In March 1946 at Westminster College in Kansas Winston Churchill spoke of the responsibilities of power and gave the dark warning of an iron curtain descending across Europe that threatened democracy everywhere. We are now in those same dark times as a man elected President now acts as an unrestrained monarch believing he has the authority to set aside the Constitution he swore to uphold.
Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and applies to anyone born in the United States irrespective of so-called Executive Orders. In his disgraceful attempt to carry out his promise of mass deportation, Trump now declares that children born here are not citizens. They are.
In his attempts at ethnic cleansing, for that is what it is, our agricultural and industrial heartland will be destroyed. Food prices will soar because factory farming requires people who will work under terrible conditions. And when the next hurricane hits the coast, there will be no one to rebuild. The darkness is now settling.
Prayer for the Day
No longer a mother of exiles, we cry for mercy, O God,
As xenophobia and hate spread throughout the land;
No longer welcoming those who would build our Nation,
We turn inward, O Lord, seeking to save oneself.
Save us, O merciful One, so we are not as Jerusalem destroyed,
Where the dogs lick the blood of freedom and liberty.
In the name of the One who comes to us in this time,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power. It is a solemn moment for the American Democracy. For with primacy in power is also joined an awe-inspiring accountability to the future.
Winston Churchill, from “Sinews of Peace” (1874-1965)
Whether it is tribalism, racism, xenophobia, or anti-Muslim backlash we’re talking about, we spend so much time and energy fighting ways to divide ourselves from others.
Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney General
How lonely sits the city that was once full or people! How like a widow she has become,
She that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal.
She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks;
Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her;
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies.
Lamentations of Jeremiah 1: 1-2