Evangelicals are the reason Vance and Trump can maintain their racist lies
Vance and Trump propagated lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets. One reason they can do so is their unwavering support from Evangelical Christians.
A false story that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio—a story that the original poster says she knew was false—has overtaken Donald Trump and Republicans. Trump repeated the baseless claim while debating Kamala Harris in front of 67 million people saying, “In Springfield, they're eating the dogs—the people that came in, they're eating the cats. They're eating—they're eating the pets of the people that live there and this is what's happening in our country, and it's a shame." JD Vance tweeted, “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country.” J.D. Vance went on to justify creating stories to get media attention. Elon Musk, Ted Cruz, and Jim Jordan followed by continuing to spread rumors on Twitter.
The lies the GOP is spreading about Haitians not only increase racist rhetoric, they create racist harm. There have been four bomb threats related to the lies about Haitians in that town. Unsubstantiated, made-up stories, create genuine harm. And those Haitians, according to Jamelle Bouie, have actually revitalized Springfield, since their arrival.
JD Vance is terrorizing legal immigrants who are aiding a community. They aren’t “illegal” immigrants, but they still are a problem for Vance because his hostility toward them is about what they look like, not their immigration status. The vile lies are meant to scare people into buying into his blood-and-soil Christian nationalism.
Creating stories to smear immigrants is a tried-and-true Nazi tactic. During czarist Russia, a tract of fabricated stories about Jewish people was passed around to try to pin anti-czarist rhetoric on Jews. The Nazi Party’s chief racist ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg, described the lies in the Protocols of Zion this way: “[the issue] was less the so-called authenticity of The Protocols than the inner truth of what is stated.” Joshua Goebbels wrote, “I believe in the inner, but not the factual, truth of The Protocols.”
Writing for the LA Times, Michael Hiltzik concluded that these statements were related to “blood libels”—the persistent assertion that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake matzoh or for other ritual purposes. A core tenet of Nazi antisemitism, it was designed to stir up anti-Jewish reaction with a visceral intensity. Of course it was completely fabricated.” Blood libels were precursors to pogroms.
Trump and Vance are trying to stir up hate against Haitians to terrorize them and secure their own power.
Most distressing is that Trump and Vance continue to enjoy unwavering support from Evangelical Christians. This may not guarantee them the White House, but it offers them enough support to continue their rhetoric. Evangelical Christians thus bear responsibility for normalizing this rhetoric, and without their support, I believe that these racist, Nazi-esque lies might not even be attempted.
I often disagree with Russell Moore, the Editor-In-Chief of the conservative magazine Christianity Today, but even he managed to condemn the statements of Trump and Vance as morally wrong. We need more Christians to do the same. The fact that it is challenging for Christians to condemn what is clearly unsubstantiated racist rhetoric is very concerning. But the more that Evangelicals speak out against the Trump/Vance rhetoric, the safer immigrants will be. And I can stand with them in doing so.
I have a special place in my life for Haiti and Haitians: I met some Haitians online who had connected with my son when he was in Haiti after the Gwo Tranbleman tè a (Great Earthquake) of 2010.
We chatted on social media, and then after a while we began talking on video. And I made a very ignorant statement about Haitian Creole to which my friends were kind enough not to burst out laughing about, and they then proceeded to ask me to learn their language.
Which I began doing, and after 2.5 years of study I can . . . sometimes carry on a conversation for two back-and-forth responses without exhausting my brain. :)
But learning the language requires the student to learn about the nation, the people, the history, the culture, the economics, the religion - in short, so much of the language is connected to the Haitian experience that simply learning words and grammar will not get you very far.
Learning about Haiti - and learning from Haitians who've become my friends, my teachers, my mentors, my brothers - has been transformative for how I see the world. I'm not going to ever fully get out of my skin, so to speak, but there was a moment when I saw that my white Evangelical way of looking at the world wasn't just ignorant but was also destructive and reductionist.
I'm grateful to my Haitian friends. I'm grateful for the connections. I'm grateful to have my worldview expanded and I've had my small, cold heart warmed and healed through the relationship we've made.
And so it is saddening, even infuriating, to see my co-religionists become so overtly hateful _about my friends and chosen families_. How does this hatred and this desire for destruction express the love of Christ for all humanity? How does this reflect a heart changed by the love and mercy of God?
My Haitian connections are genuinely concerned, even frightened, by this response to their mere existence. "Why do you white Christians hate us? What have we done to you? Why do we deserve this?" The cries are made in anguish and fear. My friends just want to be alive and to prosper along with their families - just like everyone else on this planet. And the invective _stirred up by "Christian" politicians alarms them, and it makes me ashamed of my own people.
I lose less and less hope about the transformative power of Christ when I see the twisted faces of hate that are snarling with delight at the pain and terror inflicted upon this beloved community. My faith in Jesus is not tested by problems with the religious texts or with doctrines or even with theological conundrums. My faith is most tested when I see people claiming to love Jesus and claiming to know what he wants doing everything they can to destroy their holy siblings who are, like them, bearers of the Imago Dei and worthy of all love, care, affection, and trust.