Let the ballot counters do their job. It’s been a comfort to see images of these ordinary people of all ages and colors doing their painstaking work. They are the nuts and bolts of democracy, and I believe in them. To do otherwise would be to give up on America altogether.
That’s why I’ll offer no view of who’s going to win the presidential election. I’m much more concerned about the divisions it’s laid bare—and how the Church is no better and possibly worse, reflecting the exact same polarities of race, geography, and socioeconomic status.
Let’s take a look at the cracks in our Christianity:
1. An attitude of fear and suspicion toward those outside our ideological circle. When did fear and suspicion take over large swaths of the white evangelical churches?
Why do we always think someone is trying to steal our freedoms and destroy our way of life? Why do we feel like we only have a future if our politician of choice gets into office?
Why do we shut out the concerns of Black and brown Christians when they pose challenging questions about justice, law enforcement, health care, education, and the distribution of wealth? And why are we so afraid of letting Christians of color lead the conversation on racism?
Fear and suspicion have nothing to do with faith. In fact, they drive the clanging cymbals that the Apostle Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 13. I’m left with the haunting question of a dear African-American Christian friend: “When did we stop loving each other?”
2. Belief in conspiracy theories. One thing I learned in more than 30 years as a journalist is that conspiracy theories never pan out. I had so many people come to me with these crazy conspiracies involving the local school board, some minor politician, a corporate entity, or an ex-spouse, trying to convince me to do an “exposé.” Young reporters quickly learn that it’s a complete waste of time. Not once did I find these conspiracy theories to have a solid basis in fact.
After spending many hours listening to these folks carry on and point to their piles of unsorted “documents,” I started to notice a few patterns: They manufactured webs of connection among a vast array of bits of “evidence,” and they perceived themselves as outsiders—me against the world—to a point that they viewed everything through a distorted lens.
I know this will disappoint some of you, but not every journalist, ballot counter, and poll worker is part of a wicked cabal making ballots materialize and leads vanish.
That said, my fellow journalists have not helped one bit by continually signaling their preference for Joe Biden. Contrary to what the conspiracy theorists say, professional journalists don’t make up stuff, but they do inject a degree of opinion that would have gotten me fired back when I worked as a daily newspaper reporter. I’m forced to filter everything I read these days.
3. Bad theology, shaky eschatology. If we’re always on the verge of the Apocalypse and Armageddon and everything is a monumental struggle between good and evil, why not just go into our ideological bunker, snap open cans of Beanee Weenee, and shut out the world?
And why come alongside people who cry out for justice if the only thing that matters is a personal decision to accept salvation in Christ?
Our eschatology—our view of the end—affects how we live in the present. If you think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, you probably won’t embrace the heart-wrenching process of building bridges with people who are different from you. Nor will you tackle the difficult work of correcting political, legal, and social systems so they allow for the flourishing of all people.
4. An epidemic of finger-pointing. I can’t help but think that this has been greatly exacerbated by President Trump’s rhetoric. Trump is by no means the only guilty party, but he has set an example of mockery and name-calling from the most powerful position in the land. Whenever Trump and his followers hear something they don’t like, they dismiss it as fake news and trash the messenger.
The prophet Isaiah explicitly condemns this approach: “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your light will become like the noonday.”
How’s our light looking these days?
5. A leftward drift in theology among marginalized Christians. When Black Christians were calling out for justice pre-George Floyd, white evangelicals largely shut them out, and the LGBTQ+ community came to their aid, offering solidarity and support. But that doesn’t mean we need to buy into every aspect of the LGBTQ+ agenda or abandon 2,000 years of orthodox Christian teaching. Our beliefs must remain rooted in the Word of God, which clearly identifies homosexual conduct as sin.
I hold white evangelicals accountable for creating the conditions that accelerated this leftward drift. Black Christians have seen the emptiness of the “perfect” theology we teach in our churches and famous seminaries. That theology hasn’t produced much in the way of justice or love for our Black and brown neighbors, though we’ve done a really good job of telling everyone what we’re against. No wonder Black Christians are distancing themselves from the evangelical label. Our version of the gospel isn’t working for their communities.
6. The Ginormous blind spot looming ever larger, especially in the Pentecostal-charismatic community. “Charismatic prophets are about to be vindicated or humiliated,” Michael Brown writes in The Christian Post, because all of the major prophetic voices he knows have forecast Trump’s re-election.
I respect Brown, because he regularly addresses tough questions in the Church in a courageous, straightforward manner. But he, too, reflects the enormous blind spot in white evangelical Christianity: racism. He doesn’t see it as one of our nation’s most serious moral issues, and neither do any of the prominent white prophets. Could this be why their dreams, visions, and prophecies are always coming up Trump?
Let the soul-searching begin.
