Don’t Get Stuck in Freeze: How to Face This Political Moment
The political moment we find ourselves in is one marked by division, fear, and a troubling rise in fascist politics. Here's how to reckon with your past and move forward.
This is a wellness check. How are we doing?
The news lately has been a lot. And I feel us possibly collectively slipping down the slide of despair to election day in November. As a post-evangelical white woman, it has been disconcerting (understatement) grappling with the possibility for a different version of Christianity while also confronting my role in the dominant forms of Chrisitanity present in the broader sociopolitical landscape.
I spent 2016-2020 head down, trying to distance myself as much as possible from the white evangelical church and live into an alternative version of faith. And in the past 4 years, I’ve realized that it’s important for me to reckon with the impact of the people that I come from and try to do my part in modeling a different path as well as fighting for a different future.
The political moment we find ourselves in is one marked by division, fear, and a troubling rise in fascist politics. This reality has been fueled, in part, by the longstanding marriage between the Republican Party and the white evangelical church—a union I was once unwittingly a part of. Maybe you were, too, or maybe you actively supported it. It’s uncomfortable to carry the weight of that, and it’s important that we do, so that we can move forward with intentionality and integrity.
Acknowledging Our Complicity
It's crucial that we acknowledge our complicity. For years, the white evangelical church has been a powerful political force, championing policies and leaders that have often been at odds with values of love, justice, and inclusivity. We must recognize how our past involvement—whether through votes, donations, or silence—has contributed to the perpetuation of these harmful ideologies. We also don’t get to say, “They’re not actually Christians.”
In his book Do I Stay Christian?, Brian McClaren speaks to those of us who still want to retain Christian identity. It’s important not to create “others” out of people we disagree with who also identify as Christians. He writes, “If I hold the term Christian for myself and deny it to all those I consider wrong or evil, I am upholding Christianity as the fount of all moral good, which I know is simply not true...if I let the idealized conception of Christianity in my head negate the the harm that Christans are doing out there in the world, I am deluding myself and letting my idealized form of Christianity and myself off the hook.”
The truth is, they are Christians. Particularly, as white people, we have been fed a narrative that we are innocents, and others are at fault. If we continue to separate ourselves from Christian nationalists and others who are causing harm, we continue to perpetuate this myth that we are innocents. Brian suggests, instead, “You stop seeking innocence through separation. Instead you seek love through solidarity. If you choose solidarity in the way modeled by Jesus, then you don’t have to stop being Christian.”