By Jessica Lea, CHURCHLEADERS
Pastors celebrating Donald Trump’s presidency as a sign of God’s favor to the United States need to repent of their “theological arrogance” and their “failure to understand Scripture in light of history,” said Rev. Dr. Charlie Dates in a video posted to Instagram on Thursday, Jan. 23.
“I want to offer to you tonight a response to some of the messages from, namely, white evangelical—some of them associates of mine—pastors in Texas, Georgia, and in other places,” said Dates, “who want you to think, theologically, that God somehow intervened and delivered for America salvation in the inauguration of the 47th president.”
“That’s not Christianity,” he said.
Charlie Dates: ‘God Is Not on the Side of Those in Power’
Dates is senior pastor of Progressive Baptist Church and Salem Baptist Church in Chicago. In the caption of his video, he said, “I offer this pastoral rebuttal to those who are sincerely seeking the Christ of The Scriptures and for those who are defending the faith against its misrepresentations.”
“You should vote according to your convictions,” Dates said, “but to claim the results of this election and the day of this inauguration as the favor of God on America is the sorrowful historical succession of inaccurate and irresponsible theology.”
“To be clear,” Dates added in the caption, “I do not think that either party fully represents the interests of Jesus Christ. They both fail miserably. My issue isn’t with the parties, but with the leaders of the Church who tie Christ to their candidate.”
In his video, Dates quoted orator, author and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who differentiated between a Christianity “of this land” and a Christianity “of Christ” and said, “Between the two, we recognize so wide a difference that to be the friend of one is to be the enemy of the other.”
“Some of these pastors would have you to believe that God somehow now is riding on the backs of their issues and their candidate,” said Dates. “But the problem with that is that we get to cast God in the light of our political and cultural interest. We all want to do that.”
“I have to ask you, brother pastor, where was God when my ancestors were praying to him through the 240 years of American chattel slavery?” Dates asked. “Where was God at the failed point of reconstruction? Where was God when my ancestors and my grandparents were marching to end a long night—73 years-plus of Jim Crow? Was he not present, or is he present now because the issues that you pick have come to prevail?”
“I want to tell you what they didn’t tell you in seminary: Your theological heroes in America who claimed to get the text right were racist, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering rapists,” Dates said.
“Your grandparents who would not march with my grandparents, under the guise of Southern Christianity,” he said, “came to adopt philosophy given to them by the ‘Moral Majority,’ to tell them that abortion was the single greatest or solely significant issue facing the corruption of America.”
“And now today, now make no qualms about it,” Dates continued, “your only issues are sexuality and abortion.”
“My problem with you is that you will not listen to your Black and Brown brothers and sisters, who also have a high view of Scripture, who believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to Father, who fundamentally believe that the gospel is the only message that can cure what it diagnoses,” said Dates, “when we tell you that our lives are in danger, that marginalized, poor people cannot flourish under certain administrations.”
“While you wave the banner of victory, that God gave us a great opportunity and now we need to repent,” the pastor said, “I need to wave that banner back at you and say, ‘Before you call America to repent, you need to repent.’ You need to repent, not just for your theological arrogance, but for your failure to understand Scripture in light of history.”
“God is not on the side of those in power. God has been on the side of the oppressed, and he came in power to liberate us,” said Dates, “not only from the slavery of sin, but also from the sin of slavery.”
“So if you’re going to poke at those issues that you preach solely before your congregation,” Dates concluded, “call out the other issues and talk to Black pastors and Brown preachers who see this cultural milieu and moment differently than you do, not because they have a different Jesus, but because they made Jesus Lord and not the American flag.”
First published January 23, 2025
