What can we learn from
the Washington riots?
Norman Hamilton reflects on scenes in the American capital at the start of the year, and highlights the importance of how Christians behave in matters of public debate.
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lmost everyone on this side of the Atlantic was horrified at the riot in January in Washington, and the associated rhetoric in the months after the election took place for President of the United States. Many of us who are committed Christians were even more horrified at the placards and banners at that riot which linked the names of Jesus and God himself with the need to keep President Trump in power, and to deny Joe Biden his rightful place as the 46th president. During 2020 I read many articles from Christian leaders in the United States praising Donald Trump, and throwing their weight behind his campaign to be reelected, and indeed continuing to support him after the election was decided. But not all did, and some elected Christian leaders have been paying a very high price for the stance they have taken. One of them is Congressman Adam Kinzinger from Illinois who was one of the few Republicans who voted for the second impeachment of President Trump.
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Herald Spring 2021
Christianity Today reported on his stance in these words: “The backlash was swift, coming from Kinzinger’s district in northern Illinois, where a majority of Republicans disagreed, and from his fellow believers, with many white evangelicals continuing to support Trump even as his false claims encouraged rioters at the Capitol. “Franklin Graham condemned Kinzinger and the other Republicans who voted for impeachment for turning their back on the president despite the good he had done on issues like abortion, foreign affairs, and religious freedom. ‘It makes you wonder what the 30 pieces of silver were that Speaker Pelosi promised for this betrayal,’ the evangelist remarked.”
Jesus never associated himself directly or indirectly with armed rebellion…
Two days after Mr Kinzinger called for removing Mr Trump from office following the January riot at the Capitol, 11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter, saying he was in cahoots with “the devil’s army” for making a public break with the president. “Oh my, what a disappointment you are to us and to God!” they wrote. “You have embarrassed the Kinzinger family name!” So much of what has happened has left me as an evangelical believer feeling betrayed, compromised and even shamed by many of these other leaders for several reasons. Firstly, they reduced the complexities of government to the stance of Donald Trump on a few highly contested issues of social policy – such as abortion and gay rights. I too am very conservative on these issues, but poverty, immigration, racism and healthcare are equally important (never mind other concerns such as defence, food standards, climate change and ‘big tech’). Too few of these leaders seemed to think
