It used to be that threats against civil servants, not to mention attempted kidnappings and assassinations were an exception, not a common occurrence. Although the man arrested in Florida and the one killed in Pennsylvania were targeting a presidential candidate and have received the most attention, more common are the threats against poll workers, librarians, and others who serve the public.
Over the past 15 years or so, political rhetoric has become more violent. The fallout from a fraudulent story about Haitians eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio, is but one example. Not only are individual Haitians threatened but schools and public buildings as well. Violent rhetoric has real fallout.
Using the language of violence to stir up crowds only serves to create more violence. Politicians who claim to be Christian and use language of hate stirred against particular groups are hypocrites. You can’t claim to hold the cross of Christ and rant against people based on their ethnicity or race.
Prayer for the Day
In humility, we come to you, O God, needing forgiveness
For we are complicit in the violence that consumes us;
More concerned with our comfort than with hateful speech,
We shrug our shoulders, thinking there is nothing we can do.
We have not called politicians to task for their language of hate
Nor have we called out fraud and hypocrisy for what they are.
In the name of the One who calls us to peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Last Saturday night police had to be called because some White people came in there, [the church] talking bad. On Sunday, only about 30 kids showed up for the youth ministry, less than half the usual attendance. Children were asking if they were coming to kill us.
Philomene Philostin, naturalized American citizen, Springfield, Ohio.
Immigration has always been the American way, but it has never been easy. Irish migrants fleeing the potato famine in the 1840s were shunned and looked down upon. Immigrants from Eastern Europe in the early decades of the 20th century were ridiculed for the way they dressed and the unfamiliar cooking smells that wafted from their apartments.
Eugene Robinson, columnist, The Washington Post
The alien who resides with you shall be as a citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:34