The bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us
The churchy people who run “the National Cathedral” in DC have issued a rebuke of Trump. (What actually is “the National Cathedral”? Is that just the name it gave itself? We’re not supposed to have a federal cathedral, surely. But anyway.) Mostly I don’t publicize what churchy people say, but given that presidents are expected to do things there (again, why?), this one is of interest.
The escalation of racialized rhetoric from the President of the United States has evoked responses from all sides of the political spectrum. On one side, African American leaders have led the way in rightfully expressing outrage. On the other, those aligned with the President seek to downplay the racial overtones of his attacks, or remain silent.
They accompany this opening with an apt photo.
Oh zing, racist in chief Trump pretending to be pious at the National Cathedral.
We have come to accept a level of insult and abuse in political discourse that violates each person’s sacred identity as a child of God. We have come to accept as normal a steady stream of language and accusations coming from the highest office in the land that plays to racist elements in society.
The child of God bit is beside the point. Human rights don’t and shouldn’t depend on a god. Insult and abuse are insult and abuse, and we should avoid them so as not to make people unhappy and angry.
But then they get down to the job.
This week, President Trump crossed another threshold. Not only did he insult a leader in the fight for racial justice and equality for all persons; not only did he savage the nations from which immigrants to this country have come; but now he has condemned the residents of an entire American city. Where will he go from here?
Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.
These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover, to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America. They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.
When does silence become complicity? What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.
As leaders of faith who believe in the sacredness of every single human being, the time for silence is over. We must boldly stand witness against the bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us, especially when it comes from the highest offices of this nation. We must say that this will not be tolerated. To stay silent in the face of such rhetoric is for us to tacitly condone the violence of these words. We are compelled to take every opportunity to oppose the indecency and dehumanization that is racism, whether it comes to us through words or actions.
The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington
The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of Washington National Cathedral
The Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, Canon Theologian of Washington National Cathedral
This should make it awkward for Trump ever to go there again, yet he will be expected to.
Good.
One thing I do find problematic is the idea that somehow Trump is creating the racism. I saw it repeatedly invoked in last night’s debate, but no one would make the obvious connection. Trump isn’t causing the racism (inflaming it, maybe, but I see it more as giving it permission). He has tapped into a racism that exists at the core of our society, spanning the spectrum of right to left, but stronger and more virulent in the right. This is the same with the sexism.
We shouldn’t act like this is something new, or like it arose out of nowhere and will go away if Trump goes away. The Democrats need to recognize that there is a huge streak of racism running across this country, and that simply enacting new economic policies or giving everyone health care and free college won’t make it go away. They are trying not to say that (possibly remembering the backlash from ‘basket of deplorables’), but if they do not acknowledge that and figure out a way to create a new way of communicating and being in the world, all their denunciations of Trump’s racism will be in vain.
The National Cathedral is an Episcopalian cathedral; it doesn’t have any official government sanction or function, though it’s a convenient place for pols in DC to make a show of piety and unity.
Other than that, what iknklast said.
“What actually is “the National Cathedral”? Is that just the name it gave itself? We’re not supposed to have a federal cathedral, surely. But anyway.“
It goes back to George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant (who was commissioned by Washington to design the city) in 1791 who imagined “a great church for national purposes.”
Iknklast,
Trump is a symptom of a disease that has plagued America since forever…
https://exjournalistsunite.wordpress.com/2018/11/08/trump-and-americas-xenophobic-soul/