To the editor:
In religious tradition, all religious tradition, concern for the poor and the weak has been unequivocally exhorted and repeatedly enjoined. Compassion for, and relief of, the widow, the orphan, the homeless, the refugee, the blind, the disabled, the persecuted, the destitute, the unwanted, and the outcast has been the common denominator of all religious values, the foundational premise of all moral codes, Judaic, Islamic, and Christian alike.
Moreover, offenses against the poor and the weak, such as avarice, oppression, and neglect, are not only condemned, but made the cardinal determinant of divine judgment itself: “When did I ever see you hungry?”
Yet, it seems demonstrably clear that these same dispossessed, whom religion has ever called on mankind to commiserate, are the very target of Mr. Trump’s harsh doctrine of denial: his banning of refugees, his disgusting mockery of the disabled, his continued and contagious denunciation of other races, his insensitive and intransigent border policy, and his determination to decimate, if not abolish, needed medical care and minimal subsistence for the poor in this country.
Nevertheless, he aspires to, and may very well achieve, the supplanting of democracy with a dictatorship allegedly informed by a revisionist or neo-Christianity, a dominant, authoritative, and oppressive regime under the would-be spiritual auspices of an unrecognizable God — devoid of all mercy, and subservient to the ruling power so as to ratify its cruelty.
Many of Mr. Trump’s supporters approve this arrogant travesty of religion because of their delusion that Mr. Trump is pro-life which he is not and cannot be. For there is a unity of offended innocence. One cannot claim to be the champion of innocent human life while exacerbating the suffering of, and engaging in the destruction of, innocent human life!
Essentially, Mr. Trump and his supporters are in a de facto rejection of Christian principles; they don’t actually subscribe to them! What is insulting is that they should yet brazenly presume to violate them in the name of religion! And what is next? Does a victorious Mr. Trump, with what seems to be his increasing predilection for executions, simply shoot to kill those who are the subject of the Sermon on the Mount, mow down “the least of His little ones” so as to make America great again? We shall see.
Joseph R. Noone
Lynn
