Black and White Christians and Politics

By Carl O. Cooper

            It has always been a mystery to me as to why black and white Christians can read the same Bible and listen to the same sermons week after week and then have different and contradicting opinions as to how they should vote in political elections. And what’s more, they do not talk about their differences and they do not communicate as to why they have different motives and world views.

            Recently it has come to my attention through more study and information, that I may have found what seems to me to be a reasonable explanation as to why this condition exists.

            Until recently I thought, like most white people do, that the black vote was motivated by an unrealistic memory of the history of slavery in our country. And although that was a dark and evil part of the history of our country, no black people alive today have ever been slaves. In fact, not even any of the parents of any black people alive today have ever been slaves. For over 150 years there have been no slaves in our country. I also think I would be safe in saying that no one today, black or white, would ever want another slave to exist in our country at all. I can say this as a white Christian who is 78 years old and have never met a white man who would want slavery introduced into our country ever again. In my world, which I feel would be a typical white Christian’s environment; all the white people I know would only want all people to be equal under the constitution of the US government.

            White Christians in the world I live in would tell you that all people should be equal and they should be treated alike and there should not be any special privileges for any special groups or races. Americans as well as Christian Americans should be united as one people with no special groups or privileges for anyone. America should be a world where every person should have an equal opportunity to excel to the limits of their ability with no person or group standing in opposition to their success as long as it is morally obtained. Of course, all people will not excel to the same level because all people are not created equal by God. Some are exceptionally intelligent and some are mentally challenged. Some are exceptionally strong and fit and some have physical disabilities. No one objects to a responsibility for people to help the poor and the disabled but most of the people I know would object to a socialist view of penalizing those who excel and confiscating what they have accumulated to take care of those who for whatever reason have not been able to excel in the same environment where everyone exists.

            Now these views are coming from me as a white Christian.

            But what I have discovered is that black Christians may not have a world view that corresponds to a white Christian’s view at all. 

            I don’t think that a black Christian is thinking about the history of slavery when he steps into a voting booth. I think his thoughts are on a much more recent history than that.

            When a white Christian enters a voting booth, his thoughts are concentrated on the moral issues of the day. Can we elect leaders and judges that will reverse the moral decay of our society? What can we do to eliminate abortion and same sex marriage? What about the rise in divorce and couples living together without marriage? What about the changes in laws making it a crime to teach against homosexuality and false science in our school systems?

            What about the indoctrination and perversion of the minds of our children in the public school system? How about the rise in credibility of the religion of Islam within our government?

            These are just a few of the issues white Christians are concerned about. Race does not enter into the mind of white Christians when they vote.

            On the other hand race relations are very much on the mind of black Christians when they vote. Many black Christians remember the way blacks were treated in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. In fact, I remember those days myself. I remember the “white” and “colored” water fountains in public places. And I remember when black people could not enter a restaurant and eat with the white people setting at the lunch counters and tables. I watched black people being served their food in paper bags by handing it out the back door. Even in some churches many black Christians were forced to have their own meeting places and churches or being placed in the back of the room away from the white people who were there. This was a dark time in our history and I lived through it myself. I will say this, I did not think it was right then but like most of the people in my world around me there was nothing I felt like I could do about it and so I just accepted it as a normal part of life. There was nothing anyone could do about it as just an average citizen. This behaviour was too much imbedded into the culture of the day and the times. It took a revolution of the black people to change this behaviour and culture of our country.

            These memories are driving the votes of black people everywhere and that also includes black Christians. Yes, black Christians care about the moral issues facing Christians today, but there is a memory of a dark and degrading recent past on the minds of voting black people everywhere. Black Christians fear a return to those recent days of disrespect and this need for proper treatment from white people overshadows their need to correct the moral issues of the day. The black vote is biased on the recent treatment to them that has been disrespectful and degrading.

            But that’s not all. There is another thing driving the black vote. I am not sure that black Christians fully understand this part themselves. I will give the benefit of the doubt and say they do not. But many black people in our society today carry a grudge against the white race because of what our fathers did to them. In fact many of the people are still alive that were disrespected and many people who disrespected them are also still alive. I would have to include myself in that last category as well. Although I did not approve, I did little to change anything that was going on either. I will say this in my defense, I worked in a tobacco field for a black man as a teenager and he fed me and other white teens at his table as his employees. I did many things such as this during this time. But acts like that did little to change the culture of America in those days.

