Read the Signs

Matthew 24:32 – “Learn the lesson of the fig tree, as soon as its branches become tender and put forth leaves, you know summer is near.”

This isn’t a natural history lesson. It’s a warning to read the signs of the times, to be wise as serpents. Just as we know that summer is near when leaves begin to sprout from trees, so we know the judgment day Jesus has been describing is near when we see the signs he's been describing.

However, there are other signs. The media in the US pretends not to know what racism is when they see it in order to … I don’t know, detract from any conclusions we might make by admitting that Donald is a white supremacist who says or tweets racist crap all the time. By focusing on the racism, we don’t talk about the effect of his words, tweets, and policies on the most vulnerable in our country. He stokes the fires of white nationalist supremacy, inciting others to commit violence against immigrants, Black people, and brown people just as his administration commits violence against refugees seeking asylum by following the proper procedure. That’s what we need to talk about.

Don’t be like the media. We know racism and hatred when we see them. We saw them in Charlottesville two years ago. We see them at every rally Donald holds, and we see them in his tweets, his words, and his policies. Republican policies that have real consequences for the vulnerable in our midst. For decades Republican leaders have been denigrating Black people, welfare recipients, disabled people, immigrants who are not lily white, pitting them against each other so we don’t come together to fight back. That is what we should be talking about.

Instead of discussing whether an action or speech was racist, let’s focus our discourse on the effects of those words, tweets, and policies, which include more violence against refugees, immigrants who are not white, Sikhs, Muslims, Latinx immigrants, Black people, concentration camps, detention of American citizens who happen to be Latinx, fear in immigrant communities, inaction on climate change that will result in the end of our species or even the planet, destruction of long-held norms, the diminishing of the rule of law for white men, the slow demolition of democracy. Let’s fight back by talking about these things instead. It’s hard, because these issues are not as black-and-white as whether something or someone is racist. 

Let's lament these policy results. Educate ourselves as best we can with the resources available to us. Work to change these policies as we can. Call out racism and hatred when we see them – without getting sucked into a discussion of whether we’re correct. Pray. Make sure our state and US senators and representatives know where we stand on these issues, even if we don’t think it’ll make a difference. 

Let’s love our neighbor as ourselves.

B