Religious politics in America have been dominated by discourses of fear, violence and triumphalism in recent decades. It may be, though, that after this election, although warnings of doom will issue forth as loudly as ever, other conversations about religion and social change may resound as well.

Jason C. Bivins, Religion Dispatches

Election graffiti in Spokane, Washington, 2008

As I watched Jesse Jackson weeping in Grant Park, I decided to forget the Reverend’s own campaign nastiness and thought instead of Psalms 30:5: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” And then I thought about “Chocolate City,” the 1975 Parliament ode to my hometown: “They still call it the White House, but that’s a temporary condition too.” Bafflingly, improbably, Starchild got it right.

And, as with almost everyone who reads this, joy came in the evening too: those darkest hours just before the dawn were filled with tears of joy. Each of us now has our stories, a recount of our own investment, participation, and memories, locked in as tightly as a framed newspaper front page. But after that surpassing, glorious night, I woke to find that four students at my university had spray-painted racist graffiti in our “free expression tunnel.” It is, sadly, no surprise that such sentiments continue to circulate (nor that hundreds immediately rallied to protest it).

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