            There is a great majority of black people who do carry a grudge against white people for what white people did to them. I wonder how I would feel if it were reversed?

            This anger and grudge against white people is driving the racist environment we are in today. This is causing the revolt against the police to the point that a policeman cannot even arrest a black criminal if some force is required to make him cooperate without being attacked by an angry mob of other black people blaming the cop. This anger is driving black people to punish white America by voting our country into a fear of a capitalist’s government and rushing into a socialist / Marxist form of mild communism. This anger is causing black Americans to hate American history and to intentionally vote against anything that white America appears to want to happen. This anger overrides any attempt by white Christians to vote with any consequence to correct the moral conditions that are spiraling out of control in our land.

            How will all this end?

            Personally, I do not see Non-Christian white people and black people just agreeing to get along. I do not think it can be that simple. If history teaches us anything, we know that governments do not last forever. None ever has. Unless white people and black people can come to terms and stop the hatred and revenge; the country will continue to slide farther and farther into moral decay. This will destroy our land. God will not continue to bless a country that holds His name and His laws in disrespect. Do you think this will stop the anger of black America? I think not.

            If the anger and revenge of the black people in America continues as it is then there will come a time when their power will be so great in government and the judicial system that there will be no restraint on their political and judicial power. When that day comes the revenge on white people will be unrestrained and the result will be that white people could very well be at the same level the black people were in the 1950’s. The white people in America will not resist this change and most will not even know or believe it is slowly happening until it does.

            You have probably heard by now that a plan is being floated as a trial balloon in hopes of convincing members of government to enact a law forcing restitution payments to be made to the ancestors of black people who were mistreated in days gone by. This law is likely to find more and more support as our government is controlled by more and more minorities.

            I don’t think Christians would support a law such as this, regardless of whether they were black or white. All Christians know the Bible teaching on such as this;

Ezekiel 18:20

20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

21 “But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. 22 None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him;

            Black Christians would not be in favor of a world such as this but they are very likely to do exactly what I did in the 1950’s and 60’s, nothing. I did nothing and the world changed around me without my help. The same would likely happen to black Christians as well. On the one hand what they would witness would be unchristian and they would be against it. But on the other hand what they would be witnessing would not directly affect them personally so there would seem to be nothing they could do about it except let it happen. That’s what happened to me.

            For black and white Christians there is hope of a peaceful co-existence. But I doubt that this will be the case for non-Christians in America. There are forces at work with political and selfish agendas that do not want racism to be resolved. To separate races and people into separate groups gives political power to other groups and causes separate groups

to vote in certain ways. There is a political advantage in causing groups of people to hate and distrust one another.

            Christian people are required to follow the laws of the land as long as they do not contradict God’s laws. But all Christian people, black or white, should “esteem others better than themselves”. All Christians should love and respect one another and above all, be obedient to how we are supposed to think and behave found in the Word of God.

            Before our generation dies, or at least before our children and grandchildren die, we may escalate to a very violent society. There could be unfair laws enacted and discrimination against people that is excessive and cruel. As Christian people, and as Americans, we have the right to make peaceful protests as long as we do not include riots, destruction, looting and burning and sinful behaviour in the process. Christians cannot be associated with these sinful behaviors regardless of whether or not you are a black or white Christian. And above all, Christian people must never allow their behaviour to interfere with the fellowship of Christians in the church or anywhere else.

            I suspect that God, Himself may be behind what is going on in America. We know from reading the Bible that a country that forgets and disrespects God will lose His protection and be destroyed. God can cause other nations to rise up and punish a nation that disrespects Him. And many times in the Old Testament God caused internal strife within a nation to rise up against itself and destroy and punish a people that disrespected Him and His laws. Our government is disrespecting God in every way you can imagine. It could be, like Sodom and Gomorrah that there are more than 10 righteous people still serving God and preventing our destruction for now. It could be that the black and white people who are Christians and getting along are part of this group preventing our destruction as a nation for now.

Carl O. Cooper