It is 1pm on November 9, 2016. The day after our Presidential election. I’ve had sometime to calm down and process my feelings and thoughts.

As I sat with Nikki watching the poll results amazed and befuddled as to what I was watching I was confused. Like many people my thoughts ran too where can I escape to remove myself from this backward election decision. But after much thought and more prayer I began to realize the pain of the situation. Not the pain and disappointment of not electing Hillary Clinton but the pain of middle class and poor whites in America. In other words, this election was about white lives matter or as Van Jones described it a “whitelash”.

As Christians, we should know that no individual or group controls our future. We are children of God and God will be and is in control. So everything will be alright. However, one of the sad realities is that all poor and disenfranchised people are caught in the middle of political theater. What this means is that we must work harder to share our stories of disappointment with the American dream and focus on transforming our current situation so that all Americans are succeeding. And that no one is feeling left behind or left out.

We need to remember that after Dr. King’s fight for Voting Rights he moved his and our attention to Poverty. He saw poverty as a great cancer holding Americans back and wanted each individual American a guaranteed, middle-class income. So the pain of working hard everyday to provide a decent life for yourself and your family only to have it then ripped away from you and shipped to another country is real, and all of us must face this reality. It was after Dr. King began to talk about a Poor People’s Campaign that he was killed.

So I feel and understand the pain of poverty and see that that is why so many people began to be moved to vote for Donald Trump. So when he says he wants to bring jobs back to people that resonates, period. But now we must wait and see if he can fulfill all of those bold and lofty promises.

What I hope we begin to see more clearly however is how the global economy and how global military actions affect us all in a deep way. So any action we take domestically will have an effect globally. We are more connected than we know. So my friends let us be prayerful and work to make the change we want to see by organizing ourselves. God’s got this and God’s got us.

Grace and peace

Pastor
—
Rev. Carlton A. Rhoden
Pastor, Head of Staff
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles