My Christianity is very important to me. Every day, I try to live in a way that would please Him. I remember that passage from the Book of Matthew: "Whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me."
So my heart sang when I listened to James Talarico, the new Senator from Texas. He delivered his acceptance speech from a podium emblazoned with LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.
"Not just my neighbor who looks like me. Not just my neighbor who prays like me. Not just my neighbor who votes like me. I am called to love all of my neighbors the way I love myself."
I've been appalled by the Islamophobia of this campaign season. Our President insisted on calling Abdul el-Sayad "Muhammed," and a "Jihadish lunatic." That's our President, ladies and gentlemen. Hearing that rhetoric from the leader of the free world makes many so-called Christians more comfortable with their bigotry. I've heard MAGA enthusiasts say, "Who or what is Ilhan Omar?" Do they really think that's how Christ wants them to speak? I guess they figure Donald Trump has given them some kind of hall pass allowing them to dismiss another's very humanity based on religion.
And oh yeah, it's unpatriotic. They ignore that the Constitution specifically prohibits the government from establishing a religion or interfering with the free exercise of religion. I don't believe our forefathers meant it was OK to be Lutheran instead of Methodist. It means we can all worship any way we wish, or not at all.
Didn't we adjudicate this as a country in 1960? It sounds stupid now, but there were actually voters who were afraid that as our first Roman Catholic President, JFK would ignore the Constitution and instead be a puppet of the Pope. I just hope that in 60 years, another generation will hear this fear of Muslims as just as ignorant and silly.
I know that Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and JD Vance have all made fun of Talarico's masculinity. He's not their kind of man. Thank God!
I think it’s safe to say that we are tired of being pitted against each other. We are tired of being told to hate each other. It has been ten years of this kind of politics. Politics as blood sport. Politics as trolling and owning. Politics as professional wrestling. It tears families apart. It ends friendships, and it leaves us all feeling terrible all the time.
I know it leaves me feeling terrible. I hear those of the Christian right demonize and scapegoat gays and transsexuals. They claim that this is some convoluted way of protecting our children.
OK, then. How can they still support the mainstream GOP after both JD Vance and Donald Trump gave their full-throated support to the attack ad on Amy Acton? Instead of helping a victim of childhood sexual abuse heal, they applaud publicly retraumatizing her for political gain. If that's solid, red-blooded American masculinity, I'm with wimpy Talarico.
I know it's a cliche, but my best friends were gay. I miss them every day. I loved them. They behaved in a more Christian way on a day-to-day basis than those who wrap themselves in Christianity while denying my friends equal respect and equal rights.
Oh, and while we're at it, if these holier-than-thou folks are so worried about the well-being of our children, why aren't they up in arms over the way Ghislaine Maxwell has been treated by the current administration? Convicted of sex trafficking and abusing underage girls, she was moved to a minimum security prison after meeting with the DOJ's Todd Blanche. No, MAGA doesn't care about protecting children. They're just indulging their own worst anti-gay impulses.
I could go on, of course. When MAGA clutches their pearls and gasps over "socialism" and "communism," I wonder where they were these past two years when our President slapped his name on a memorial, had banners of himself displayed on public buildings, enriched himself to the tune of billions and unleashed undertrained, masked paramilitary troops on our streets. The authoritarian antics of Donald Trump as chief executive have done more damage to this country the DSA elected to Congress. (Who, by the way, haven't even been seated yet.)
Love requires that we stand between the bullies and the bullied. Love requires that we look evil in the eye and not blink. That kind of love has always been a threat to the powers that be. That kind of love is revolutionary. That kind of love is creative. Hate is predictable. Hate is boring. Hate can’t lower our energy bills. Hate can’t teach a child to read. Hate can’t build a future. But what hate can’t do, love can.
Those are the words of James Talarico. They inspire me to do better. To shake off the ugliness of the last two years. To go into the Christmas season with renewed hope.
We can’t defeat the politics of division with more division. We can’t win that game. We have to change the game.
Read the Senator-elect's entire speech here. You will love it!
