Folks burned Bibles last night in Portland.

A couple thoughts:
Seems consistent with some anti-Christian sentiment I’ve seen in PDX. Just yesterday I saw a “ban Christianity” tag on a walk.

As an action, it’s messy. Uncritical. Poor strategy.

Which makes me wonder: who did it?

Burning bibles plays right into right-wing political narrative.

It takes 𝑠𝑜 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 sense to understand that.

So either those who threw those Bibles on that tiny blaze are oblivious to the politics of protest

𝑂𝑅

they were setting up a good video clip for the Right.

The Right is a talking points machine. Always has been, as long as I’ve been an adult in this country.

So when I see something that supports existing talking points while 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 allowing for a full-scale onslaught of tweets, headlines, & diatribes, I take pause.

In case this thread gets twisted, let me say unequivocally:

I don’t support the burning of the Bible. For that matter, I don’t support burning any religious traditions’ sacred texts.

I don’t believe in Christian nationalism, but I don’t think the solution is setting NIVs on .

The leaders who’ve been making the most convicting, passionate arguments for the dignity of Black lives, as well as the lives of all those who suffer under the weight of the heartlessness of global capitalism & the police state are people who have internally digested the Bible.

I’m thinking about @RevDrBarber, and @liztheo, and @pastortraci, and @ShaneClaiborne, and @DavidDark, among others.

The Bible is not the problem.

But what IS the problem—and what you won’t see being protested on the profiles of the people stocking the flames of the Bible Burning Controversy of 2020—is the use of Christianity as a justification for militarism, capitalism, and the neglect and mistreatment of the poor.

If you deny poor people access to health care, or a living wage, or affordable housing, or the ability to survive a pandemic because you are prioritizing the economy over their well being, then you might as well light a stack of Bibles on fire. What respect have you for the Word?

So, before you cry religious persecution, take a moment to ask yourself where the real indignity is to be found: in the viral video of a street fire, or in the wide-scale mistreatment of the working poor, the immigrant, & all those who God advocates for in the pages of the Bible.