CARSON, CALIF. — President-elect Donald Trump doesn’t have many followers, if any, on the Metropolitan Church of Christ on this city neighborhood south of Los Angeles.
Nobody interviewed on the predominantly Black congregation on a latest Lord’s Day voted for the Republican candidate.
That’s not too stunning: The late Martin Luther King Jr., the famend civil rights chief, famously referred to as 11 a.m. Sunday “essentially the most segregated hour of America.”
Tiffany Dean, sporting inexperienced, prays with fellow Christians on the Metropolitan Church of Christ in Carson, Calif., south of Los Angeles.
The racial divide sometimes extends to the voting sales space — and did so as soon as once more within the 2024 election, in accordance with community exit polls.
White Christian voters helped propel Trump to victory, with 72 % supporting him, polling discovered. In the meantime, 85 % of Black Christian voters backed Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
“I actually felt like, in lots of methods, they had been making an attempt to remove the chance for us to have a say … and our fundamental rights,” mentioned Metropolitan member Tiffany Dean, 50, a mom of two grownup sons, one serving within the U.S. Military.
Associated: Why did so many Christian voters help Donald Trump?
Explaining her vote for Harris, Dean expressed concern for democracy, civil rights and immigrants who got here to America searching for a greater life.
“It’s scary that you’d ship somebody to a rustic that they’ve by no means recognized, they usually don’t converse the language,” Dean mentioned, referring to Trump’s promised mass deportations.
Trump prevailed within the Electoral School (312 to Harris’ 226) in addition to the favored vote (49.8 % to Harris’ 48.3 %).
Harris’ failure to win election because the nation’s first lady president dissatisfied — however didn’t shock — Dean, a licensed marriage and household therapist.
“I knew that our nation wasn’t able to have a Black lady president,” she mentioned of the previous U.S. senator from California.
A map from 270towin.com exhibits the Electoral School breakdown within the 2024 presidential election.
‘Character … issues loads’
A fellow Christian, Kelvin Warren, 44, mentioned he “reluctantly” forged his poll for Harris.
“I don’t suppose there’s a center floor for individuals who could have some Republican values,” mentioned Warren, who has two daughters and wore a shirt declaring that “Black Fathers Matter.”
Kelvin Warren’s shirt declares, “Black Fathers Matter.”
Whereas Warren helps the standard definition of marriage and opposes abortion, the Metropolitan member pointed to Trump’s felony convictions for sexual abuse and paying hush cash to a porn star.
“Character, for me, issues loads,” mentioned Warren, a supervisor for a logistics firm. “In order that was an enormous issue. That was in all probability the No. 1 factor.”
Regardless of not voting for Trump, Warren mentioned he’ll pray for his success.
“To me, it doesn’t make sense that you’d need the individual accountable for your nation to do badly even when you don’t like them,” he mentioned. “To me, the way in which lots of people suppose relating to politics, it’s loopy.”
One other Metropolitan member, LaTanya West, 59, mentioned she favored Trump’s plan to enhance border management however didn’t suppose he was the correct individual for the White Home.
“To me, he wasn’t match for the job,” mentioned West, a retired transit bus driver. “You already know, all he did previous to this election — storming the Capitol and all that — if Kamala or (former President Barack Obama) did that, there’s no manner they might even have been capable of go up for president.”
Small teams collect collectively to wish after a Sunday meeting on the Metropolitan Church of Christ in Carson, Calif.
‘God raised him up’
In a separate Christian Chronicle survey, Trump voters — together with some Black Christians — cited the economic system, the border, abortion and transgender points as main considerations.
“I believe that God raised him up … for a goal,” Willie Hubbard Jr., a Black Republican who serves as an elder and minister for the District Heights Church of Christ in Maryland, mentioned of Trump. “I don’t know of any man who might endure all that was put upon him and his household and persevere by all of it. God is concerned in his life and drawing him close to.”
LaCroy Hatcher, a Black Democrat who attends the Larger Heights Church of Christ in Cleveland, wrote that he couldn’t get previous his social gathering’s “left agenda, the dearth of transparency, lack of regard for human life, lack of potential security for our ladies … and the way in which they’ve toyed with the American folks economically.”
Shay Cathey, a member of the Central Pointe Church of Christ in Dallas, on the 2024 Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago.
However Shay Cathey, a Black Christian and vice chair of the Texas Democratic Social gathering, lamented Trump’s victory.
Cathey, a member of the Central Pointe Church of Christ in Dallas, voiced fear for immigrants, ladies and younger Black males stopped by police.
“There are Christians who’re traumatized,” Cathey mentioned in an interview. “There are believers who’re fearful for his or her lives and the lives of their households as the results of this election.”
Destiny Hagood preaches on a latest Sunday on the Metropolitan Church of Christ in Carson, Calif.
A chance for dialogue?
Again within the Los Angeles space, Alvin Edington Jr., 51, a life coach and disaster interventionist, pointed to a necessity for justice reform — with much less emphasis on merely sending folks to jail.
The Black Christian characterizes Trump’s Make America Nice Once more agenda as a push to revive a much less numerous period of U.S. life characterised by White male energy.
Most Trump voters had been White, a development that continued from 2020, however he noticed good points amongst Black voters, notably youthful males, in addition to slight good points amongst Hispanic voters and ladies voters, in accordance with The Related Press.
Within the election’s aftermath, Edington, the affiliate minister at Metropolitan — the place Destiny Hagood serves because the lead minister — mentioned he sees a possibility for dialogue amongst Black and White Christians.
Alvin Edington Jr. serves as affiliate minister for the Metropolitan Church of Christ in Carson, Calif.
“We’re imagined to be the sunshine. We’re imagined to be the town on the hill, proper?” Edington mentioned, referring to Jesus’ phrases in Matthew 5:14. “So we have to have some conversations.
“I’m excited in regards to the alternative to bridge these racial gaps,” he added. “I believe there are financial gaps. I believe there are lots of gaps that we have to bridge. … But in addition, there are lots of people who’re hurting on either side, proper? … So we conquer concern with our religion.”
Whatever the election’s final result, Daisie Washington, an 80-year-old Metropolitan member and great-great-grandmother, mentioned she places her religion in God.
“The Lord determines who our leaders are going to be for regardless of the interval goes to be,” Washington mentioned.
However accepting the voters’ will, she burdened, doesn’t require remaining silent on very important considerations.
“If we would like change, we have now to start out right here at residence,” she mentioned. “I’m not going to take a seat right here passively and never do something. I’ll do what I can.”
BOBBY ROSS JR. is Editor-in-Chief of The Christian Chronicle. He traveled to Southern California to report this story. Attain him at [email protected].
“To me, it doesn’t make sense that you’d need the individual accountable for your nation to do badly even when you don’t like them. To me, the way in which lots of people suppose relating to politics, it’s loopy.”
