3 thoughts about the attack on Donald Trump
God help us all.
This is very bad. I wrote last week about signs we’re moving closer to civil war. It was — by far — the most-read post I’ve had at this newsletter this year. Well. We got closer tonight. The Kansas City Star editorial board1: “And it seems clear — even in these first hours — that we have collectively arrived at a hinge point. It’s possible that the gunshots will keep ringing out long after Saturday night. We fear now a season of political violence that few Americans living have ever witnessed. We are on the edge of catastrophe. There is no way to sugarcoat it.”
Earlier this week, the New York Times put “Say Nothing” by Patrick Radden Keefe on its list of best books of the 21st century. It’s about the Troubles in Northern Ireland — a time when people on both sides, British unionists and Irish Republican Army separatists, did unspeakable violence to each other in the name of some sort of righteousness. Order, for some. Justice, for others. In a way, it doesn’t matter. It twisted and deformed all the participants. If you’re willing to slaughter and torture for your ideals, it’s very very likely your ideals have failed. Read the book. Decide if that’s the country you want to live in.
Matthew 5:43-45 says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” I believe in those words. I understand if you don’t. But I do. And I’m thinking tonight that I do not necessarily or always act as though I do.
God help us all.
I contribute to the Star’s opinion page.
Jesus's call is the best (not the only, but I believe it is the best) way forward. I truly to believe that it is possible to accurately name a threat to democracy and yet refuse to take actions to end that threat which are themselves undemocratic. It is possible to recognize an enemy as an enemy (note that Jesus doesn't say "your enemy is actually your neighbor, and therefore lovable"; no, He acknowledged that one's enemy may well in fact be exactly that), and yet refuse to do what world history tells us must obviously be done to enemies.
Not Jesus, but one of his followers -- "I can no longer condemn or hate a brother for whom I pray, no matter how much trouble he causes me. His face, that hitherto may have been strange and intolerable to me, is transformed into the countenance of a brother for whom Christ died, the face of a forgiven sinner." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Will I commit to praying for President Biden, former President Trump and anyone else? Pretty hard to hate those for whom we pray.