When ‘Thoughts and Prayers’ Depend on Skin Color (A reflection on the flood in Central Texas)

I remember when every time there was a disaster in a blue (“sinful”) state the Christian community would point fingers and proclaim it was God’s judgment, i.e. the fires in Ca last year.

I remember in the past (and currently) if there was a Muslim community suffering, such as the poor people facing a genocide at the hands of Israel, that those little brown babies deserve no Christian sympathy because, well, they are enemies of God.

When white South Africans were granted asylum recently by the same man who seeks to cast out asylum seekers who are brown and black - we notice the hypocrisy when you are silent, while having plenty to say about the others.

I hear Christians and everyday people applaud the concentration camp dubbed Alligator Alcatraz because “those illegal people” should have never been here in the first place.

Now, we watch a mass casualty event such as the flooding in Texas. We see many good Christian people sending thoughts and prayers their way, advocating for the government to step in (this time), complaining when people are posting about the event in tandem with political concepts, and mourning the lost lives (as we all should). But the difference in this scenario is that the missing are mostly white and Christian.

When we say Christianity is full of ugly hypocrisy rooted in white, racist nationalism, this is what we mean. We see you constantly demean black and brown people or those who don’t identify as Christian. We see you. We’ve been watching for a very long time. We didn’t leave the church merely because of the imperfect people sitting between those walls. We left because you don’t even know what you truly believe. We left because you don’t love “the least of these.” We left because you taught us to love “all the people of the world” but we watched you turn your backs when it was time to act on that love.

We’re tired. Tired of trying to explain the ugliness we see emanating from your heart and your lips when we were taught that to act as you are right now meant God would cast you away saying “your hearts are far from me.”

It’s time for a reckoning and for an awakening. It’s time for a collective remembrance of our humanity. It’s time to cast off those old robes and those old ways of thinking that keep us all perpetually trapped. I’ll speak against the broader world of Christianity until my dying breath. I will be the voice in the wilderness no matter how much my voice is despised. For to follow the one true path, is to be hated by the majority and if the majority identifies as “Christian” then I stand against that establishment with my head tall and my back straight. I KNOW I stand on the right side of history. That is a question we must all ask ourselves at this moment. Where do you truly stand?