Kamala's Nigerian Christian Persecution Problem is a Disqualifier

In July of 2023, Vice President Kamala Harris

condemned a coup attempt in Niger. Her statement summarized by a White House spokesperson reads as follows:

The vice president strongly condemned any efforts to seize power by force in Niger, and emphasized that our substantial cooperation with the government of Niger is contingent on Niger’s continued commitment to democratic standards," the White House said on Thursday(1).

Despite efforts by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the coup ultimately unseated President Mohamed Bazoum and resulted in him being taken hostage by rival forces. Kamala's attempt to quell the sedition was inconsequential, but fast forward to today and this momentary intervention effort could have serious political ramifications for 2024 and beyond.

In 2021, the Biden Administration removed Nigeria from the government's watch list, a move that caused much angst and consternation for numerous international watchdog organizations. In a June 18, 2024 commentary that appeared on the Alliance Defending Freedom International's website, Sean Nelson, Legal Counsel for ADF, underscores the importance of this very crucial policy reversal in his article, Why Nigeria is the Most Dangerous Country in the World for Christians(2):

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has long recommended that Nigeria be placed on the U.S. government’s watch list of the worst countries in the world for religious freedom. We strongly agree with this recommendation. But the U.S. State Department under the Biden administration removed Nigeria from the government watch list in 2021 without any clear reason.

The decision was outrageous. Certainly, the most dangerous country in the world for Christians should be recognized and designated that way by the U.S. government. These long-suffering Nigerian Christians deserve to have the international community on their side.

Nelson's article and disdain stem from the gruesome realities of Nigeria's extreme sectarian violence. The Islamic aggression against Nigerian Christians has been so horrific that many are understandably calling this Christian genocide. Earlier in his commentary, Nelson makes this crystal clear with alarming data and descriptive first-hand accounts:

But one country in particular, Nigeria, is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. In 2022, roughly 5,000 Christians were murdered for their faith – more than the number killed in all other countries combined. For 2023, one estimate put the number of Christians targeted and killed in Nigeria at over 7,000.

The severe Christian persecution in Nigeria, particularly in the northern regions, makes it the most dangerous country in the world for Christians. I recently travelled to Nigeria and saw the effects of persecution firsthand. Let me share them with you:

...Churches face discrimination, false accusations, and destruction. In fact, one evangelist named Daniel Kefee was charged with kidnapping for helping a young Christian convert woman find safety. With our support, local allied lawyers were able to free him and win his case.

These facts are horrific, inhumane, and cry out for international attention and action from governments worldwide. In fact, Christian atrocities in Nigeria have been well documented where over 52,000 Nigerian Christians were slaughtered by Islamists from 2009-2022. During this same period, over 18,000 Churches and 2,200 Christian schools were destroyed or damaged by arson(3).

The slaughter of 5000 Christian Nigerians in 2022 is particularly significant because of the Biden decision in 2021 to remove Nigeria from the government's watchlist. This backdrop is critically important because in September 2022 and July 2023, Vice President Harris met with Nigerian Vice President Osinjajo(4) and President Tinubu(5) on two separate occasions. The White House readouts for both meetings identify the key topics discussed as summarized in the following:

• Harris affirmed the enduring strategic partnership between the United States and Nigeria.

• Vice President Harris reiterated the Biden-Harris Administrations commitment to address the global food crisis, noting that the United States has committed more than $7 billion in food security and humanitarian assistance to African countries since last October.

• Free and fair elections in 2023 and a safe electoral process.

• Vice President Harris welcome the Government of Nigeria's recent launch of its Energy Transition Plan.

• Vice President Harris also discussed Nigeria's complex security challenges and affirmed US cooperation to counter terrorism.

• Both leaders discussed the deteriorating security environment in the Sahel and agreed to work together to address terrorism in the region.

• Harris and Tinubu underscored their shared commitment to defending democracy in West Africa and the Sahel and deep concern about the attempted takeover in Niger.

• Public Private partnerships between both countries to increase private sector investment, digital inclusion, women's empowerment, and expand access to clean energy.

• Harris highlighted the deep ties between the United States and Nigeria, including people-to-people connections and the Diaspora.

Between the two meetings, Harris seemingly covered numerous topics of importance to both nations. The list of items covered went from the general to the very specific. What seems to be overlooked or lacking with specific details, unlike some of the other items enumerated above, is the dark cloud of Christian genocide in Nigeria. Whether it was not discussed altogether, vaguely discussed, or addressed off-the-record is unclear, but guilt by indifference and inaction is Kamala's big dilemma and burden to bear given the apparent silence and lack of redress.

