I woke up this morning with a sinking feeling. It's here. The day many Americans have been dreading or fearing or attempting to ignore. The day many others have been waiting for with joyful anticipation. And the day many people truly don't know how to react to.
I wanted to post things. To say why I was angry. To say why I was sad. To weigh in on the cabinet choices. To, yet again, make clear that I did not, could not, vote for Trump. And that on this, the day of his inauguration, I was grieving.
But my distrust and dislike of him is no secret. So I held off.
I was up before the boys. In the dark, drinking coffee, listening to my heart thump rapidly and then begin to slow down in peace. And I was reminded.
I am first and foremost a Christian. A believer in Jesus. A follower of God-become-man who walked the earth during a time of tremendous oppression, division and racial strife. Who taught his followers to pray for their enemies, to show love to those who persecute them. And who also made it clear that talking the talk isn't enough. That justice will prevail. And that all people are made in the image of God. I'm not sure our now-current President understands those things. I truly hope he will come to.
So, before I chose to say anything, before I chose to do anything, I invited my son to pray with me. He balked at first.
Josh: "Why should we pray for him? He is so unkind, Mom. I'm worried about how he will treat people."
Me: "That is exactly WHY we need to pray for him. If we believe that God is good, that God is love, that God is powerful and loves ALL people...then we have to pray that a man that now has so much power, also has the ability to change and use that power for good."
In the end, my son didn't really have words and I don't believe in forcing my kids to pray. He asked me to do it. We prayed for Trump, we prayed for the Obamas. And I sent him on his way to school like I always do: "Find the good, be the good. I love you."
I spent the morning with friends drinking coffee and talking about life and dancing with Jayce. I didn't watch the inauguration live. I chose to watch it later, with my two little ones asleep.
And friends, I am not going to lie. It was hard to watch. It was painful to listen to all the nationalist rhetoric. It was frustrating to watch a billionaire with questionable business practices blame Washington for stealing all their wealth and sending all their jobs overseas. I, for one, am not teaching my children "Americans first." I am teaching them to love their neighbor as themselves. And as a Christian who loves Jesus and what he taught, I cringed when he said that God would protect America. Why? Why in the world are we so arrogant to believe we have the protection of God?
I do not know what the next four years hold. I prayed for Obama. I will pray for Trump. It doesn't mean I have to like him or sit idly by when I don't agree with him. It doesn't mean I have to support dangerous cabinet picks. I don't and I won't.
Praying for him today was the harder choice. It would have been much easier to mock him, much easier to be angry or to wallow in fear for what's coming for us and the world.
So, each morning I am going to have to ask God to help me make the harder choice. To pray first. Because I so badly want to act first. I so badly want to say exactly what I am thinking but if there is one thing I know right now it's that my emotions cannot be trusted. And, more than that, I know my kids are watching and listening. I don't want my legacy to them to be rash action and angry words. I want them to learn what it means to love God, pray first and then act boldly and justly and with mercy, whatever the situation.
So today and tomorrow and next week, I will pray for him.
For our divided nation.
For my friends who are hurting and afraid and angry.
For my friends who are rejoicing.
For much of the world that is fearful of what this all means on the global stage.
For all of us; humans created in the image of God. Not just Americans. All of us.
And I will continue to speak up in love. And to act. And to hope.
May God give me the grace to do so. And forgiveness when I fail.
Showing posts with label Trump. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trump. Show all posts
Friday, January 20, 2017
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Enough Already
I haven't written anything "political" on my blog since the morning after the election. I chose that day to share my own grief, my own fears for the future of my sons. I know a lot of people shared those deep feelings of heartache along with me and continue to do so.
I watched as the next few weeks have gone by as people have torn each other apart. How people who are angry have protested or rioted. How people who are hurt have shared that hurt in public forums for the first time. How people who are elated have either stayed silent to show restraint for those hurting or have gloated in hurtful ways.
Yes, my feed is full of many types. Those who are appalled right now. Those who aren't saying anything. And those who, largely, are telling the rest of us to move on. Get over it. Agree to disagree.
Yesterday, though, I watched a video. It was of an alt-right group hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. I felt like I was watching something that had to be fake. The anti-semitic remarks, the white nationalist pride, literally the use of the following words from Richard B. Spencer:
"To be white is to be a striver, a crusader, an explorer, a conqueror...And we recognize the central lie of American race relations. We don't exploit other groups, we don't gain anything from their presence. They need us, and not the other way around...We were not meant to beg for moral validation from some of the most despicable creatures to ever populate the planet...America was, until this last generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity."
