One of my friends was present for the March of Remembrance, and she took photos and videos both of the March and of the Nazis. Her photos spread quickly and were picked up by a multitude of news sources. Local news interviewed both the organizer of the March, and the head of the White Supremacist group. The interviews and my friend’s photos were later picked up by major news stations like CNN and Fox. Of course, there has been a lot of discussion, a lot of anger, and a lot of shock. I’ve seen a lot of comments and reactions along the lines of “I can’t believe this is happening in my hometown,” and “shocked that this is happening today.”
We tend to respond that way a lot, when Nazis march through the streets, when white supremacists run over people with cars, when a mob stops buses full of detained migrants shouting “Go back home,” whenever a hate crime against a person of color or an LGBTQ person happens. There are always those who say “This is not the America I know,” “I can’t believe this is happening in 2019,” and “This is not who we are.” But if these things shock us, we haven’t been paying attention. This is the US. Hate and bigotry have long been an integral part of our society. It didn’t end with slavery, it didn’t end with Native American boarding schools, it didn’t end with integration, it didn’t end with marriage equality. People like the White Supremacists who came out on Sunday didn’t go anywhere. They didn’t disappear for fifty years only to arise out of nowhere to randomly protest a Holocaust March of Remembrance. They may not have been very active or visible in recent years, but they were still there, teaching hate to their children and friends in private. The only thing that has changed is that they are feeling more and more empowered with each passing day to go out and speak their hate publicly.
When we’re not personally affected by these things, it can be easy to pretend it doesn’t happen. It can be easy to think that what happened in Russellville is an isolated event. We shake our heads, make comments about how sad it is, how ignorant those people are, and then we go on with our lives until it happens again. But that’s the problem. When we convince ourselves that it’s an isolated incident, we never address the root of the problem. It’s like treating a disease, if you only treat the symptoms, but not the underlying cause, you’ll never get better. We have to examine our society and ourselves to find the root of the disease, so we can eradicate it.
Few things in this world make me as angry as people twisting the Bible to support their bigotry and hate. The gospel is so contrary to everything that White Supremacy stands for, yet the Nazis on Sunday waved pictures of (white) Jesus and carried crosses. The message of the gospel says “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:27-28). Every person is made in the image of God, and no person or group is more beloved by God than any other. As Christians we should be offended by those who try to twist the gospel to say that white Americans are God’s chosen people or that God only loves white people. And as Christians we must stand up against those who preach such a perverted message, we must ensure that the true gospel is heard, the gospel of grace and mercy for all people, no matter their skin tone or nationality. We can’t simply sit by, shaking our heads, asking, where did this come from, how is this still happening in the 21st century? We must make it clear that hate is not part of the gospel, and hate is not welcome in our churches, in our streets, or in our world.
One of the participants in the March of Remembrance carried a sign that said “When good people stay silent, bad things happen.” That was true of the Holocaust, and it continues to be true today. We can no longer stay silent in the face of White Supremacy. It will not disappear on it’s own. We have to stand up and say, no more.
shouting obscenities and denying that the Holocaust happened.
"It was not only Jews who were persecuted: the disabled, homosexuals, socialists, communists, Jehovah Witnesses, gypsies and more"