Again, compare this to not only Kamala's public statement on the coup in Niger that I highlighted in the opening, but here recently, Vice President Harris explicitly stated the following about the U.S'. role and responsibility in the Israeli-Gaza conflict:

To be empathetic to someone that you’re shooting in the head is not exactly laudable. We don’t need empathy from these people. We need them to stop providing the weapons and the money that is actively killing the people that they’re supposedly empathising with.

If Harris' hands-off approach to discussing Christian genocide in Nigeria during meetings with her Nigerian counterparts is indeed true, which seems to be the case based on official documents and internet news stories, Christians, African Americans, and especially Nigerian Christians should be appalled and offended. This collective deserves and should demand a thorough explanation at the least.

As for Harris, her moral compass needs to be recalibrated as evidenced by her ongoing unresponsiveness and the amount of time that has elapsed since her meetings with Nigerian leaders. Even Harris supporters find her silence and invisibility unacceptable as captured in the WGBH commentary, Kamala Harris has nearly disappeared into the background:

[S]he seems to have disappeared. The president assigned her immigration, but on his first trip to the southern border, she was not there. And while the president’s approval ratings are low, hers have plummeted.

Still, I’m resentful that the volume of Vice President Kamala Harris’ voice — if not silenced — has been turned down to a whisper at a time when the issues facing this country are noisy and raucous. Whether it’s her choice or a decision from on high, diminishing her role is not the way to go.(6)

The Harris supporter's confession is a major blemish to Kamala's political reputation. The writer's comments echo what many already believe about her unsuitability as a Presidential candidate, and the Nigerian account alone is a crippling blow to her POTUS aspirations.

Because of the gravity of this issue, this story should not rest with the media or voters for the remainder of this election cycle. Religious persecution with utterances of genocide is too serious to dismiss or ignore as a topic for the media and for international policy considerations. Given the traumatic realities and facts surrounding Nigerian Christian suffrage, Harris appears incapable of confronting moral crisis and advocating for victims of gross and "systemic" evil without political bias. This indeed smacks of moral failure, political ineptness, and is unbecoming of someone who is the current Vice President aspiring to be elected to the highest office in the land. The following quote from The Hill article in March of this year, Hold Nigeria accountable for its failure to stop internal religious violence by Congressman John Rose (R-Tenn.) and William Roberts, magnifies Kamala's impoverished moral and political rectitude and affirms my position that Kamala has a "Nigerian Christian Persecution Problem":

Even more disturbing are reports of the Nigerian military running an illegal clandestine abortion program in which the freed sex slaves were, many without knowledge they were even pregnant, forced to undergo deadly chemical abortions. Reports estimate that a minimum of 7,000 abortions were performed between 2013 and 2021. The Nigerian authorities view the victims with hostility, and their unborn children — ostensibly the children of Islamist militants — are treated as threats to be eradicated. The Nigerian government has vigorously denied this allegation, although international pressure did lead to an investigation by a Nigerian human rights commission that is unlikely to lead to any accountability(7)

Kevin Clarke's outstanding article, After Christmas attacks on Christians, Nigerian bishops raise concerns of Islamist agenda—and government complicity, not only chronicles the atrocious sectarian conditions in Nigeria, but he also provides a refreshing call to action globally. The quote below is indeed lengthy, but it is too rich informationally to shorten at the risk of losing valuable meaning and context.

Political leaders in the United States could do much more to come to the aid of Nigeria’s Christians, Mr. Koopman says. A House resolution that calls for the appointment of a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad region has been sponsored by Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey House Republican. That envoy “would have the authority to call the U.S. government to action, for example by wielding diplomatic leverage or by using economic pressure,” Mr. Koopman says.

Bishop Anagbe endorsed Mr. Smith’s effort in his letter to A.C.N. The resolution, he wrote, should “add pressure on Nigeria’s international partners and the government to address the silent persecution of Christians in our country.

Mr. Smith’s resolution also calls for the State Department to redesignate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” because of religious freedom violations. Nigeria was dropped from the annual list of nations of concern in 2021, a move deplored by many advocates of religious freedom. And, despite the Christmas attacks and other violent incidents throughout 2023, Nigeria was not included on the 2024 list posted on Jan. 4 by Secretary of State Blinken. But “the utter neglect of the needs and safety of Christians,” Mr. Koopman said, suggests that Nigeria should be included with other states where religious persecution is tolerated or encouraged by governments.

