Reluctant resistance

We all knew what Donald Trump’s intent was. Half of us voted for him knowing his hopes of being a dictator on day one. The first few days of this second term bear out all we have known about his cruelty, his disdain for the law and accountability under the law. I must say, the pardoning of all the January 6^th seditionists is an extreme I did not expect.

 Unleashing the most violent of the insurrectionists is a betrayal of the same people Trump took an oath to protect. Stuart Rhodes is a vigilante capable of doing great harm. The shocking thing about people like Stuart Rhodes is that others willingly and joyfully follow him. He has already been seen at the Capital.

 Evidently, violence is in our DNA. Little boys who bully on playgrounds grow into men who join groups that threaten anyone who stand in their way, anyone who is different, other. 

 These pardons were wrong. Pardons are abused by both sides of the aisle while innocent people sitting in jails across this country languish. Equity in use of the pardon power is absent and may be a bygone notion.

 There was a flurry of executive orders signed on the first day. There was delight in signing away rights, getting out of the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord. Among the actions is wiping away any reference to DEI, returning meritocracy as the norm. The list of executive actions is long and frightening. We will have four years to know their impact. When the smog is so dense that we can’t breathe perhaps we will pay more attention.

 In the church service on the day after the Inauguration, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde urged the President to have mercy on immigrants and the LGBTQ population. She said these communities are scared. He looked miffed as she took a Biblical perspective on how we are called to treat one another. Trump called for an apology from the Bishop. Bless his heart. Calling the Bishop “nasty” says more about him than about her.

 Our civic discourse needs correction. Hard hearts need to be broken and our eyes opened to see peoples’ fears. Overcorrection will be painful. Maybe pain is the intent, but it is unnecessary pain caused by blunt knives.

 Whether Bishop Budde knew it at the time, her voice is one of resistance all of us need to emulate. Wrong is wrong. To sit on the sidelines in silence is to be complicit in the face of harm. Love, mercy, and compassion are primary to knowing the way of Christ. Donald Trump is not the poster child of compassion and mercy. But we of faith are called to give witness of Christ’s way, even to those who have taken the church into a direction of exclusion and hate.

 In the first century, Jesus had backlash from people who were uncomfortable with his words of loving enemies, welcoming the stranger and caring for the least and the lost. He so upset the status quo he was killed. Prophets often do not end up well. Hard truths hurt.

 In the first few weeks of the new administration mass deportation of immigrants has already begun. Civil rights are on the chopping block. Cuts to Medicaid, veterans’ benefits and food subsidies to the poor are in the works. WHO is gone. FEMA will be gone too, with plans to return disaster response to the states. Inspectors General have been fired. Trump does not want watch dogs; he wants lap dogs. Some cheer these changes. Many of us are concerned that the federal safety net of the past 70 years is evaporating before our eyes.

 The Inaugural Day of Prayer has been a tradition for years. The purpose is to pray blessing on those who have been chosen to lead and, as always, is a charge in the church, calling people to righteous leadership that is merciful, kind, compassionate.

 Change in America is upon us, for good or for bad. Our voices of resistance to the bad will ripple outward. Once words are spoken, their percussive effect carries them in waves to places we do not even know.

 Perhaps, if we continue speaking into a future with hope and an American vision of freedom and justice for all, hard hearts will be softened and the ill will be washed in mercy and grace. God works that way. Repentance and reconciliation offer a far brighter future than revenge and retaliation.

 All of us who speak truth become part of a reluctant resistance. We did not want to be put in this position, but here we are… for such a time as this.

 Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com