There is a wave of racist and anti-semitic hate sweeping America. As Christians, we worship a God who created all people of all races, loves all people, and died for the salvation and reconciliation of all. Bigotry and hatred are not Christian–in fact, they are anti-Christian, in that they work directly against the reconciling and loving work of God in Christ.
For those of you who haven’t been aware of the sharp rise in bigotry and hate crimes, I encourage you to take a look at the Southern Poverty Law Center. They are dedicated to documenting and combating racism, anti–semitism, and every sort of bigotry and intolerance, and so they have information both on general trends and specific incidents.
I’d like to point out the case of Tanya Gersh, a Jewish woman who has been targeted by American neo-Nazis and faces huge amounts of unbelievable harassment. The SPLC is suing the man who started and directed the harassment. They have sent threats by every possible method. Some of the milder examples include the following:
“Day of the rope soon for you and your entire family.” Pictures of Tanya being gassed (just as Jewish people were gassed during the Holocaust). Images of ovens with threatening messages sent to her twelve-year-old son. (Remember how the bodies of millions of Jewish people were cremated in the ovens of Auschwitz and the other concentration camps.) Christmas cards with threatening messages. “Thanks for demonstrating why your race needs to be collectively ovened.” “You have no idea what you are doing, six million are only the beginning.” “We are going to keep track of you for the rest of your life.” Hundreds of letters, texts, emails, phone calls, all designed to terrify and hurt Tanya and her family. These are the milder ones. Most were much worse.
Why was Tanya targeted? She’s a real estate agent in Whitefish, Montana, home to the mother of Richard Spencer, one of the country’s most prominent white nationalists, and until recently Richard Spencer’s own home base. After Trump was elected, Spencer spoke to a crowd of white nationalists calling them to “Hail Trump! Hail our people! Hail victory!” to which the crowd responded with Nazi salutes. A video of this went viral, and many good citizens of Whitefish were shocked and disturbed to hear that their home town was associated with neo-nazis. Not wanting their town to be used to support Spencer’s work, they wanted Spencer’s mother to sell the commercial property she owned in the town. Tanya was the real estate agent working to broker a peaceful and fair solution.
Enter Andrew Anglin, founder and owner of the largest white supremacist website in the country. It’s called the Daily Stormer, named after a 1930s Nazi tabloid. Anglin, who calls Trump “Our Glorious Leader,” wrote article after article urging his followers to harass Tanya, her family, and other Jewish people in Whitefish. He published pictures of them and contact information and encouraged people to go to Whitefish to attack them in person. And the flood of hatred and evil began.
This is not Anglin and The Daily Stormers’ only effect in the last seven months. They were emboldened by Trump’s election, which they call “the ascension of our Glorious Leader.” Anglin regularly encourages his followers to intimidate Muslims and “any foreigners you see” so that they will “be afraid.” He’s organized 31 chapters in the US and more in Canada, energizing and radicalizing people so that they commit acts of intimidation, terror, and violence.
Dylann Roof, who massacred nine African Americans at Emmanuel church in Charleston was a regular user of The Daily Storm. So are several others who have killed or attempted to kill black men and women in recent months. One even killed a member of the British Parliament.
The SPLC lawsuit, if it is successful, will take a bite out of his organization. It won’t restore Tanya’s peace of mind, but it will pay for treatment for the trauma she and her family have endured, and the loss of income from clients driven away. And, hopefully, it will discourage people from doing this kind of vicious evil.
I hope you are as horrified by the neo-Nazis, the so-called “alt-Right”, as I am. And I hope you will join me in speaking up whenever you see racism, anti-Semitism, or any other form of bigotry. If you are a Republican, this is especially important given how the white supremacists have attached themselves to the GOP’s coattails.
This kind of vileness is not okay. It is anti-Christian and makes a mockery of both our faith and our nation’s ideals.
For further reading:
The man behind the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website is being sued by one of his troll storm targets.–(warning, this Washington Post article includes some of the more explicit and horrifying harassment.)
Theology for ordinary people. 