Following the death of Donald Trump’s younger brother Robert, the hashtag “#WrongTrump” started trending, implying that the President should have been the one to die instead.
One post that gained particular steam came from Bishop Talbert Swan, a radio host, activist and president of the NAACP, The Blaze reports. Swan has been an outspoken critic of Trump as well as his White evangelical supporters on social media.
As Christian Headlines previously reported, last month, Swan was joined by Actress Alyssa Milano and other guests in a virtual panel arguing that White evangelicals contribute to systemic racism.
On Sunday, Swan, amongst others Trump critics, used the hashtag #wrongtrump, resulting in over 100,000 posts as it trended on Twitter.
“Dear Grim Reaper, you took the #wrongtrump,” Swan wrote on Sunday morning.
Swan’s post was met with criticism from Christians and Trump supporters, including conservative black commentators.
“You [are] going to hell. The Bible warned us of fake pastor,” Black conservative activist McKayla J wrote to Swan.
Swan quipped in response, “Do you want me to tell your mother or any of your other family members you said hi when I get there?”
“This person is a bishop??” another black commenter asked. “Who ordained him please? The devil??”
Another black user wrote, “1 John 4:20 – If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not have love for his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.”
Several hours later, Swan preached a sermon for the Spring of Hope Church of God in Christ in Springfield, Massachusetts. During the opening prayer of the service, a woman asked God to provide His blessings and to “touch those that are grieving this morning, touch those that lost loved ones this morning, in the name of Jesus.”
Over the course of the service, Swan subtly addressed the backlash he received over his tweet.
“I know some of y’all are getting salty with me already … the trolls are already mad with me … they’ve been calling the church all morning, leaving messages all morning, they’ve been all over our livestream,” he noted. “They mad, they big mad, but you know what? I found out that … when you get the devil mad like that, you must be doing something right.”
Swan went on to add, “for those of y’all who are salty with me, I really don’t care” and then laughed before adding, “Jimmy crack corn …” — referencing the popular children’s song that blackface minstrel groups first performed in the 1840s.
During the sermon, Swan asserted that God will draw all people from all walks of life to Himself, including white people, black people and other ethnicities, as well as “the gay … the straight … the transgender … the asexual … the bisexual … the conservative … the liberal.”
“In this dark world, in this pandemic season, in this moment of civil unrest, what the world needs now is the love of God,” Swan added, “and the love of God only comes through the people of God, and you are the children of God, and the Lord wants to untie you from your habits and untie you from your way of thinking and untie you from the mundane things of this world and to set you free.”
“We’re too caught up in our own selfish agendas to be a part of God’s agenda,” he stressed.
On Tuesday, Swan said that he had received “517 vitriolic, racist, threatening voicemails, 249 emails, 432 social media inboxes, and over 4000 racist comments across social media” from “conservative, Trump-supporting, so-called Christians” since his post on Sunday morning.
“They’ve threatened to castrate me, put a bullet hole in my head, hang me, murder me, kill my family, and shoot up my church,” he added.
He went on to state he has contacted the FBI and other law enforcement to track down those who threatened him.
“And they wonder why we believe Trump supporters are all racists and that white evangelicalism is nothing but white supremacy in drag,” Swan said.
Related:
Alyssa Milano, Group of Pastors Argue White Evangelicals Contribute to Systemic Racism
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Win McNamee/Staff
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
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