Trump’s Foreign Policy Talking Points And The Black Church
Trump’s Foreign Policy Talking Points Have No Place In Black Pulpits
Near the end of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s earthly life, he was fervent in his stand against militarism and imperialism. He criticized the United States’ war against Vietnam countless times. He said, “As a minister of the gospel, I consider war an evil. I must cry out when I see war escalated at any point.” His message did not resonate with most Americans, as he faced backlash from political figures, media, civic groups, and even other ministers. In their minds, King was erroneously conflating civil rights for Black Americans and U.S. foreign policy. They criticized him for deviating outside of his “lane” into matters that did not affect his base community.
They were wrong.
The moral contours of the Christian faith aren’t confined to national borders or U.S. domestic policy. No matter how geographically distant an issue may appear, it is always morally close to us. As King said, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
The Black church community should keep this in mind as it relates to the United States’ recent military actions in Venezuela. Just three days into this brand new year, President Donald Trump’s administration, without the approval of Congress, kidnapped and deposed President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and seized their country’s oil. This was preceded by a series of controversial killings of people in boats in or near Venezuelan waters. Trump and his administration earned condemnation for these violent acts from many quarters.
Black church leaders were among those who were rightly criticizing Trump for his actions. However, details of the sermonic rhetoric coming from some Black pulpits did cause concern. While condemning U.S. foreign policy aggression is righteous, how we critique it is crucial. I repeatedly heard Black preachers say some variation of this message in their sermons while criticizing the president:
“Yes, Maduro is a dictator, but Trump is too.”
While I have no argument related to the latter part of this message, I do take great issue with how easily some Black clergy (even those with social justice leanings) seemed to accept and regurgitate Trump’s characterization of another world leader.
Maduro? A dictator?
It was like, to a degree, they were echoing a part of Trump’s foreign policy talking points on Venezuela. This is dangerous because it accepts the U.S. government’s justification for violence as truth. When we shape our critique of U.S. imperialism using language and framing borrowed from the empire, we surrender ideological ground and legitimize a narrative that we cannot trust. We lend credence to an imperial assessment that ultimately complicates efforts toward international solidarity and flows counter to the Black Church’s liberative impulses.
My politics, informed by my faith and understanding of Jesus, deeply align with the anti-imperialist and liberation theology movements in Latin America and beyond. Standing firm in my principles means that I understand President Maduro as part of a particular political lineage and context that privileges the plight of the poor, anchors itself in resistance to neo-colonialism, and takes decisive action against multinational corporations that seek to plunder the nation’s resources at the expense of local communities.
I refuse to let the U.S. empire name the world for me or have the last word on describing the people in it. With this in mind, I urge people of faith to resist the temptation to instantly label President Maduro as a dictator. Before we place a verdict upon him or regurgitate the elitist view on his presidency, we should pray, study, and privilege the voices of the Venezuelan people who can (and are) speaking for themselves. We should also review the available documentation from international organizations that have experts monitoring the situation. Even if our collective discernment concludes that Maduro is a dictator, it is still not the job of the United States government to overrule Venezuela’s national sovereignty and act as judge, jury, and executioner. Even the United Nations Office of Human Rights, which has been highly critical of Maduro’s administration, described the actions of the Trump administration as a clear breach of the UN Charter and “ a grave, manifest and deliberate violation of the most fundamental principles of international law, set a dangerous precedent, and risking destabilizing the entire region and the world
Words hold power
It is important for us to remember that language prepares the foundation for violence long before it is justified. It happens this way: People in power tell us who is dangerous, who is beyond redemption, and who should be controlled. By the time that violence or extrajudicial intervention by the elites happens, their actions seem reasonable in the public consciousness. This is how people are swayed into accepting the behavior of their governments that they would otherwise oppose. In short, it is propaganda. Meanwhile, U.S. militarism fades into the background, and a country’s instability is explained as its failure rather than the result of imperial interference.
African Americans are well familiar with aspects of this strategy. Elected leaders, media, and other powerful social actors have long created false narratives to justify surveillance, incarceration, murder, and other atrocities against us. We remember that Dr. King, Malcolm X, and many other Black leaders were targeted by the FBI through the COINTELPRO program. We remember that former South African president, Nelson Mandela, was on the U.S. Terror Watch List until 2008. We remember that at one time, Black freedom fighter Angela Davis was on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive List. We remember that Assata Shakur, who was granted asylum in Cuba in the 1980’s by Fidel Castro, was on the U.S. Most Wanted Terrorist list until her death in 2025.
We are not strangers to the experience of the U.S. government labeling people or groups in order to justify violence against them.
This is why we must keep close watch to what the Trump administration is saying right now about Haitian and Somali Americans (among many others).
When we echo the empire’s rhetoric today, it weakens our resistance efforts later.
We need to study together
I urge my fellow African American clergy to study international movements from the point of view of the disinherited and explore how it links with our Black experience in this country. This is part of what Dr. King did when he began speaking on foreign policy issues. This kind of study (sometimes called political education) is not a detour from the justice work that we do in our ministries—it is justice work.
Justice work also involves us challenging the imperial perspective of the news that we receive through corporate and social media. With high degrees of healthy suspicion, we must analyze what the Pharaohs of our time are telling us about our neighbors.
I understand very well that Black clergy and Christians can be overwhelmed by the slew of responsibilities at church and throughout the community. My intention is not to inundate us with yet another thing to process or tend to. It is, however, my plea for us all to embrace an opportunity to “internationalize” our Christian discipleship through an anti-imperial lens. Through our Christian Education programs, Bible Study groups, book clubs and sermons, we can create opportunities to better understand our world.
Black Christians should also acquaint themselves with organizations that can help us to analyze global issues and act locally, such as The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference, The Institute for Christian Socialism, and The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, which currently has solidarity campaigns in Venezuela and other countries in Latin America.
The final “Word”
We must reaffirm the Black Church’s historic role in being part of the conscience of this nation and challenging the violence of the powerful against the poor, both here and abroad. After celebrating Dr. King’s birthday earlier this year, we must now make meaning of his words for our time. His messages were especially unpopular in the years leading up to his assassination, but it appears that the more he fell out of favor with the public, the more he embraced the path of the biblical prophets of our faith.
I pray that more clergy and people of faith embrace the imperative of this time to study broadly, think deeply, speak accurately, and act boldly to challenge violence being done in our name in this country and around the world.
Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, III is an author, pastor, and founder of The Black Church Food Security Network.
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