This letter began as an open letter to the president, but having seen those more likely to be heard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I offer this opinion to my local sisters and brothers who undoubtedly feel the pain and anger I do as I watch the unraveling of our beloved country.
The televised “photo-op” of our president standing in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in our nation’s capitol holding up a Bible as a prop was nothing more than one more attempt to validate his presidency by seeking to convey the image that God was blessing his particular and peculiar understanding of what his office is all about. I know from my understanding as to who God is (by whatever named called) that God did not, does not, nor will not embrace any action or inaction that does not lift up the sacredness of every human being.
To be sure, many human beings don’t understand that what we do is entirely different from who we are and while violence is not part of our destiny, our voice certainly is.
Our president, by his own words, demonstrates that he doesn’t understand why our Declaration of Independence begins with the three words, “We the People,” and that as such, we refute monarchs bywhatever name called (King, Queen, Tsar, Premier, or President.) Millions upon millions have lived and died to guarantee the life of our democracy. The president himself, upon taking the oath of office, agrees to protect that democracy.
No one would argue that our nation has had severe crises of late, some of which could have been avoided by someone more concerned with the body politic rather than the politics of the body.
As but one of many examples, the murder of our brother George Floyd reopened wounds that were “healed too lightly” ever since the Emancipation Proclamation. For while slavery (the institutionalized form of racism) was abolished, the mindset of racism still rears its ugly head far too often among far too many.
When on Jan. 20, 2017, the president took the oath of office he swore to “fulfill the office of president … ” and swore to protect the Constitution from “all enemies, foreign and domestic,” and then by failing to do so, has done irreparable harm to that high office. One could only hope that he would emulate Richard Nixon’s action and resign for “the sake of the presidential office.”
President Trump seems to forget that he does not own the White House. We the people own it! He also seems to forget that his job is to coordinate the will of the people — to serve that people. He is not above accountability. In fact, he is accountable to all the citizens of our beloved country. We are not accountable to him.
As a pastor of the United Church of Christ, I rarely use a biblical quote to make a point. Permit me a short citation from the prophet Micah. “He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”
The Rev. William H. Duffe is a United Church of Christ clergyman, having retired from East Church, Congregational in Springfield in 2008. He lives in Easthampton.