the Republican party (GOP), the party of the wealthy and special interests, inclined to maintain the status quo. The second party, the Democratic party appears to be more open to change, to progressive ideas, and inclined to catering to the interests of the poor. Both parties, at different times, have produced the president and controlled the Congress and the Senate.
Our Nigerian Christian brothers and sisters have joined the white supremacists, masquerading as evangelicals in a campaign of calumny against former president Barrack Obama. They have accused him of defending gays and pro-abortion groups. They call him an anti-Christ and those kinds of dirty stuff. Whereas it is going to four years since Obama left office as president, his detractors supporting Trump, continue to malign him and to accuse him for the failures of President Trump. I think our Christian brothers and sisters need to be educated on the nature of American society and culture. They need to know that some children of their evangelical and Republican friends are openly gays and have not been rejected by their parents and realtions.
Africans, from the period of Transatlantic slave trade through the colonial period and neo-colonialism, have been at the receiving end of Western manipulations and economiic exploitation.
The black race whether in Africa or in diaspora remains a pun on the chess board of global power politics. The African Americans for instance,, continue to suffer racial discriminations, over a century after emancipation. Their humanity is questioned and abused given the context of entrenched systemic and institutional racism they are forced to live with.
This article seeks to provide an insight into the racial undercurrents of white evangelical politics in the United States. It aims to expose white supremacist agenda of excluding black people who in their mindset are no better than their slave ancestors, from the mainstream political-economy of America in the wake of abolition of slavery as an institution in the United States.
In Roman 9: 2-4, apostle Paul writes: “My heart is filled with sorrow, and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters…They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God's adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenant with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshipping him and receiving his wonderful promises”.
The same can be said of those educated Nigerian Christians who rather than fight the good fight of faith, allow themselves to be misled into positioning themselves on the wrong side of the struggle for the survival of the black race, queueing behind politicians who hide under the cloak of evangelical Christianity to serve their selfish interests.
There appears to be a nexus between Pentecostal and independent Churches in Nigeria and the United States evangelicals. They seem to have one message in common: material prosperity. The American prosperity preachers have ready converts in the rising independent pastors and church founders in Nigeria. To an average Nigerian, United States is the model in politics, in commerce, in music and in the film industry. Hollywood in America becomes Nollywood in Nigeria. So if the American church culture is good for the Americans, it must be good for Nigerians. The result of this is the proliferation of independent churches and the emergence of wealthy pastors and church founders, building castles, and riding exotic cars and jets. They are becoming more and more visible in national discourse in defence of their privileged position in the polity. The prayers for their congregants is not for them to be pure and be Christ like, but for miracles of material blessing, and for reaping where they have not sewn.
Showing off or show casing material and financial blessings is the order of the day. Christians are now at the forefront of the corrupt rat race of material acquisition. Any wonder that in Nigeria, today, there is no distinction between believers and unbelievers. The Christian core value of separation from the world is no longer mentioned; holiness and righteousness to which older generations of Christians were exposed, are no more in our lexicon.
In 2009 Barrack Obama was elected and sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. This was the first time in the 230 years of American history that a person of color would occupy that office. To the white supremacists and the Republicans, it was like a dream waiting to be forgotten in the morning. Reality, however, is Barrack Hussain Obama is the president of the United States of America. When at last they were awaken to the reality, they began to engage in verbal onslaughts and to beating the drum of hate. Donald Trump argued that Barrack Obama is not qualified to be president because he was not born in America. It was a lie and non issue as Obama's birth certificate was there to show where he was born. They said he is a Muslim; his middle name is Hussain. Mitch McConnell, now Senate majority leader said Obama will fail. Other Republicans said Obama will be a one term president. The white supremacists under their Tea Party banner juxtaposed with KKK flags began to organize rallies.
Obama beat them all to it. Obama served two terms as president of United States. The Republican controlled Congress and Senate refused to cooperate with him in passing people oriented bills sent to them for legislation. Nonetheless Obama introduced landmark policies aimed at relieving the poor of restrictions and hurdles placed in their way. President Obama proved to be one of the most successful presidents in recent memories. He got the Affordable Healthcare Act passed early in his presidency when the Congress and Senate were controlled by Democrats. The Affordable Healthcare derisively referred to as Obama care by the Republicans, provided coverage for millions Americans who could not access healthcare because they had no insurance. President Obama pulled the country out of recession by bailing out American companies in critical sectors of the economy. His success in the international community, especially in bringing Iran to the table to commit on the suspension of it’s nuclear enrichment program was underscored by his award of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The past four years have seen President Donald Trump and the Republican party in control of both the Congress and the Senate until 2018, when Democrats took control of the Congress. Donald Trump’s first set of actions on assuming office included his attempt to repeal Obama's signature Healthcare Act. The vote to repeal the Act failed to pass in the Senate because late Senator John McCain voted against it. He is still threatening to repeal Obama care without commensurate substitute.
As part of his efforts to undo the legacies of Obama in the White House, President Trump pulled United States out of the agreement signed with Iran, by Obama administration with the United Kingdom, France and other Western allies, stoking tension in the middle east. He sought to send out of the U.S. economically vibrant young people, many of them College graduates, who were brought into the U.S. as babies and are covered by Obama’s Dreamers Act, DACA for shot. The Supreme Court, meanwhile has ordered stay of action on DACA.
Strictly and consistently Trump panders to his white supremacists base and pursues an agenda of rolling back the gains achieved by his predecessors in office over many decades coded “Make America great again.” He targeted immigrants from African and Muslim countries, while he made his first overseas trip to Saudi Arabia where he signed trade deals with Saudi authorities. While he was shutting the door to Africans, Hispanics and Muslims, Donald Trump invited people from Norway to migrate to America. But the Norwegians are more comfortable in their country, and don’t need to come to America. Donald Trump’s contempt for Africa is legendary. He called on Nigerians to go back to their country which he called “shitholes”. (To be continued).
