For many years, I was both a theological and religious moderate-leaning conservative until the day that Trump mocked the disabled reporter. I have always loved people and never did approve of racial and disability discrimination. But I never knew just how bad the demons of racism and bigotry were in America until Donald Trump and his base gave them permission to fully reveal themselves.
It started when the first Robert E. Lee statue came down and even before that when Trump mocked the disabled reporter. Me and my naïve self, with a propensity against racism anyway, I innocently celebrated the military’s decision to remove symbols of the Confederacy on Facebook. This is when I lost long-time friends, a few extended family members, received over 300 negative comments, and even received a few threats. Then I realized, many of my white friends and a small number of family members hated the liberation and freedom of those who were not like themselves. Nothing was more obvious than January 6th which was a reenactment of the Civil War. I asked myself, where does this bigotry and hatred originate? Where does it come from? Sadly, a lot of it is upheld by societal structures, those who wish to intentionally uphold it, and organized religion rooted in our Country’s Original Sin of racism, bigotry, and slavery. This is why my husband and I now attend a Hispanic Catholic cathedral and have since COVID. After all of this, I asked myself, ‘Why didn’t I see the obvious in my past predominantly white faith communities?” Then I learned, there are those who actually think that the liberation and freedom of others means less freedom and fewer rights for themselves. It’s rooted in American selfishness and greed.
I actually thank the Good Lord that He opened my eyes to racial injustice at the level He did. I know of other Christians who felt just as shaken as I did, so it wasn’t my imagination. When Beth Moore left the Southern Baptist convention over racism and sexism, I knew that I wasn’t just “seeing things.” Thousands of articles, books, and podcasts were created over this during the Trump era. Again, I will define exactly who the Religious Right is. It’s not just conservative white Christians but those white Christians who have been deliberate bedfellows with the right wing of the Republican party for decades. They believe in Manifest Destiny and that they have a right to rule over the rest of the nation by force. They despise the freedom of those who are not white, straight, Republican, “Christian,” and neurotypical. They hate the basic human rights of those unlike themselves, and they dismiss and discard any attempt to reveal these injustices. Anyone who questions their “lordship” over the rest of the nation is a “traitor” and “unpatriotic,” and they use the unborn as a weapon to further their white supremacist agenda. If all of this does not describe you, you are not part of the Religious Right. I hate to break this news to them. According to the Bible and the US Constitution, everyone is equally-created in God’s image, no exceptions.
Seeing the fullness of racial injustice allowed me to see other injustices, such as the deliberate attempt to erase transgender children, especially here in Texas. The buck stops here for me. Messing with a transgender child is the equivalent to messing with a disabled child. Spending a career in disability service and advocacy gave me the skills, knowledge, and tools to research clinical parallels between disability spectrums and the LGBTQIA+ spectrum of psychology. The Religious Right wants to erase and destroy anyone who questions and threatens their sick and twisted definition of what it means to be a “Christian.” They define a Christian strictly on who opposes abortion and who opposes the liberation of minority groups. According to the Religious Right, people can commit any other “sin,” no matter how heinous, as long as the Christian isn’t pro-choice and doesn’t support the liberation of minority groups. As far as I’m concerned, the Religious Right needs a huge dose of humble pie and an awakening to current-day reality.
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