Category Archives: Politics

Politics

If Trump’s Praise for Hitler Isn’t a Red Line for Christians, What Is?

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Trump claims that “Hitler did many good things” and says “I want the same kind of generals that Hitler had.” As we have pointed out before, he is a clear threat to democracy.

Just two weeks before the presidential election, Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly drops a metaphorical bomb: Trump repeatedly insisted that Hitler did many good things, and he often complained about not receiving full obedience from his generals. For instance, Trump attempted to start a war with Iran, which his generals prevented, something that deeply frustrated him.

At one point, Trump said he wished he had “German generals” instead. John Kelly asked if he meant Bismarck’s generals, but Trump didn’t know who Otto von Bismarck was. “Surely you don’t mean Hitler’s generals?” Kelly asked in shock. “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals,” Trump replied.

Kelly pointed out that during his time as Trump’s chief of staff in the White House, Trump became increasingly fascinated by dictators and how they had much more power over people than democratic leaders. He observed that Trump often became furious at any attempt to limit his power and that “he would love to be” a dictator.

“He certainly prefers the dictator approach to government,” Kelly told The Times. “I think he’d love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things and they would do it, and not really bother too much about whether what the legalities were and whatnot.”

“He definitely prefers the dictator’s way of governing,” Kelly told The Times, later adding: “I think he would love to be just like he was in business — he could tell people to do things, and they would do it, without really bothering too much about whether what he was doing was legal or not.”

Kelly is not the first former senior official in the Trump administration to describe the former president as a threat. General Mark A. Milley, who was Trump’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said that Trump is “a wannabe dictator” and “the most dangerous person to this country.” And Trump’s own former vice president, Mike Pence, said after thousands of Trump supporters tried to kill him for certifying the 2020 election: “Anyone who puts themselves above the Constitution should never be president of the United States.”

Most white evangelicals have stood by Trump through all the lies and hate, all the sexual abuse and rape, all the Putin praise and crimes. They even continue to support him after he abandons his pro-life stance and starts promoting abortion. But will they continue to support him even after he praises Hitler and wants Nazi generals? They wouldn’t, would they?

Sign our petition “Pentecostals Against Trumpism” here!

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Gender Equality, Politics, Racial Justice

Pentecostals Against Trumpism — Sign Our Statement!

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Join your name to this statement below!

We who have signed this statement are Spirit-filled Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians who believe that the Bible is the Word of God and that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Because of this, we refuse to vote for or support Donald Trump and his MAGA movement.

We do not feel that we need to compromise with or ignore our faith when we take a stance against Trumpism. On the contrary, it is precisely because of our commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ that we cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump and what he stands for.

The Demonization of Immigrants

At the center of our Pentecostal spirituality is the miracle of Pentecost, in which the Holy Spirit united people of various nations through the miracle of tongues. The modern Pentecostal movement has one of its origins at Azusa Street in Los Angeles in which a multi-racial group of Americans and immigrants were baptized in the Holy Spirit together.

Leviticus 19:33-34 clearly states that we should love immigrants as ourselves and treat them as natives. Treating immigrants with love and empathy is a core value of any Christian.

For these reasons, we are horrified when we see how:

Most of the migrants that Trump employ this hateful, vile rhetoric towards are Christians. And most of those he wants to deport to poor, war-torn countries are also Christians. As fellow Christians, we cannot stand behind this.

The Disrespect, Belittling and Criminal Abuse of Women

As Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians, we strive for holiness and to become more Christ-like in all that we do and say and want to support people of good character. Evangelical Christians used to be the ones that emphasized the importance of politicians’ personal morality the most – that has rapidly changed during the reign of Trump.

While we do not believe one has to be perfect to be a president, the Bible emphasizes the importance of good character in both political and spiritual leaders (Deuteronomy 17:17, 1 Timothy 3:2). In particular, greed and sexual immorality are sins that bring God’s wrath upon people as they are equal to idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Donald Trump abounds in these sins without being repentant which has even led to criminal convictions:

Notice that Trump has done all this while claiming to be a Christian and without ever apologizing for any of these acts towards women. He also said in 2015 that he has never asked God for forgiveness.

The Threat to Democracy

Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians have been pioneers for democracy around the world, since our conviction that the Holy Spirit can and wants to use anyone empowers them to make a difference for their lives and their communities. Jesus taught that we should do to others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12) and that leaders should serve rather than rule as kings (Matthew 10:42-45). Thus, we believe that democracy is biblical while dictatorship leads to tyranny and oppression.

