SOME OF YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO RECKON WITH YOUR RACISM
Some of you are going to have to reckon honestly with the possibility that racism is influencing you. When racist imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes circulated from the highest levels of political influence, many of you were silent. That should have been condemned immediately by every self-appointed defender of faith and country. Instead, there was hesitation. Then came the soft responses: “He shouldn’t have done that,” or “We don’t know all the details.” A shrug. A deflection. No urgency. No righteous anger. Just distance.
Those patterns reinforce what many already believe—that there is something deeply racial in the way this president speaks, posts, and provokes. A large number of Black Americans believe he is racist. Are they all imagining it? Or are they responding to patterns that others have trained themselves not to see?
For all practical purposes, many of you were silent. And silence in moments like that is not neutral. It communicates that the humiliation of your Black brothers and sisters—who have endured dehumanization disguised as humor for generations—is not important enough to confront.
Instead of jumping on me, you should ALL have come out immediately and renounced this vile, disgusting racism.
I was not going to be silent. The current president is loudly associated with a certain brand of “Christianity,” and I am a preacher. I refuse to let anyone assume I am aligned with a version of the faith that minimizes degradation or excuses racial insult. What I made was not a political statement. It was a statement about decency. A Christian statement.
I did not say everyone who dislikes President Obama is racist. I said that if your stated reasons for condemning him disappear when applied to this president, then something deeper than policy is at work. If you excused in one man what you condemned in another, what explains that reversal?
You continue to insist abortion is the great dividing line. One supported a woman’s legal right to choose; the other claims to oppose abortion. Supporting legal access is not the same as celebrating abortion. But even setting that aside, moral seriousness must be consistent. If abortion is your non-negotiable issue, then character cannot suddenly become negotiable. Integrity cannot become optional. Allegations and documented behavior cannot be minimized simply because they are politically inconvenient. When standards only apply in one direction, that is preference, not conviction.
When I defended Obama’s personal composure and suggested that some opposition to him may have had racial roots, you reacted immediately. Predictably. Racism rarely introduces itself politely; it often reacts defensively when the possibility is named. I did not canonize the man. I did not endorse every policy. I said he conducted himself with dignity. That is not partisan. That is observable. Not every moral statement is political, even if politics are involved.
I am not claiming moral perfection. I have had to repent in my own life. I have confronted pride, anger, immorality and inconsistency. Repentance is not humiliation; it is cleansing. It is strength. It would not harm any of us to examine ourselves with the same honesty we demand from others.
Racism is peculiar in this way: it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It shapes outcomes, rhetoric, and reactions—yet no one claims it. It is like the elections of George Wallace in Alabama. He kept winning, yet years later no one admits to casting the vote. That is how denial works.
What I said still stands. When you show intense disdain for a man widely regarded as composed and disciplined — though you disagreed with his policies — but consistently defend behavior that is crude, demeaning, and openly degrading because you favor the policies, something is being revealed. Policies matter. But character matters too. And when character only matters selectively, the explanation is not difficult.
I spoke so my Black brothers and sisters—and every person of goodwill—would know where I stand. I do not stand with degrading people made in the image of God. I absolutely hate racism. It is one of the most obvious sins in our culture and one of the most quietly tolerated in some churches.
I do not stand with selective morality. I do not stand with a version of Christianity that excuses contempt as long as it produces political victories. If that causes discomfort, then let it cause reflection. Some reckonings are overdue.
Repentance is not extremism. Calling racism sin is not radical. It is basic Christianity. It is basic human decency. I care enough to say that plainly. And if anyone genuinely wants to examine themselves and grow, I am not your enemy. I will walk with you. I will not mock you. Those of us who take Christ seriously simply want better—for you, for the Church, and for our witness.
We all repent of something. None of us are above it. But we cannot repent of what we refuse to name.
BDD