The State Department’s decision was sharply criticized by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which called for congressional hearings on the status of Nigeria and India, another nation not designated as a country of concern despite ongoing persecution of minority Muslim and Christian communities.(8)

Vice President Harris needs to answer many questions regarding her role, or the lack thereof, in her failure to address and execute outcome-oriented solutions to empower Nigerian leaders to end the inhumanity carried out by Islamic extremists against Christians. Kevin Clarke's article highlights the kinds of measures that need to be embraced, enacted, and enforced from the White House to Congress to our international partners in order to be effective against systemic evil. Moral indifference and selective outrage are inexcusable and indefensible, especially for someone of Harris' stature, who represents America, the world's standard for the advancement of freedom and democratic ideals as a Republic and safeguarded by the world's oldest and most enduring government charter, the U.S. Constitution (over 200 years old).

From the abortion atrocities of the unborn to the oppression and persecution of Nigerian Christians, Kamala's career in politics and government is permeated by indifference and disregard toward the slaughter of innocent life when the prevailing issues do not square with her partisan liberal agenda. In this regard, Kamala's duty to act is less about objective, universal moral standards and principles, virtue, and the intrinsic value of persons and more about her preferences for intersectionality, political self-interest, and a debauched emphasis on political protests and social movements as tools of democracy, which she distorts and misrepresents incessantly. If Vice President Harris finds it fitting to be an outspoken critic against global atrocities and injustices that are only valid if they are in keeping with her liberal political agenda, her silence on this despicable evil in particular is political malpractice and politically disqualifying...period.

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1. US News and World Report, July 27, 2023 https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-07-27/us-vice-president-harris-condemns-attempted-takeover-of-power-in-niger

2. See similar article with similar findings from January 2024 Catholic News Agency, Biden administration criticized for omitting Nigeria from religious persecution watchlist which gives an exhaustive treatment of the Nigerian Christian persecution catastrophe and why removal from the government watchlist is incredulous, inhumane, and irresponsible for both the U.S. and Nigerian governments:

The Christian population has increasingly come under fire in recent years and has been targeted by several Islamic terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province, and radical groups of the Fulani ethnic tribe. 

According to the State Department’s report, there were over 4,000 Christians killed, 3,300 abducted, and 100,000 displaced in Nigeria between October 2022 and September 2023. 

The Nigerian government has largely turned a blind eye to these attacks, in many cases refusing to dispatch police or military forces until well after attacks have occurred. 

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/258150/biden-administration-criticized-for-omitting-nigeria-from-religious-persecution-watchlist

(3) Also see report titled 5,068 Citizens Massacred For Being Christians In Nigeria In 2022, 1,041 Slaughtered In First 100 Days Of 2023 which provides a comparable and detailed treatment of the data and personal accounts to effectively bring awareness to the severity of Nigeria's sectarian saga: https://intersociety-ng.org/5068-citizens-massacred-for-being-christians-in-nigeria-in-2022-1041-slaughtered-in-first-100-days-of-2023/

4. Readout of Vice President Harris’s Meeting with Vice President Osinbajo of Nigeria, The White House, September 02, 2022 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/09/02/readout-of-vice-president-harriss-meeting-with-vice-president-osinbajo-of-nigeria/

5. Readout of Vice President Harris’s Call with President Tinubu of Nigeria, The White House, July 27, 2023 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/27/readout-of-vice-president-harriss-call-with-president-tinubu-of-nigeria/

6. Kamala Harris has nearly disappeared into the background, February 20, 2023 https://www.wgbh.org/news/commentary/2023-02-20/kamala-harris-has-nearly-disappeared-into-the-background

7. Hold Nigeria accountable for its failure to stop internal religious violence, March 18, 2024, Rose, J, Congressman (R-TN) and Roberts, W. https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4538330-hold-nigeria-accountable-for-its-failure-to-stop-internal-religious-violence/

8. This is echoed in a Washington Examiner commentary titled Kamala's War on Christians. "In a Harris administration, every Christian organization would have a target on its back....Being pro-life is a crime in Harris’s eyes, and so crisis pregnancy centers will feel the weight of the law. Religious schools that don’t conform to brand-new ideas about gender will be accused of civil rights violations." https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/3108275/kamalas-war-on-christians/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Pmax_USA_Magazine_21-June-Intent-Audience-Signals&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwlIG2BhC4ARIsADBgpVQJCfQFsC1sAwhKrGfbqeA7jLY95iiSf1PpYf5RF9AUDK8OHSJZDQQaAmWrEALw_wcB

Black Lives Matter but does MLK?

