My fellow Christian Republicans: You have a voice. Use it to denounce racism

On police violence, “our silence is abuse,” Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter’s House in Dallas told a fellow pastor last weekend.

And in the professional community with which I am most familiar, the Texas political community, the silence is most noticeable from conservative Republican elected officials.

Texas is led by Republicans — mostly Christian Republicans, as I am. Not long ago, I consulted many of them on their campaigns. If I were to counsel them today, in the wake of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd (and numerous others), it would be a simple message: Read Romans 12 and use the gifts God has given you.

Serve. Exhort. Teach. Contribute. Lead. Act.

Even University of Texas football coach Tom Herman speaks the words of the Apostle Paul to his players: “You have a voice. Use it.”

America is the greatest country in the world, providing opportunity for all to live in freedom and pursue their dreams. What is also true about this great nation of ours is that a crime in one community is a sickness is another. Admitting, confronting and correcting wrongs does not reduce our greatness, but reinforces it.

If I have a drug problem in the wrong ZIP code, I am a criminal rather than an addict.

If white youths act up at a mall, they are just being kids, whereas black kids are “thugs.”

White public speakers are inspiring leaders. Black public speakers are “articulate” and “speak well.”

There exists an innate benefit of the doubt for whites that does not exist for African Americans. And therein lies the systemic injustice existing in our great nation our elected officials can confront.

I have read tweet after tweet from Texas Republican elected officials who are appalled at the riots, and rightfully so. But Antifa did not kill George Floyd. A member of an executive branch of local government did, one hired “to protect and to serve.” Their silence on the real issues today is deafening.

My wife and I are currently in the process of adopting a 9-year old Haitian boy. Haiti is infamously known for its extreme poverty, rampant political corruption, devastating natural disasters and violent riots.

Demonstrations are the only way Haitians feel their voices will ever have a chance at being heard. And the rest of the world shakes their heads at the dysfunctional Haitians who just can’t seem to get it together.

And today, the rest of the world shakes their heads at the dysfunctional Americans who just can’t seem to get it together.

We Christians and Republicans have been way too quiet, abusing our friends in the black community with our silence. We can and must attack this at its core.

Jesus spoke up for women, Gentiles, prostitutes, criminals, the poor and the oppressed. Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourselves. We have to weep when they weep.

So I ask Texas Republican statewide elected officials, members of the Texas congressional delegation, and members of the state House and Senate, specifically those on the right side of the aisle: Who is your neighbor? Are you weeping?

I can’t hear you.

The issue is not about the protests and riots. Don’t use Antifa as a political escape hatch.

The protests are happening because of deep and historic patterns of systemic injustice. And the action we need to take is to recognize that, seek to understand, and make real change.

You are the majority. Romans 12:7-8 instructs you to “serve,” “exhort,” “teach,” “contribute,” “lead,” “act!”

You have a voice. Use it.

This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 6:05 AM with the headline "My fellow Christian Republicans: You have a voice. Use it to denounce racism."