Monday, April 17, 2017

As Arkansas Rushes to Execute 8 People in 11 Days, Remember Who Stands Behind Trump: White "Pro-Life" Evangelicals



Remember, as the state of Arkansas rushes to kill 8 people in 11 days because our killing drugs are about to go stale:


1. Arkansas is a state dominated by white evangelical Christians.

2. The leaders of the white evangelical community have been pushing very hard for the killing of these 8 men in 11 days — because those white evangelical leaders are, they tell us, "pro-life."

3. They pushed for the election of Donald Trump because they are "pro-life" "Christians."
4. Remember.

5. Remember how this same white evangelical "Christian" community did absolutely nothing to challenge the lynchings that roiled the state of Arkansas and the evangelical South in the Jim Crow era.
6. Remember that white evangelical pastors preached in support of the Ku Klux Klan.

7. When I was in junior high school in south Arkansas and my Southern Baptist Sunday School sponsored a "vocational awareness" series to bring in speakers and tell us about possible vocational choices for our lives, a Klan member was invited to address us and tell us about the wonderful lives we'd have if we joined the Ku Klux Klan.

8. Remember.

9. Remember that the white evangelical churches of the South supported slavery and were willing to divide the churches in the U.S. (and the nation) to try to keep slavery alive.

10. Remember that the white evangelical churches of the South fought tooth and nail against civil rights for African Americans, and against integration.

We forget all this at our peril as a "pro-life," heavily evangelical, "Christian" state rushes to execute 8 people in 11 days. Because it's "pro-life" and "Christian." 

(And the "pro-life" U.S. Catholic bishops are as responsible as are white evangelicals for Donald Trump and the "pro-life" horror show unfolding in front of our eyes throughout the U.S. following his election.)

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