Donald Trump has become alarmingly authoritarian over time and researchers have found that Trumpism has made the Republican party more akin to authoritarian parties such as AKP in Turkey and Fidesz in Hungary. It has become increasingly clear that Trumpism is a threat to democracy:

Obviously, the fact that we view Trump as a threat to democracy does in no way legitimize or excuse the awful assassination attempts on Donald Trump’s life. As Christians, we reject all types of political violence. At the same time, we cannot stay silent about the threat to democracy that Trumpism forms in the light of all the evidence given above.

Conclusion

As Spirit-filled Christians, we affirm the inherent God-given value of all human beings and whole-heartedly oppose all hate and belittling towards migrants, women and minorities. Our primary loyalty is to Jesus Christ, not to a political party, and our faith remains in him. This is why we cannot embrace Trumpism and refuse to vote for Trump in this year’s presidential election.

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Politics

Billy Graham Warned Against the Political Right Manipulating Religion to Promote Bigotry

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Did you know about this? In 1981, the world famous evangelist Billy Graham said:

“I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form… It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.” – Billy Graham

Many have questioned whether this really is true so

and unlike most of the things the MAGA movement is claiming nowadays, it’s completely accurate. In the 1 February 1981 cover story of Parade magazine; Billy Graham’s commented his conversations with fellow pastor Jerry Falwell, who helmed the conservative political group the Moral Majority (which was neither moral nor a majority). The full quote from Graham is:

I told him to preach the Gospel. That’s our calling. I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the ’60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the ’80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.

This recent ad from Evangelicals for Harris is a stark reminder that the Gospel that Graham was preaching was nothing like the hateful, bigoted lies that Trump is building his authoritarian campaign on that tries to destroy democracy:

While Billy Graham’s son Franklin has joined the MAGA movement and desperately tries to claim that Billy would have been a Trump supporter as well if he had lived today, you can’t erase what has clearly been written down in history as the foundations of evangelical belief.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Politics

Even a Republican Who Praises Hitler and Admits to Adultery Doesn’t Lose Much Evangelical Support

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Republicans can literally call themselves Nazis and openly admit to adultery without losing much evangelical support, apparently.

Republican Mark Robinson has been a frequent visitor to an adult website called Nude Africa where he regularly watched transgender sex and posted comments guaranteed to offend a variety of constituencies.

In comments Robinson posted on the pornography site, he praised Hitler, called himself a “black NAZI,” said he supported slavery, confessed to formerly “peeping” on women as they showered, admitted an affair with his wife’s sister; and called civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “Martin Lucifer Koon.”

Donald Trump endorsed Robinson’s current campaign to be North Carolina’s next governor, praising him as “Martin Luther King times two.” According to Raw Story, many evangelical leaders in North Carolina say they still support Robinson and that he clearly loves Jesus. The very same Jesus who said that we should judge the tree based on its fruit (Matthew 12:33-37).

Many of these evangelicals have emphasized “family values” and representing “Biblical morality” when they’ve explained how they reason when they vote. But Robinson represents the opposite of that. As does Donald Trump, obviously, who has bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, sleeping with other married women, is a legally defined sexual predator and was found guilty on 34 charges of paying hush money to a porn star after sleeping with her when Trump’s youngest son was only four months old.

Continue reading Even a Republican Who Praises Hitler and Admits to Adultery Doesn’t Lose Much Evangelical Support →
Politics, Racial Justice

Trump’s Lies about the Christian Haitians in Springfield has Emboldened the KKK to Harass them

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by Shane Claiborne. Cover photo by Alison Jackson.

Trump and Vance have unleashed and emboldened some of America’s ugliest principalities and powers. This KKK flyer was handed out in Springfield, OH this week, after Trump and Vance spread racist lies about Haitians eating pets in Springfield:

I know there are folks saying these flyers are not real, but this was sent to me by a friend in Springfield who received one. The FBI is now involved.

May we all stand against hatred and racism, especially any of us who claim to be Christians. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves, and Jesus said when we welcome the stranger, we welcome Him. Hate will not win.

Let’s just make a bold statement… Christians shouldn’t be supporting the same rhetoric and polices as the Ku Klux Klan.

The racism, lies and hateful rhetoric of the KKK and Donald Trump are a direct contradiction to the Gospel of Jesus.