To hear and see something like this, proudly broadcast, was like watching a scene from a documentary from Nazi Germany made into color. To watch this happening in my own country brought a deep sense of shame.
People have largely laughed off the comparisons over the last year that some people have made of Trump to Hitler as overblown or unhistorical - I myself quoted Martin Niemoller in a post 6 months ago about remaining silent in the face of hateful rhetoric and stand by that post.
Do I think they are the same? Of course not. I have Jewish ancestry. I remember the long, painful day I once spent with my aunt in the National Holocaust Museum and how we combed the database looking up family members to learn their exact fate. I do not think Trump is Hitler. I do not think we are on the cusp of a holocaust in America.
What I do think is that the way he has spoken about many people groups, the way he has unashamedly mocked people, used inflammatory rhetoric, refused to denounce hate groups who have supported him...I do think that that behavior has opened the door to the absolute mess we are now seeing.
People who have always existed in hateful lifestyles and opinions now feel free to do it publicly in a way we haven't seen in decades. At least not on a national scale.
And as a mother and, frankly, a human being, I am appalled. Appalled that in 2016 there is a rising tide of people joining white supremacist groups in this country. Appalled that people didn't see this coming, that wrote off his rhetoric as "mere words." Appalled by the rise in hate crimes. Appalled that the best Trump can do is say "stop it" and do nothing at all to convince us he means it. Appalled that he is more offended by the cast of a Broadway show respectfully engaging his running mate than by the words of this group in D.C.
Words are powerful, my friends. Haven't we learned that by now?
So yes, I've sat by and watched our country spew hate at each other. I've seen people say that those who are hurting are "sore losers" who just have to move on. I have wondered if I even have anything to add to all the words being thrown around. But if I don't say something, I'm not sure I can look my sons in the eyes any longer.
What in the actual hell are we moving on to? WHAT?
What I wish I had seen over the past week was just one pro-Trump friend of mine denouncing the Muslim registry. JUST ONE.
What I wish I had seen over the past 24 hours was just one person in my feed who unashamedly voted for Trump calling for him to denounce the alt-right movement as distinctly UN-American and, frankly, more dangerous than the foreign terrorism he so clearly fears and uses to demonize large swathes of people.
What I wish I had seen since he was elected was family and friends who voted for him denouncing his choices for cabinet members, his cronyism, the ways he is already doubling back on promises he made to them to clean up Washington and do things differently.
Because the bottom line, at least according to those who voted for him in my feed, is that they found him more trustworthy than Hillary.
Really? Trustworthy?
Friends, what are our children going to see right now?
Men who have their hands raised in the same salute that Nazis made to Hitler 80 years ago?
Or a president who will come out and say "Enough is enough" and move towards the people he has alienated over the past year and a half?
Will they see us bickering and name calling?
Or a generation of adults who are willing to fight for what is right when hate is attempting to define our generation?
I, at least, know what my sons will see and hear in this home.
We will preach love. We will preach forgiveness. We will preach truth.
And preaching those things means that we will stand up and say "no."
No to white supremacy. No to the alt-right. No to appointments of people who clearly only care about one group of Americans. No to people who would attempt to criminalize being Muslim. (And to those who would argue that they aren't attempting to criminalize but just register them...please read your history books. Nothing good ever comes to those who are set apart as "other." Tutsis, Jews, Poles, Armenians, Native Americans...the list goes on.)
Unfriend me if you will. Tell me I'm being overly emotional or overreacting. I don't think having a visceral reaction to an white nationalist rally is overly emotional. I think it's human. I will not be silent, I will not be complacent.
I would much rather fall on the side of vigilance and wariness than on the side of "wait and see" on this one.
And I will not move on if it means our country will become a more dangerous, more openly hateful place.
President-elect Trump, it's your move. Are you going to keep wasting our time on twitter or are you going to speak up? Enough already.
I watched as the next few weeks have gone by as people have torn each other apart. How people who are angry have protested or rioted. How people who are hurt have shared that hurt in public forums for the first time. How people who are elated have either stayed silent to show restraint for those hurting or have gloated in hurtful ways.
Yes, my feed is full of many types. Those who are appalled right now. Those who aren't saying anything. And those who, largely, are telling the rest of us to move on. Get over it. Agree to disagree.
