One of the most disheartening anecdotes from the presidential election was how the religious right flocked to Trump. What passes for leadership in that movement managed to convince 81 percent of white evangelicals that Trump’s ugly behavior on the campaign trail didn’t matter because he made the right clucking noises on abortion and marriage equality. Well, a popular Christian singer found out the hard way that a good chunk of her audience doesn’t think too much of Trump. She was forced to apologize for a tone-deaf Instagram post in which she loudly declared her support for Trump and trashed the Women’s March on Washington.
Vicki Yohe has been a fixture on Christian radio stations and on TBN for the better part of a quarter century. Her best-known song is “Because of Who You Are.” However, she gained fame of a different kind on Saturday night, when she posted this on Instagram.
Yohe also shared it on her Facebook and Twitter feeds. From the looks of it, it’s a derivative of a meme I saw floating around social media for much of President Obama’s second term.
The message was obvious–those who were taking part in the march were standing against the man whom God himself put in the White House. Remember, folks, a significant sector of the fundie world believes that God is so determined to shred Roe v. Wade and Obergefell v. Hodges that he hacked the election to put Trump in the presidency.
What ensued was a classic case of the huge political gulf between white and black evangelicals. Although Yohe is white, she has made her name mostly in gospel music, which until very recently was considered an exclusively black genre. As a result, most of her following is among black born-agains, and frequently sings at black churches. Although there are no figures available for how black evangelicals voted, it can safely be assumed that Trump didn’t even get a fraction of the support he got among white evangelicals. Most of them heard Trump’s racist dog whistles and went the other way.
This context is needed to understand the outraged reaction when most of Yohe’s fans saw this roll across their computers and smartphones. It didn’t take long for that outrage to spill out onto Twitter.
Y y'all mad at #VickiYohe? That post indicates a white man with a lot of baggage is movin into the White House. Seems pretty accurate 2 me.
— Tammy ?? (@TammyP365) January 22, 2017
Man I honestly thought @vickiyohe was cool. You lost me with the pro Trump tweet. You can't reconcile Jesus with hate and sexual assault.
— wordfactory (@wordfactory) January 22, 2017
RIP @vickiyohe. She overdosed on cheetos and died late last night. https://t.co/1PaWlw8kJ9
— “i know i want my key back.” (@KiaSpeaks) January 22, 2017
I will not attend, purchase or sing anything made by #vickiyohe
— rubysgrandchild (@rubygrandchild) January 22, 2017
@vickiyohe Stated that Donald was picked by God. So, where in the Bible does God encourage hatred for people? Disappointed fan!
— Pam Greer (@MSouthernbelle1) January 22, 2017
@vickiyohe so you support a man who doesn't like the majority of people who supported you. Alright we see we're only worth $ to you. pic.twitter.com/pxbJlMpzLx
— Meka Brown (@mekat80) January 22, 2017
— The Queen (@CrownGoddess) January 22, 2017
https://twitter.com/livelovekia/status/823204414701838336
Vicki be like pic.twitter.com/oWs4PeVaCz
— The Queen (@CrownGoddess) January 22, 2017
The message was obvious–Yohe’s black fans felt used and abused by someone who was openly supporting a man who spent the campaign making veiled and not-so-veiled appeals to racism.
Shaun King of the (New York) Daily News and The Young Turks was also outraged, and let Yohe have it in an epic Facebook rant on Sunday afternoon. King, who was a minister in Atlanta for 15 years before going full time into activism, called Yohe’s post “disgusting” on several counts. He suggested that Yohe “confused your whiteness with your Christianity” by suggesting Jesus hadn’t been in the White House when the Obamas lived there.
Yohe spent most of Saturday night and Sunday morning blocking people who called her out, and by Sunday afternoon had hidden her Twitter feed from public view. However, in the wee hours of Monday morning, Yohe realized she’d stepped in it. She took to Facebook and apologized, saying that she was reposting a picture that one of her friends sent her and now realizes it was a mistake.
“I posted this pic quickly after someone sent it to me. In retrospect I know that in haste I did it without considering how some may view it and the meanings they would derive from it. I regret that, and apologize for it.”
Yohe said that she never intended to imply that Obama wasn’t a Christian, but that “the policies his administration pursued many times went against what most Christians believe.” She also said that she did not condone “any wrong things Trump has done or said in the past.”
Let’s give credit where credit is due. At least Yohe realizes why so many born-agains on both sides of the aisle who didn’t support Trump–like yours truly–find themselves doing headdesks and facepalms when the likes of Franklin Graham, Ralph Reed, James Dobson, Jim Bakker, and Paula White bow before the Orange Calf. After all, we find it hard to believe that rolling back abortion and marriage equality are so important that we need to put a guy who finds it acceptable to plaster a private cell phone number on social media, mock the disabled, condone violence at his rallies, and degrade women in the White House.
This episode should be a reality check to the religious right. After all, Trump is marching quadruple-time on a course that will likely end in either a landslide defeat in 2020, a forced resignation, or removal via impeachment. Unless the fundies come to their senses, they will go down with him.
(featured image courtesy Yohe’s Facebook)
