Dispirited Christians must prepare to stand in the gap, historians urge

This article originally appeared at Baptist News Global on November 20, 2024.

“We’re obviously in a very different space than we were in the last two times we had this conversation,” Robert P. Jones said to open the third “Faith and Democracy” tour event with historians Diana Butler Bass, Jemar Tisby and Kristin Du Mez.

The four spoke Nov. 17 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, 12 days after the election that sent Donald Trump on a path back to the White House.

“We’re all feeling very different things,” said Jones, founder of Public Religion Research Institute.

Robert P. Jones, Kristin Du Mez, Diana Butler Bass and Jemar Tisby at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. (BNG photo by Rick Pidcock)

The “Faith and Democracy” tour began before the election, and this was the group’s first appearance together since the election. As Jones has emphasized at each event, their desire is to cast a vision for a Christian engagement with politics that emphasizes “pluralism instead of Christian nationalism, equality rather than hierarchy, truth rather than propaganda, and love and compassion rather than power and fear.”

In October, Du Mez told BNG: “When I travel around the country, I love meeting people at events. But so many people feel alone, isolated. Doing this work publicly has its downsides, but one benefit is that we are connected to others doing the work. This is so important. One of our goals is to work to connect people with each other in their local communities. There are so many incredible people doing incredible things. We need to find ways to connect these people to each other. I don’t think we’ve cracked this code yet, but this tour is one attempt to do just that.”

Due to the results of the election, that need for connection is stronger than ever, the four believe.

Trump has pledged to deliver power to his own people, not to all people.

“If I get in there, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used it before,” Trump told the National Religious Broadcasters during the campaign. And now given his cabinet nominations, it would appear authoritarian Christians are attempting to turn their Canaanite Conquest Cosplay into policy.

We live in a country where white Christian nationalists have considered Native Americans, Black people, women, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, and anyone who won’t submit to them to be the Canaanites of the book of Joshua. And on Nov. 5, the walls of our Jericho came tumbling down.

“Now the white Christians are coming over the rubble for us.”

Now the white Christians are coming over the rubble for us. And we’re watching their approach while wondering how much of their rhetoric was metaphor, bloviating for votes, or if they’ll actually execute the punishments they promised they would with Trump as their retribution.

So while Du Mez mentioned that many people felt alone and isolated prior to the election, today many people feel surrounded as white Christians are closing in “with a trumpet in one hand and a sword in the other.”

Acknowledging our feelings

“I don’t want to sing about joy today,” Ruby Amanfu confessed in the opening song. “We thought there was truth enough to save all of us,” another lyric lamented.

This was an evening not for celebrating certainties, but for silently sitting in rubble and ash.

“I’ve struggled all week leading up to tonight because I’m coming to you with a tank that’s nearly empty,” Tisby shared with a broken voice. “And it’s not because of just the past three or four months of the campaign. It’s because I’ve been Black my whole life. And I appreciate the Black folks who came out tonight because you’re staying at the table in the midst of what I’m sure is exhaustion.”

Continue reading at Baptist News Global.