We are in unprecedented times in our nation's history. With cities splitting at the seams due to racial unrest, police-community conflict, and unmitigated destruction and defacement of historical monuments and government property from coast-to-coast, we are at a defining moment like never before, socially, racially, politically, economically, and yes, spiritually. From Trayvon Martin, to Breonna Taylor, to George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, commonly referred to as BLM, has rallied national protests on behalf African Americans killed by the police. In 2020, these protests went viral with riots and destruction erupting in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Portland, DC, Cincinnati, Columbus, Los Angeles, Seattle, and other cities nationally.

Central to these protests was the issue of police brutality, and BLM has made this their chief priority since its founding in 2013. Their chant, "Black Lives Matter" continues to be a lightning-rod for many, mostly White conservatives but more than a handful of African Americans just the same. Without pause or any ambiguity whatsoever, BLM is committed to fighting against racial injustice. Straight from their website, they affirm, "We are unapologetically Black in our positioning. In affirming that Black Lives Matter, we need not qualify our position. To love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a prerequisite for wanting the same for others." As the name proudly proclaims, BLM is rooted and grounded in racial justice, and in so doing they utilize a big-tent approach through intersectionality, which is another way of collaborating with and advocating for the interests of other marginalized communities who share common-cause against the forces of structural injustice(1). Again, I shall refer to their website to best capture the meaning and intent behind their intersectional approach:

We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum. Our network centers those who have been marginalized within Black liberation movements.

The BLM architects seemingly have struck gold in their efforts to build a national coalition of the oppressed to amass power and influence against systems of oppression and socially "oppressive norms". the BLM co-founders, Patrisse Khan-Cullors, Alicia Garza, and Opal Tometi, have inspired a movement that has moved race and systemic racism to the forefront of social and political activism globally and the 2020 presidential election nationally. But, this movement is not without controversy, as these leaders are on record for having ties to Marxism, a historic rival to and fierce critic of capitalism.

As the embedded video above shows, the BLM founder unabashedly confirms that she and her co-founder (Alicia) are "trained Marxists," and the host underscores how problematic this is ideologically, nationally, and philanthropically. By referring to Marxism's "body count", he vividly reminds listeners of Marxism's brutal history globally. But Marxism, an ideology rooted in atrocities, revolution, and fear, has little to no substantive philosophical compatibility with Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent protest movement. In fact, at the time of this writing and after reviewing BLM's website, to date, I find sparse meaningful references to embracing and affirming Martin Luther King Jr. and his successes. How a Black modern-day movement that is centered around eliminating racial injustice somehow fails to identify with America's foremost historical movement that moved our nation's political conscience and national policies and priorities forward collectively is paradoxical and truly alarming. I suggest this because BLM and MLK are strategically and ideologically polar opposites, and this is apparent in a few important distinctions: peace versus revolution, shared power versus absolute power, and Christianity versus spiritual eclecticism. These themes and concepts can be viewed respectively on BLM's website and in MLK's writings, most notably Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community and Strength to Love. This contrast is a telling display of just how far apart BLM's professed Marxist influence is with MLK's Gandhi-inspired, non-violent, Civil Rights Movement.

This dissimilarity is important because people seem to overlook history and the history of social movements. This is both regrettable and hazardous to Black political capital because an informed body politic requires learnings from past successes and failures. From ideologies to social movements, nothing is new under the sun, and historical perspective is essential for strategy, purpose, and political success.

In MLK's Chaos or Community, King addressed the issue of Black Power head-on. His treatment of the strengths and weaknesses of this movement and its ideological underpinnings left him even more convinced that the non-violent approach was more advantageous to unifying the nation against southern White racism as it was in advancing the interests of the Black community. In his brilliant analysis of Black Power, he devotes an entire chapter exclusively to the tensions and differences between the two rivals and the important conversations he had with each respective leader. The following is a snapshot of King's views on Black Power:

In the final analysis the weakness of Black Power is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man. However much we may try to romanticize the slogan, there is no separate black path to power and fulfillment that does not intersect white paths, and there is no separate white path to power and fulfilment, short of social disaster, that does not share that power with black aspirations for freedom and human dignity. We are bound together in a single garment of destiny. The language, the cultural patterns, the music, the material prosperity and even the food of America are an amalgam of black and white.

