“Home Grown Terrorism”

August 13, 2017

White nationalists descended on the sleepy college town of Charlottesville, Virginia, this week in an initial protest of the removal of the statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.  Under the banner of “alt-right,” with a rally entitled “Unite the Right,” the assembly came for what was initially thought to be a legal protest.  Per news reports (here quoting BBC America for August 13, 2017) they were “a motley crew of militia, racists and neo-Nazis, and some who said they simply wanted to defend their Southern history.”

Those wanting to “defend their Southern history” exist in every town and hamlet across the Southern United States, or at least I have met them in every southern town in which I have ever lived.  These people are not generally racist, nor are they full of hatred and bigotry.  If I asked them to describe the “alt-right”, they would say, “Huh!  What is that?”  I am sorry these got involved in this protest, as all now may be painted with one stripe.

Ask Steve Bannon, adviser to the President to describe the “alt-right.”   It is something quite diverse, something distinctly not Christian, something directly opposed to Christ and the work of Christ in his church across this world.   Steve Bannon is the “alt-right” person.  He represents this in his own person and in his previous work at a magazine of this type.  He is not any friend of God or of those who worship the Lord Jesus!

If a person wants to know about the Ku Klux Klan in modern day America, ask David Dukes.  David Dukes was at this rally in Charlottesville, VA.  As to why he was present there, I do not know.  But new reports say he came to witness one of the largest public displays of those advocating white supremacy and hatred between the races in this generation.  David Dukes and those like him are not any friend of God nor the Lord Jesus!  They do not have any place in God’s kingdom and those of us who represent the church of Jesus Christ wholly repudiate both them and their philosophy of racism, hatred and bigotry!

Other news reports say the President Donald Trump is the reason these groups which were largely hidden away in the period of the previous Obama administration have now become emboldened to “come out of the places of darkness to be both seen and heard.”  Their poisoned philosophy and cursed dialect of exclusion of other races in the public arena this weekend saw violence against peaceful counter-protestors who advocated for racial diversity in the United States.  The capstone of the “alt-right” violent terrorism saw a 20 year old person of some white supremacist persuasion drive his automobile into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing at least one young woman and injuring 19 others.  This young man should be tried as a domestic terrorist.  He should receive the death penalty, if the law is applied fairly, much as Timothy McVeigh after his act of terrorism at the Alfred B. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995.  If those who do premeditated acts of murder as terrorists are executed for their crimes, it would not take long to persuade those men and a few women they are the ones who do not belong in America, not the rest of our multi-racial country they choose to rail against.

While President Trump offered condolences to those killed, it was left to Terry McAuliffe, the governor of Virginia to condemn the white nationalists who poured into the city.  “Go home!” he said at a press conference.  “You are not wanted in this commonwealth!  There is no place for you here…you came here today to hurt people, and you did hurt people.  Our message is clear, we are stronger than you!”

Henry McHenry, 63, a thirty year resident, said dejectedly, “We must get past this state of us against them.”    (Joel Gunter, “A Reckoning in Charlottesville”,  BBC America News, August 13, 2017)

The larger question which looms in all these matters, besides the obvious poor state of race relations in the United States, is this:  “Can a white man, who represents only white men, speak for the whole of this nation?”  President Trump had a real opportunity to define himself in terms of a President who represents and speaks for all the people.  Instead, he offers a watered down condolence to those who died in this domestic terrorist act.  He chose to criticize the counter-protestors by tying them to former President Obama and made their protests against the white supremacists who were carrying both guns and torches to be equally bad.  President Trump refused to call the white supremacist domestic terrorists as he has one of these in the White House beside him.  By missing the opportunity to condemn this modern resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and alt-right, he lost any moral high ground which he could have achieved as President of the United States.  If President Trump had disavowed these modern day terrorists, it would have been a powerful word from the White House and could have helped unite us!  Instead, we are left to muddle through this crisis, as we have been left to muddle through so many other crises of faith since President Trump assumed this high office. Due to a President and a White House who only “muddles through governance of our nation,” we are all left in the muddle.  Any moral and spiritual leadership President Trump might have exercised in this crisis is now lost!  The opportunity he had this weekend to make a meaningful contribution to the collective history of this nation came and went quickly.  It is a shame.  It is a damn shame!   I would have hoped for better than this!

A report I read from the Southern Poverty Law Center says they are now tracking some 6000 hate groups across the United States.  I am grateful for these people, at least someone is watching for the heart and soul of our nation.  Would to God all Christian churches across the south took such an interest in matters like these!  One day, by God’s grace, we may yet find our calling in the healing of the heart of this nation!  May God, our Savior, make it so!  Hear our prayers, dear Lord Jesus!  “Hear our prayers, in your holy and blessed name we pray.  Amen and Amen.”

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a highway for our God!”