In Defeat, Defiance. Silence is not an Option

Dear friends,

Yesterday we witnessed something that I didn’t expect. After all of Trump’s mind numbing, hate filled gibberish, and his exposure as a felon and a rapist who was quite obviously mentally disturbed and deteriorating before the whole world. I finally hoped that Trump’s MAGA minority would be overwhelmed by the turnout of people who actually wanted to support and defend our Constitution, republic, and democracy.

I thought that Kamala Harris was a solid candidate who had been saddled with all the negative baggage associated with President Biden, which was primarily associated with persistent negative media coverage and the refusal of the media to cover the madness, insanity, and unhinged actions of Trump. I felt that she had run a competent campaign, but had been undermined by Biden’s unpopularity, Russian disinformation, the negligence of the media, as well as the misogynistic and racist nature that was at the heart of the MAGA beast. I think that she and her campaign that made mistakes, which if they were made in a normal, non-Trump campaign would have had little to no effect.

It now does no good to brood on what might have been or should have happened. When I got up this morning I was stunned and disappointed. Honestly, I feared and do fear the worst. However, I cannot let my disappointment and fear dominate me. Instead, I chose to emulate the words of Winston Churchill who wrote in the front piece to his History of the Second World War: “In War, resolution. In defeat, defiance. In victory, magnanimity, and in peace, good will”. Today in the face of a resounding defeat by Donald Trump, I choose, “in defeat, defiance”. Thus, silence is not an option. I chose the path of resistance, using the word, the law, and my faith. It is not the path of violence. The election is over. My side, and I think the United States and the world have lost. That has to be acknowledged as painful as it is, we should not resort to the use of denial and lies used by Trump and his Cult after the election of 2020, nor should any of us to resort to violence to protest the result, or use violence against Trump or any of his supporters, unless they use extrajudicial violence to try to harm any of us, then we can use force to defend the lives of ourselves and our families. Outside of that, the path must non-violent.

I also, regardless of the risks entailed when battling a personality cult that believes that God is on their side, to speak out as forcefully as I can. Since over the last decade and a half I have received credible death threats and had a Trump supporting parishioner at my last Navy Chapel assignment try to ruin my life, career, and future by lying about what I said in a sermon to have me tried by Court Martial. His charges were lies, and quickly dispensed with based on the testimony of most of the chapel members and staff who were present, but I needed a heavy hitting legal team from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation to ensure that my life and career would not be destroyed. The truth is, that when Trump supporters and MAGA voters scream about religious rights and freedoms, they only mean theirs, not anyone else’s rights, even other Christians, forget those of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans or anyone else. Thus, having already experienced their persecution, I cannot be silent, for silence now, is complicity with evil, and yes, Donald Trump and MAGA are evil. They have abrogated any allegiance to the Constitution, the ideals of the Declaration, and the law. The Christian Nationalists who have anointed Trump as their “Messiah”, have abandoned any notion of even pretending to bey the Gospel and the most basic principles of the Christian faith. Those people especially, are heretical and deserve the whirlwind that they have sowed, and yes, like it or not, they will reap it, just like the German Christians who supported Hitler deserved their fate.

In 1942, a young German university student named Sophie Scholl, her brother, and a number of their friends and professors began the White Rose, a resistance movement against the Nazi rulers. They began to produce and publish anti-government pamphlets around Munich and mailing them around Germany. In February, 1943, following the defeat and debacle at Stalingrad, they began to distribute their seventh pamphlet, and by then they were wanted by the Gestapo. When pressed for time, Sophie and her brother dumped a caseload of pamphlets in the rotunda of the University of Munich. As they fled they were spotted and identified by a janitor who happened to be a Gestapo informant. They were arrested, interrogated, taken before a tribunal of the Nazi People’s Court headed by the extremist jurist Roland Freisler. They were convicted, condemned to death, and executed at Munich’s Stadelheim prison the next day. Sophie was just 22 years old.

She said this:

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”

She also uttered these words: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak.” If a 22 year old student in the heart of Hitler’s police state can resist as she did, how can I or you not give in to despair and not resist today?

The pavement outside the University of Munich

The choice is ours. I cannot be silent in the face of the evil that we face. Can you? Or will you chose to be ones who won’t take measure of their own strength, but instead hope to play it safe. Truthfully, anyone who has ever spoken out against Trump and MAGA is already marked as an enemy of the state. Your Facebook, Twitter, email, and texts are already available. You cannot hide. So will you try to be silent, or will you resist by speaking out?

So, the choice is ours. Until tomorrow.