In the first century B.C. Cicero said: "Freedom is participation in power." Negroes should never want all power because they would deprive others of their freedom. By the same token, Negroes can never be content without participation in power. America must be a nation in which its multiracial people are partners in power. This is the essence of democracy toward which all Negro struggles have been directed since the distant past when he was transplanted here in chains(2).

Properly understood and applied to today's BLM movement, King's words above create a chasm between then and now, non-violence versus revolution, and shared power versus Black power. Perhaps the most important and telling distinction beyond the concept of power, however, is the influence of Marxism for BLM versus spiritual transformation for MLK's non-violent movement. As I alluded to above, Marxism's "body count" is staggering in its rapacious appetite for aggression and bloodshed. BLM openly appeals to Marxism and unapologetically embraces its influence as part of their overall strategy. Thurston Powers's 2016 article in The Federalist titled How Black Lives Matter Is Bringing Back Traditional Marxism establishes this connection convincingly. In doing so, BLM has made itself vulnerable to infiltration from anarchist groups willing to exploit this opportunity to engage in destruction while appearing sympathetic to the BLM mission. Because BLM advocates for radical systemic change in order to undo decades of unresolved oppression, theirs is essentially a war against society, its ideas, ideals, and institutions.

MLK, however, saw differently in that he was driven by the values and virtues of equality, integration, love, community, and humanity. For King, spiritual transformation paved the way for racial progress and the attainment of these ideals, because it was the backbone for not only his commitment to "social justice", but also his radical strategy to overturn and overwhelm segregation in the South. King never compromised his faith because it was the essence of his being as both a leader of a movement and a vessel unto Godliness. On the other hand, in BLM's passive-aggressive embrace of MLK and his successes through non-violence, how does today's cause celebre reconcile, conceptually, its Marxist leadership and ideological footing with King's inspiring Christian activism? Moreover, an additional question that was posed to me by a dear friend and former classmate must be considered: "What do we do as a people to address the chasm between the two ideologies mentioned above as we push forward in our collective quest for equality and respect?”  

To this latter question, we first must comprehend the principles of each philosophy to understand them fully. Secondly, we must evaluate which philosophy best captures biblical values and principles of justice in order to best advocate for and administer justice. In my opinion, America (Black, White, rich, poor, and other) is in utter confusion about which ideology to embrace because she has willfully discarded her moral compass, the Holy Bible.  Our moral foundation has collapsed, leaving in its wake epic disaster socially, ethically, and spiritually.  America must come back to God whilst we have time to repent lest destruction come upon us irreparably.  

In Martin Luther King Jr.'s classic work Strength to Love, he eloquently argues for his non-violent philosophy. In Chapter X, How Should a Christian view Communism, King has much to say about the demerits of communism, where he starts out by declaring, "Let me state clearly the basic premise of this sermon: Communism and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible. A true Christian cannot be a true communist, for the two philosophies are antithetical and all the dialectics of the logicians cannot reconcile them. Why is this true?" King presses the matter further with the following:

Cold atheism wrapped in the garments of materialism, Communism provides no place for God or Christ.

At the centre of the Christian faith is the affirmation that there is a God in the universe who is the ground and essence of all reality.

...Communism attributes ultimate value to the state. Man is made for the state and not the state for man....Man has no inalienable rights. His only rights are derived from, and conferred by, the state.

Confused about God, it is also confused about man. In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism's methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state...These systems of thoughts are too contradictory to be reconciled; they represent diametrically opposed ways of looking at the world and of transforming it. We should as Christians pray for the Communist constantly, but never can we, as true Christians, tolerate the philosophy of Communism.

With profound eloquence and perspective, King renounces communism as a system that is wholeheartedly incompatible with Christianity. For BLM, if Marxism, named after the iconoclastic German philosopher himself, Karl Marx, eventually leads to communism, BLM is in very dangerous territory politically, economically, socially, and most certainly spiritually. In fact, Marx co-authored the Communist Manifesto, so clearly Marxist thought permeates communism and its approach to government and economics to its core. No, I'm not asserting that BLM is a communist Trojan horse and is plotting a Trotsky-like revolution. But by replacing class with race, the problem of group conflict remains the central focus and basis for radical social transformation to rescue the downtrodden and oppressed. This threat is plausible and very real in that BLM will likely continue to introduce social and political ideas that promote the spirit of communism and all that it supposedly stands for in the name of economic redistribution and equity. With much talk and momentum behind defund the police movements nationally, communist ideals are indeed infiltrating government and public policy like never before, and this is directly attributable to BLM.

