No Roomfor Bigotry

There just is no room for bigotry in God’s world.
I have long felt that the underlying ethos of the Tea Party is racism. The Tea Party, at least, has been honest, to a point, about their anger and anxiety about a black man being president of these United States. Others have been much more disingenuous.
But the saddest thing of all is that this American bigotry, so special and so unique, is even worse because nobody in America wants to own it, admit it. People want to act like everything is all right and that racism is a thing of the past.
It is not, and it is in fact even worse because America has insisted on denying its existence.
The horrendous shootings in Tucson cannot be blamed on any person, but we cannot deny that toxic political vitriol played a part in the anger which we saw in the most recent congressional campaign, and I believe that the rhetoric spewed by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others fed into a culture of resentment based on race and bigotry.
People in America, black and white, have never gotten over slavery and over the years of racial indignity which has been the characteristic identifying mark of these United States. The teaching of white supremacy is deep in the souls of still too many people, and the feeling of inferiority is still too much a part of the psyches of too many African Americans.
That feeling of white supremacy, coupled with white privilege, has fed into this culture of resentment I mentioned, and that resentment has morphed into outright anger on the parts of too many people. The imagery of guns voiced by Sarah Palin was no accident; she fed into the culture of resentment and anger, and though it was couched in rhetoric about cutting spending, those who know racism and how it feels knew otherwise.
The shootings in Arizona may have produced the groundwork for some good conversation, about race, about violence, about gun control. It may get people to talk about the responsibility of having the gift of free speech. Just because one can say something doesn’t mean one should.
All that being the case, however, what these shootings have said to me, loud and clear, is that there is no room for bigotry in God’s kingdom, be it blatantly or subliminally stated. No person ought to fear for his or her life or safety because he or she advocates for “the least of these,” be they black, brown, handicapped, Jewish, Muslim or anything other than white, male, and healthy. This American bigotry is stale and moldy. It is despicable for those who say they love God.
We should internalize the great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul…and thy neighbor as thyself.”
Beginning now.
Have a good week.