What Would Jesus Do?

by Vicki Panagotacos

The ability to vote is likely to be compromised in 17 states even though Marco Rubio recently said no proposed legislation in this country will keep a person from voting. It’s a matter of degree folks, as you well know. A slight of hand, but a human tragedy because those who suppress a voter’s right to vote are getting away with murder without being charged.

Granted the “black situation” in America took a long time to create and it’s not going to be easy or pleasant to improve. But if we continue to ignore it, can we at least stop pretending that our policies focus on the human dignity for all.

Can We Stop Being Hypocrites?

In 2015 Ted Cruz said on Christian Broadcasting Network, “If Christians will simply show up and vote our values, we’ll turn this country around.” I must say the comment is rather stunning considering his current approach.

 

Frankly, the Christian Conservatives behind this recent move must have gotten a hall pass from Jesus. In any case they are taking advantage of the luck of the draw – i.e., they weren’t born black.

Putting aside America’s earlier right to enslave another human being, why can’t we be decent – now – and make it easy for every citizen in this country to have the dignity of the vote?

If you want less crime in black neighborhoods and inner cities, if you want “them” off the street corners and employed, if you want “them” busy being educated and trained to make a decent living so they aren’t inclined to steal—one would think you can’t at the same time support limiting a person’s ability to vote in state and national elections.

I am not saying you should feel safe in poorer black neighborhoods at night. Jesse Jackson, when running for office, spoke in SF and admitted: “If I am walking down a dark street alone at night and someone is following me, I’d rather it be a white man than a black man.”

That’s the way it is – but who set this up to happen? Turn that pointed index finger of yours around, folks.

 

What We Say vs. What We Do

In general, have the white conservative Christian leaders in power ever wanted disadvantaged, primarily black people, to become educated productive citizens? I suggest not. Any dialogue to that effect is usually lip service and any effort a hollow priority. Bottom line, these certain “Christians” would rather tolerate and manage riots and looting with federal and state funding than do what Jesus would do. In other words, they would prefer to manage crime than prevent it.

And the more the black population “acts out” as a result of being discounted, the easier it is for white conservatives to highlight the black culture’s inability to enter mainstream society. In other words, the cycle plays right into the hands of those who want to keep the black population down.

A 2015 study on crime showed the rates of murder, rape, robbery and violent crimes were cut in half compared to the 1980’s. Research found it had nothing to do with law enforcement or city management, and everything to do with—lead. That is a startling study, but it got little attention because the brain damage, kidney disease, heart attack, stroke and cancer were most prevalent in poor black areas.

One Hot Mess

Today honesty and balance matter little. And trust is non-existent. We are a mess of manipulation in Washington and sadly it is wearing down some very good people who are deciding not to run again for office. On the local level, exhausted physically-threatened seasoned poll workers are declining to work the next election.

So let’s pull our pious Christian curtain aside: as a nation we have talked about but seldom acted all that “Christian.” Our country was built on indigenous genocide and slavery. From there the myth of the American Cowboy sprouted and it is alive today. Here we are. And here is what we have.

Should We Abandon this Jesus-Idea?

Desmond Tutu said, “there comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in.” I am not optimistic it will happen. But then I stop and look at your tenacity, Desmond, and I pull myself up by my bootstraps.  

When I consider the accomplishments of people like Harry Truman, Harriet Tubman, Harry Tyson Moore, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall, George Hayes, James Nabrit, Earl Warren, Roy Wilkins and Harry Tyson Moore, I am refreshed to know there will always be people ready to help America’s Far-Right Conservatives and Christian Nationalists find their Jesus. That is, if these exceptional people aren’t assassinated or imprisoned before they can get their hands into the water.