America 250 Years Later
On the nation's 250th anniversary, white nationalists marched through Washington. Our faith requires us to speak.
“Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
Hundreds of masked men carrying American flags and Confederate flags paraded through Washington, D.C., during this year’s July 4th celebration in the nation’s capital, chanting “Reclaim America” as they marched in matching uniforms.
Identified as a nationalist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Patriot Front is the offspring organization of Vanguard America, which marched with tiki torches in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, where peace and justice activist Heather Heyer was run down and killed by a neo-Nazi. People were injured and killed, and we are told that racism and xenophobia are figments of our imagination, or exaggerations of a society overrun by too much diversity and inclusion.
The White House did not condemn Patriot Front’s march. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum called it a matter of free speech.
Different Mask, Same Hatred
There have always been new brands of hatred based on fear of others and self-constructed notions of superiority and hierarchy. Derrick Bell’s seminal book Faces at the Bottom of the Well argues that racism is “an integral, permanent, and indestructible component of this society,” so deeply embedded in the fabric of this country it cannot be eradicated. We have made progress in everything, yet nothing has changed.
What do racist hate groups have in common? They embrace a narrative that white men — “founding stock” — are the only people who have advanced this country. They embrace a nationalist doctrine that immigrants and migrants, and descendants of those brought here in chains, are a threat to their vision of a great America. In their Christian nationalist worldview, diversity of religion, culture, language, and race all represent existential threats.
It is as if they are afraid and want us all to be afraid of a future that has already come.
Who We Already Are
The United States is one of the most culturally and religiously diverse nations globally, with more than 40 percent of the population non-white. Although Christians make up 62 percent of the population, religious diversity is represented throughout the country with Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and other faith communities. The second-largest group, at 29 percent, is those unaffiliated with any religion.
The Beloved Community is already among us.
What do we say to those who would mask themselves and are motivated by fear of being replaced by others who represent the diversity of our multicultural society? What do we say to those who embrace the lost cause of the Confederacy and applaud the evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and the demonizing of all things celebrating diversity and equal justice?
The United Methodist Social Principles do not leave room for silence: “We condemn racism, ethnocentrism, tribalism, and any ideology or social practice based on false and misleading beliefs or ideologies that one group of human beings is superior to all other groups of human beings.” (2025-2028 Social Principles, ¶ 162, Other Social Issues, L. Racism, Ethnocentrism and Tribalism)
And what do we say to each other as we observe the flagrant parading of those who would advocate for an all-white ethnostate and spew hatred against the LGBTQ neighbors who could identify them if unmasked?
I can hear the voices of my ancestors cheering us on to fight for justice. They cheer as part of the great cloud of witnesses with resilience, not submission, and with holy conviction that change is often met with fear and resistance. They cheer with wry humor, recognizing scars never healed and the America that has never made good on its promissory note of equal justice for all. If it’s not one thing, they would say, “It’s another!”
I hear in their voices what bell hooks, one among those ancestors, taught: “There can be no love without justice,” and that love is an action and a practice. Those ancestors handed down a practice of genuine love that has outlasted every previous “another,” every parade of hatred that came before this one.
The masked men want to “Reclaim America” for a select few. We draw from a source that has always made room for all. King David extends an invitation to experience God’s love in a way that affirms belonging in Psalm 34:8 — “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in God.”
I will not give up on the pursuit of a more perfect union where diversity is celebrated, open dialogue and friendship are elevated, and we remember that we are all children of the God who declared love for the whole of the world.
In the words of John Lewis: “Ours is a struggle of a lifetime and each one of us in every generation must do our part.”
Be encouraged.
Bishop Julius C. Trimble General Secretary The General Board of Church & Society
