Two parallels and an outlier: Graham Platner, Roy Moore and Donald Trump

Decrying white nationalists is an ethical lay-up for which no white person should feel the slightest hint of self-congratulatory pride. To concretely repair racial injustices and facilitate socioeconomic advances for persons of color is the more difficult work to which we can commit ourselves.

What we read in these stories are perspectives of faith by people of faith who were every bit as fallible, flawed and finite in understanding as we are.

People of color did not create racism, yet we are often looked to for the solution to end it. It’s not my responsibility to end the power and privilege of white people. And even if you think it is our responsibility, we cannot end it because more times than not, our voices are muted as soon as people see the color of our skin.

North Americans are increasingly likely to attribute success not to luck, but to talent and hard work. Increasingly, we believe that we “make our own luck.” That’s a problem.

The courage and faith displayed by people of color as the literal flames of racism burned around them is a call to repentance for all white people for our complicity in systems that perpetuate these sins. But it also signals a hope for a church afflicted with and inflicting white supremacy.

With our mouths we will give you great thanks, God, for you stand at the right hand of the oppressed, and through your oppressed body comes our liberation.