(RNS) — This week I was one of dozens of prominent Christian leaders invited to speak at a virtual event called “Evangelicals for Harris.” I was also invited to speak at the protests outside the Democrat National Convention, where thousands of activists are asking the Democrats inside the party’s national convention to demand an arms embargo on Israel before they lend their support to the Harris-Walz ticket.
My two invitations show the conflict I find myself facing this election season. A committed follower of Jesus, I see no way to defend Donald Trump, who has made a vocation out of the seven deadly sins. In addition, Trump promises to raise the death toll in Gaza, further fan the flames of hatred through the annexation of the West Bank and help annihilate the Palestinian people.
The former president’s rhetoric and policies are not only un-Christlike, they are so devoid of love and compassion and decency that even my conservative friends don’t know what to do. One of my neighbors who has voted Republican all his life told me he will be joining the swelling number of “Republicans Against Trump.”
Yet my same commitment to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, puts me at odds with Vice President Kamala Harris in her decision to stand by the Biden administration’s unqualified support for Israel. Christians, whose history began under the occupation of empire, should lend an ear to Palestinian theologians who have so much wisdom to offer at such a time as this.
Like many people committed to peace, I have spoken out passionately against Hamas’ atrocious act of terror on Oct. 7. I continue to demand the release of hostages. I have demanded that humanitarian aid be let into Gaza. It’s not too much to expect my presidential candidate will similarly be committed to ending the funding and arming of Israel as that country mercilessly slaughters women and children.
When Jesus commanded me to love my enemies, I’m pretty sure he meant that we shouldn’t kill them. The New Testament teaches: “Do not repay evil for evil. … If your enemy is hungry, feed them. If your enemy is thirsty, give them something to drink.” That doesn’t leave much room for the forced starvation that’s happening in Gaza. No Christian can defend the evil being done by the state of Israel.
Protesters march to the Democratic National Convention after a rally at Union Park, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Even Augustine’s “Just War Theory” created limits for times of war, and one of those limits is proportionality. If Augustine were alive today, I’m confident that he would be appalled by how folks pretending to be Christian have distorted and betrayed his own ideas with willful ignorance. We are not going to bomb our way to a better world. Violence only begets more violence. As Jesus said, if you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
It was only a generation ago that thousands of protesters converged outside another Democratic convention held in Chicago, opposing another war. We know those who demanded we stop fighting in Vietnam were on the right side of history. It’s difficult to imagine the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke out against that war, supporting this one.
But it’s difficult too not to support the first Black and South Asian and female president, who is likely the most effective way to stop another four years of President Trump.
Millions of Americans do not want our taxes and our government to support a genocide in Gaza. Not just in Chicago, but all over the country this week, thousands of people have marched in the streets with the message: “Not Another Bomb.” If Harris said that she won’t send another bomb to Israel, she might forfeit the $5.3 million she’s gotten from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, the most powerful pro-Israel lobby, but recent data shows she would not lose votes from millions of Americans who want an end to the violence in Gaza.
It all feels so calculated and choreographed, and gross. Robin Williams once said: “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like NASCAR drivers. Then we know who owns them.” We want to believe a woman as strong as Harris would not sell out her moral conscience to lobbyists.
Even if the Democrats win this election, their policy in the Middle East may lose this generation. Young people have had enough of the excuses and accommodations and political calculations. They’ve had enough of empire and colonialism and corporate greed and capitalism. For many young people, the American experiment in democracy is broken. They question the Supreme Court, the Electoral College, the permanent two-party system, the war economy, campaign financing and the inability of Congress to do anything meaningful on guns or immigration — and now, stopping the genocide in Gaza.
My faith as a Christian has long been about subverting empires and standing with the vulnerable, the widows and orphans, and all those Christ called “the least of these.” Right now, that means standing against the genocide in Gaza. As my friend the Rev. Munther Isaac says, “Gaza is the moral compass of the world.”
When I vote, then, I am not looking for a Savior. My Savior is a brown-skinned, Palestinian, homeless Jewish refugee born in a genocide, who would get kicked out of most evangelical Christian churches if he stood up to preach. Because of Jesus, I’m sure not voting for Trump. But it would be a lot easier to feel excited about Harris if she would stop giving Israel weapons.
King once said, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state.”
Whoever we elect in November will certainly need us to be their moral conscience in January. We are not electing a Savior. We are electing a commander in chief of the largest military in the world, inside the world’s most powerful empire. We are electing the person we will need to protest for the next four years.