Yesterday, though, I watched a video. It was of an alt-right group hosting a conference in Washington, D.C. I felt like I was watching something that had to be fake. The anti-semitic remarks, the white nationalist pride, literally the use of the following words from Richard B. Spencer:
"To be white is to be a striver, a crusader, an explorer, a conqueror...And we recognize the central lie of American race relations. We don't exploit other groups, we don't gain anything from their presence. They need us, and not the other way around...We were not meant to beg for moral validation from some of the most despicable creatures to ever populate the planet...America was, until this last generation, a white country, designed for ourselves and our posterity."
To hear and see something like this, proudly broadcast, was like watching a scene from a documentary from Nazi Germany made into color. To watch this happening in my own country brought a deep sense of shame.
People have largely laughed off the comparisons over the last year that some people have made of Trump to Hitler as overblown or unhistorical - I myself quoted Martin Niemoller in a post 6 months ago about remaining silent in the face of hateful rhetoric and stand by that post.
Do I think they are the same? Of course not. I have Jewish ancestry. I remember the long, painful day I once spent with my aunt in the National Holocaust Museum and how we combed the database looking up family members to learn their exact fate. I do not think Trump is Hitler. I do not think we are on the cusp of a holocaust in America.
What I do think is that the way he has spoken about many people groups, the way he has unashamedly mocked people, used inflammatory rhetoric, refused to denounce hate groups who have supported him...I do think that that behavior has opened the door to the absolute mess we are now seeing.
People who have always existed in hateful lifestyles and opinions now feel free to do it publicly in a way we haven't seen in decades. At least not on a national scale.
And as a mother and, frankly, a human being, I am appalled. Appalled that in 2016 there is a rising tide of people joining white supremacist groups in this country. Appalled that people didn't see this coming, that wrote off his rhetoric as "mere words." Appalled by the rise in hate crimes. Appalled that the best Trump can do is say "stop it" and do nothing at all to convince us he means it. Appalled that he is more offended by the cast of a Broadway show respectfully engaging his running mate than by the words of this group in D.C.
Words are powerful, my friends. Haven't we learned that by now?
So yes, I've sat by and watched our country spew hate at each other. I've seen people say that those who are hurting are "sore losers" who just have to move on. I have wondered if I even have anything to add to all the words being thrown around. But if I don't say something, I'm not sure I can look my sons in the eyes any longer.
What in the actual hell are we moving on to? WHAT?
What I wish I had seen over the past week was just one pro-Trump friend of mine denouncing the Muslim registry. JUST ONE.
What I wish I had seen over the past 24 hours was just one person in my feed who unashamedly voted for Trump calling for him to denounce the alt-right movement as distinctly UN-American and, frankly, more dangerous than the foreign terrorism he so clearly fears and uses to demonize large swathes of people.
What I wish I had seen since he was elected was family and friends who voted for him denouncing his choices for cabinet members, his cronyism, the ways he is already doubling back on promises he made to them to clean up Washington and do things differently.
Because the bottom line, at least according to those who voted for him in my feed, is that they found him more trustworthy than Hillary.
Really? Trustworthy?
Friends, what are our children going to see right now?
Men who have their hands raised in the same salute that Nazis made to Hitler 80 years ago?
Or a president who will come out and say "Enough is enough" and move towards the people he has alienated over the past year and a half?
Will they see us bickering and name calling?
Or a generation of adults who are willing to fight for what is right when hate is attempting to define our generation?
I, at least, know what my sons will see and hear in this home.
We will preach love. We will preach forgiveness. We will preach truth.
And preaching those things means that we will stand up and say "no."
No to white supremacy. No to the alt-right. No to appointments of people who clearly only care about one group of Americans. No to people who would attempt to criminalize being Muslim. (And to those who would argue that they aren't attempting to criminalize but just register them...please read your history books. Nothing good ever comes to those who are set apart as "other." Tutsis, Jews, Poles, Armenians, Native Americans...the list goes on.)
Unfriend me if you will. Tell me I'm being overly emotional or overreacting. I don't think having a visceral reaction to an white nationalist rally is overly emotional. I think it's human. I will not be silent, I will not be complacent.
I would much rather fall on the side of vigilance and wariness than on the side of "wait and see" on this one.
And I will not move on if it means our country will become a more dangerous, more openly hateful place.
President-elect Trump, it's your move. Are you going to keep wasting our time on twitter or are you going to speak up? Enough already.
Thursday, March 3, 2016
The Enemy Thing
Every day I wake up, flip on the computer and wait.
