Promise
A Facebook post by Promise Joy Enlow. She just turned 30. Promise is the daughter of Johnny Enlow, a high profile leader in the Christian charismatic church.
“To the divergent children of the leaders that have championed Trump, QAnon, and other false gospels: you are absolutely not alone.
Whether you speak out openly against it, or whether you are just trying to survive by keeping your head down while caught in the tension: your opinions and beliefs matter. You are not crazy, you are not rebellious, you are not lost. You are not sabotaging your parents careers. You are doing the hard work of forging a path that has never been walked before. And the good news is, history shows us that many have been in our position before, having to walk the fine line of loving their family and loving themselves and the rest of the world as well and coming out better for it.
Most of us will never have a large following or ministry (many of us especially would rather NOT have that), we will not receive anything financially for speaking out, and many of us will lose relationships over this. We are not in this to sell books or profit from political hot topics, nor are we in this to try to win some elusive “heavenly” rewards. We simply are following our heads and our hearts that tell us to be on the right side of history regardless of what it costs.
We see children and families at the border suffering trauma at the hands of Americans and we want to stop it. We see our black friends and family members STILL facing cop brutality and systemic racism and we want to stop it. We were raised in toxic purity culture that idolized our virginity and sexualized us as children, just to watch our parents defend a man that can casually say he likes to “grab them by the pussy” when speaking of young women. We see the church slam it’s doors on our LGBTQ+ friends, neighbors, and our very own selves and we question what “love” it was they must have been speaking about on Sunday mornings. We are accused of siding with the “enemy”, Satan himself, because we cannot reconcile these hypocrisies.
We are not the enemy, neither are our parents. We actually get to be the cure, if we want to be. We can continue to progress and grow, all while extending love and kindness whenever the least bit possible. I know it’s hard right now, I know it’s heartbreaking and even terrifying at times. It usually is for trailblazers. But you can do this! You can be your full, authentic self, standing on the core values that you hold dear to yourself, without approval from anyone else. You are not dishonoring your family by going against the grain, I promise you they’ve had to forge paths of their own at times and would do the same in your shoes. You will never regret being kind with your words, compassionate with your ideals, and authentic with your expressions of those. You have just as much of a right to fight for what you believe in, unapologetically. It is not just our families that will have to reflect on where they stood at this point in history, but us as well. And we are only responsible for ourselves.”
As her father increasingly embraced the narrative the election was stolen from Donald Trump and is using increasingly bizarre mystical experiences and prophetic declarations to back up this narrative, Promise has been posting her own wise thoughts that have become sharper and sharper.
Before Facebook, this sort of “open to the public worldwide” direct or indirect battle between father and daughter in real time wouldn’t have been possible to witness.
Evangelical Christian church world is being torn to shreds…families, long time friendships, churches, schools, nonprofit orgs, co-workers. Tomorrow officially begins a new day. Our next President takes the oath of office in a city currently shut down by the military because of January 6.
And in the midst of it all, I want to believe Johnny Enlow is very proud of his daughter.