2016 was a tumultuous and heart-wrenching year for a great many people, including those of us in mainline / progressive churches; with 2017 promising to be even more heart-wrenching. Our ministries have always included the prophetic call, set forth in the Hebrew Bible and, for us in the Christian community, manifested in the life and ministry of Jesus. Mercy, justice, compassion, kindness, mutual respect, and radical inclusion are basic tenants of our journey of faith.
What we thought would never happen, happened, with the election of a man who, among other things, has been called a pathological liar and who seems to be filled with venom toward ‘the other’; ‘the other’ as defined by him and then ridiculed by him on many occasions.
In a recent op-ed piece in the Boston Globe, Richard North Patterson (‘Presidential Psychodrama’, January 10, 2017), after listing all of the things about Mr. Trump that are terribly distressing, comments:
This is not a time for empty sentiment or false hopes. Our president-elect is an ignorant and unstable 70-year-old man. That won’t change; nor will he. For the lesson Trump learned from this election is that he alone, once again, is sufficient to all moments. He won, after all – in his mind, he always does.
No matter what we do, his presidency will mark us. But what we can do – must do – is to stand up for the values Trump contravenes: the civic institutions he distains, the civility he abjures, the inclusiveness he shuns, the rule of law he resents, the compassion he diminishes. We must always remember that what makes America great is that which makes it good. And we must never forget who this man is, and what our country yet can be if we strive to make it so.
In a similar vein, Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School, suggests there is no common ground to be had with the Trump administration (‘The Case for Resistance’, The American Prospect, Winter, 2017, pp. 9-11). He warns us that opposition will not be easy. We may well become wearied by ongoing resistance. But to empower us in this struggle, he reminds us that “Essential to the sustenance of righteous opposition is maintaining an appropriate spiritual and psychological stance toward the Trump calamity.”
We are in this for the long haul! But I take heart in that so many people, from all across this nation, are promising to stand in opposition. I am encouraged by people like Joe Roos, a Mennonite Pastor from California, whose letter to Mr. Trump, ‘My Pledge of Resistance’, appeared in Soujourners magazine (January, 2017). Pastor Roos says to the President-Elect:
… As a follower of Jesus, I seek the path of inclusion, justice, peacemaking, and love. Your campaign was dominantly about exclusion, inequality, the use of violence, and hatred of the other. I will follow Jesus and not you.
After noting that Jesus spent his entire ministry embracing the poor and the marginalized, and thereby confronting the political and religious powers of his day, he reminds us that at one time Jesus was himself a refugee! Pastor Roos continues:
If you pursue the policies you embodied in your campaign – the supremacy of white people over people of color, the literal and figurative creation of walls of division between people and nations, a misogynistic attitude and practice toward women, distain for the poor, disabled, and marginalized, disregard for and ignorance about the environment, and encouragement of the use of violence toward those who disagree with you – if your policies as president continue down that path, I make this pledge of resistance to you this day:
I will oppose you and stand against you every day of your presidency, following the example of Jesus of Nazareth, seeking peace, pursuing justice, and living nonviolently, including actions of nonviolent civil disobedience against you…..That is my promise.
Indeed, in the face of the extraordinary challenges that confront us, I do take heart! There are millions of people whose words and actions of protest have been seen and heard and will continue to be seen and heard. More and more voices will be added to the resistance, each embodying, in one form or another, the sentiments of Pastor Roos. To those numbers, I add my voice. As a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth, I can do no less.