Wait to see post after post, memes, articles..all begging us to run as far from Trump as possible, to denounce him, to make fun of him. Wondering WHO really supports him. Questioning why Christians might be behind him. Mocking him.
I, myself, have offered my fair share of semi-humorous commentary on the subject. I, myself, have mocked him.
But the bottom line is...I have not once prayed for this man.
As a Christian, a woman and a mother to two black boys, I think it would be fair to consider Trump and his followers the "enemy." I have heard what he has to say about minorities (both religious and ethnic), I have watched my black friends post about leaving the country if he gets elected and I do not blame them or believe they are kidding. I have witnessed his misogyny. I truly believe he is a fascist of the first order and his rise is eerily reminiscent of what went on in Germany in the 1930's. The "othering', the fierce nationalism...the fear mongering, the pledges to exact revenge on those who disagree.
But, the bible tells me to pray for my enemies. To love them. And I have not done that. I have bought into the fear, the hysteria, the mocking. And let's be honest...being able to find ways to laugh at him makes the fear disappear for at least a few minutes a day. What's the harm, right?
From now on, though, I am going to pray for this man. That God would meet him where he is and show him that God is bigger than he is. That he would turn his heart from hate and fear. That he would value women instead of objectifying them. And on and on and on.
But while I will stop mocking him and I will pray that God will help release me from the fear of what he can do, I will not stay silent about what he says and does. To be silent, to not speak up for the oppressed, the persecuted...is to be complicit in that oppression, that hatred.
I saw a quote this morning:
And, as a student of World War II history, I was immediately reminded of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who said something eerily similar as he saw hate and tyranny swirl around him when Europe descended into war and holocaust in the 1930's and 40's.
You think I am exaggerating in comparing these two?
That's fine. But humanity has not progressed. What happened then could happen again. Easily. And there are thousands of people who are following and agreeing with the hatred that is spewing forth. He is not one lone voice.
So while I will no longer choose to mock and moan, I will choose to find the truth, speak it as often and as loudly as I am able, go to the polls and vote against him and move boldly forward trusting that God is bigger than this election, more powerful than Trump can ever hope to be and that he is a God of mercy, love and justice.
Who is with me?
Wait to see post after post, memes, articles..all begging us to run as far from Trump as possible, to denounce him, to make fun of him. Wondering WHO really supports him. Questioning why Christians might be behind him. Mocking him.
I, myself, have offered my fair share of semi-humorous commentary on the subject. I, myself, have mocked him.
But the bottom line is...I have not once prayed for this man.
As a Christian, a woman and a mother to two black boys, I think it would be fair to consider Trump and his followers the "enemy." I have heard what he has to say about minorities (both religious and ethnic), I have watched my black friends post about leaving the country if he gets elected and I do not blame them or believe they are kidding. I have witnessed his misogyny. I truly believe he is a fascist of the first order and his rise is eerily reminiscent of what went on in Germany in the 1930's. The "othering', the fierce nationalism...the fear mongering, the pledges to exact revenge on those who disagree.
But, the bible tells me to pray for my enemies. To love them. And I have not done that. I have bought into the fear, the hysteria, the mocking. And let's be honest...being able to find ways to laugh at him makes the fear disappear for at least a few minutes a day. What's the harm, right?
From now on, though, I am going to pray for this man. That God would meet him where he is and show him that God is bigger than he is. That he would turn his heart from hate and fear. That he would value women instead of objectifying them. And on and on and on.
But while I will stop mocking him and I will pray that God will help release me from the fear of what he can do, I will not stay silent about what he says and does. To be silent, to not speak up for the oppressed, the persecuted...is to be complicit in that oppression, that hatred.
I saw a quote this morning:
And, as a student of World War II history, I was immediately reminded of Pastor Martin Niemoller, who said something eerily similar as he saw hate and tyranny swirl around him when Europe descended into war and holocaust in the 1930's and 40's.
You think I am exaggerating in comparing these two?
That's fine. But humanity has not progressed. What happened then could happen again. Easily. And there are thousands of people who are following and agreeing with the hatred that is spewing forth. He is not one lone voice.
So while I will no longer choose to mock and moan, I will choose to find the truth, speak it as often and as loudly as I am able, go to the polls and vote against him and move boldly forward trusting that God is bigger than this election, more powerful than Trump can ever hope to be and that he is a God of mercy, love and justice.
Who is with me?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Good Enough
Having to actively fight the perfectionist side of myself while I take these three classes is a true battle. I want the A. Gosh darnit, I ...
