A Black church was the perfect place for Biden — and protesters — to speak out | Opinion

The Black church is most powerful when it doesn’t cow to critics bellowing “politics” because it knows being unapologetically Black is often derided as being political even when Black life is literally in peril.

The church is at its best when making clear the principles upon which it was founded don’t only apply to those of us whose fore-bearers were victims of American-style race-based chattel slavery, but also to Jesus’ “least of these,” wherever and whoever they are.

In practice, the Black church, throughout this country’s history, has been as much a contradiction as the United States itself, a force for good whose imperfections unfortunately have made space for evils unspoken and unacknowledged. It was the base for a civil rights movement that forced the country to live up to its stated ideals, but also for far too long tolerated homophobia, sexism and other ills. That’s why I’ve found it difficult to put into words what happened at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston on Monday, to describe what it means or even to be outraged in ways others seem to be.

Mother Emanuel doesn’t just have mostly Black parishioners and preachers and pastors. It’s one of the oldest historically black institutions in the nation. Its legacy reaches back to when it provided light for the enslaved during the darkest period of our history and includes an attack at the hands of white supremacist Dylann Roof. One of my friends had a sister who was among the nine Black people gunned down by Roof, an incident that happened in June of 2015 but harkened back to a time when white supremacists openly and proudly murdered Black people for the sin of wearing dark skin.

It was where, if only for a fleeting moment, the nation’s first Black president was balm for a divided nation when Barack Obama belted “Amazing Grace” from Mother Emanuel’s pulpit. It’s not just a Black church, but the Black church. Given that, there was little chance President Joe Biden could speak from behind that same pulpit without courting controversy.

Was it an improper political rally for the likely 2024 Democratic presidential nominee? Or an invaluable perch from which to talk about the need to save the nation from a rollback of civil rights and democratic principles that have made this place more equal than it was when the church was founded in 1816 even if the nation remains far from perfect?

That tension came to a head when protesters interrupted Biden’s speech with calls for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, where an ungodly number of innocent Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli bombs and tanks after the terror group Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis during an evil attack on Oct. 7. The Black church — the true Black church — would want it known that innocent Palestinian and Israeli lives matter too, and that we should never be allowed to forget that truth even if it means screaming at Biden from the pews to do more to stop the slaughter.

Martin Luther King Jr. told us injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, that we should not prioritize comfort over demands for justness. I don’t know if he would have joined those young protesters. But I know he stood up for innocent people being unnecessarily killed in Vietnam even when it was unpopular to speak up against a president he had allied with on important legislation.

I know that the Black church has never had the luxury of being non-political in the way some critics of Biden’s visit insisted. I know that Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman from Charleston, sounded like a typical political opportunist in her video diatribe against Biden’s appearance during which she misled about the economy and immigration.

I know that churches in the South, white and Black, are deeply embedded in our political process in critical ways that sometimes cross the line. I know, too, if church is the wrong place to discuss the most perplexing challenges facing humanity, there is no good place to grapple with them.

This story was originally published January 9, 2024 at 9:21 AM.