By championing everything King stood for in this lone chapter on communism (Strength to Love, Chapter X), students, scholars, and ambassadors of MLK can be the difference between King's vision for America and rekindled Marxism, which is the next stop after socialism and right before communism on the totalitarian express. King summed up this epic battle by offering a profoundly accurate antidote and challenge to the lure of communism. For both capitalism and communism, the words below from Strength to Love ring true today by highlighting the causal nexus between these two competing philosophies, a flashpoint that can and must be eliminated in order to achieve true freedom, opportunity, and human flourishing of which communism has failed miserably. By taking these words seriously, we can make MLK truly matter today and thereby eliminate the fires of rage and anarchy that are destroying our cities and inspiring BLM's crusade against America, past, present, and future.

After our condemnation of the philosophy of Communism has been eloquently expressed, we must with positive action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, injustice, and racial discrimination which are the fertile soil in which the seed of Communism grows and develops. Communism thrives only when the doors of opportunity are closed and human aspirations are stifled.

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1. Excellent article explaining the meaning and origin of intersectionality. For more information about the terms in the quote, click here for the Trevor Project.

2. This quote comes from Chaos or Community, pp. 52-54, which I find very enlightening and applicable to today's turbulent times. By sharing power through mutual understanding and effort, resentments and injustices can be avoided and the cohesive community is in a much better position to thrive so that all benefit.

Transcending Evil: Faith and the Limits of Politics

In the wake of last weekend's mass-shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, I am of the opinion that the commentaries and responses from faith-leaders are lacking in moral clarity and spiritual substance. For instance, many have called for an increased emphasis on mental health, but the mental health appeal merely sanitizes the problem and reduces it to simplicity. The problems of mass murders and spree killings are too complex to be reduced to a diagnosis and a pill.

As a matter of faith, churches have a prima facie duty to look evil in the eyes and call it for what it is...evil. El Paso and Dayton are acts of unmitigated evil and should be condemned as such. Meaninglessness without a conscience rebels in desperation against society; it sees itself as the victim of society's successes and progress and lashes out in antipathy and hostility. The faith community must respond out of a sense of crisis and biblically inspired vision by "re-creating" meaning and meaningfulness individually, socially, nationally, and institutionally, through a renewed commitment to righteousness, which is the best and most fundamental solution to unconscionable evil. Equally, faith-leaders must be resilient in reclaiming the efficacy of biblical authority by proclaiming God as the Great I Am who speaks life over death and peace over human conflict and suffering.

Genesis 6:5–8, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

My main point or question is this: when will we understand that this problem is way bigger than politics?...it is supernatural and thus requires a supernatural response spearheaded by faith leaders and the entire faith community. Evil is in the hearts and minds of humanity, and heart and mind, expressed through will and reason, can only be "transformed by the “renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). Politics will never, ever, ever have an answer to this magnitude of wickedness because as evil has metastasized and evolved over the centuries, politics as an institution enables evil by its lust for power and its relentless appetite to foment division, despair, alienation, moral compromise, and moral crisis with reckless disregard. From Old Testament evil, through the Dark Ages, resurfacing as the African Slave Trade, Jim Crow Laws, and the Black Codes, again through human trafficking, again through serial murderers, terrorism (from the IRA to Isis), to church burnings, church killings, and today’s mass killings, evil, in all its permutations throughout history, remains alive and deeply intertwined in political life globally. This is the reality of evil and politics, and until the people of faith respond biblically, evil will continue to run its course and feed off human ignorance and arrogance with relentless destruction. Wake up church, "we wrestle not against flesh and blood".

Ephesians 6:12-18 King James Version (KJV)

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints[.]

The man whom God has taken to Himself, sentenced and awakened to a new life, this is Jesus Christ. In Him it is all mankind. It is ourselves. Only the form

of Jesus Christ confronts the world and defeats it. And it is from this form alone that there comes the formation of a new world, a world which is reconciled with God. - Bonhoeffer, Ethics