I don’t think that means you have to wear a Kamala shirt. But let’s all agree to stand together for love, compassion, and truth. Let’s keep Jesus and the Beatitudes front and center. Let’s stay grounded in the fruit of the Spirit. Let’s stand against all forms of hatred, false witness, and bigotry.

Some things are not about Left and Right… they are about right and wrong.

Shane Claiborne is a Red Letter Christian and a founding partner of The Simple Way community, a radical faith community that lives among and serves the homeless in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia. He is the co-author, with Chris Haw, of Jesus for President. He has also written Executing Grace: Why It is Time to Put the Death Penalty to Death.

Politics

Everyone Could See that Trump is a Liar and a Wannabe Dictator in the Debate

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Donald Trump lost big in his debate with Kamala Harris when, among other things, he rambled about Joe Biden not being president, that everyone attending Harris’s rallies are paid actors, and that immigrants eat cats and dogs in the small town of Springfield, Ohio.

The latter was corrected by the debate moderator, who said that Springfield’s authorities have denied this, but Trump protested like a five-year-old and shouted, “I saw it on television!!”

The most bizarre part of the debate, however, was when Trump boasted that a dictator likes him. Kamala Harris had just pointed out that Trump tried to undemocratically hold onto power after he lost the 2020 election like a dictator and that even people who worked with him called him a “disgrace.” And how did Trump respond?

“Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men—they call him a ‘strongman’—he’s a tough person, smart… He said: You need Trump back as president.”

For normal people, it’s not a good sign when a racist dictator who persecutes journalists and condemns “mixed-race nations” endorses you, but Trump is incredibly impressed by dictators and wants to be like them. Kamala Harris pointed out: “These dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again… You adore strongmen instead of caring about democracy.”

This is far from the first time Trump has praised a dictator and expressed himself in an anti-democratic way:

Trump praised President Xi in China for consolidating power in order to become president for life, saying he wanted to try the same thing.[1]

Trump has repeatedly “joked” about serving longer than the legal limit of two terms.[2]

Trump has repeatedly praised authoritarian leaders, including Putin, Duterte, Erdogan, el-Sisi, and Orbán.[3]

Trump praised the brutal dictator Kim Jong Un, calling him “strong, funny, and smart.”[4]

At a G7 summit, President Trump loudly asked, “Where’s my favorite dictator?” while waiting for the Egyptian dictator.[5]

Trump has defended those who stormed the Capitol to prevent Joe Biden from being democratically elected and said he would pardon them if he becomes president again.[6]

Trump has looked up to the sky and declared that he is “the chosen one.”[7]

Trump shared a tweet in which he was called the King of Israel and the Second Coming of God, and he thanked them for the compliment.[8]

Trump has explicitly written that the U.S. Constitution should be suspended to prevent him from losing elections.[9]

Trump told his supporters that they wouldn’t need to vote again after this election.[10]

Recently, Trump has repeatedly said that he would “only” be a dictator on day one if he’s re-elected and would use presidential power dictatorially to get revenge on his political enemies.[11]

He also recently claimed that all his political enemies will be arrested when he comes to power.[12]

Trump is the greatest threat to U.S. democracy we have ever seen. Let us pray and act so that he loses big in November!

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

References:

  1. Deutsche Welle – US President Donald Trump praises China’s Xi Jinping for consolidating grip on power
  2. CNN – Donald Trump just keeps ‘joking’ about serving more than 2 terms as president
  3. The Atlantic – Nine Notorious Dictators, Nine Shout-Outs From Donald Trump
  4. Fox News – Trump praises Kim Jong Un as ‘strong,’ ‘funny,’ ‘smart’ and a ‘great negotiator’ in Hannity interview
  5. Wall Street Journal – Trump, Awaiting Egyptian Counterpart at Summit, Called Out for ‘My Favorite Dictator’
  6. The Guardian – Trump says pardoning Capitol attackers will be one of his first acts if elected again
  7. BBC – President Trump: ‘I am the chosen one’
  8. CBS – Trump tweets quote calling him the “second coming of God” to Jews in Israel
  9. Fox News – Why Trump’s ‘termination’ of Constitution, demanding reinstatement or do-over, has set off alarms
  10. The Guardian – Donald Trump repeats controversial ‘You won’t have to vote any more’ claim
  11. Associated Press – Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric
  12. NBC – Trump is increasingly vowing to prosecute political foes and others he says are ‘corrupt’ if he wins
Nonviolence, Politics

Evangelicals Call Jesus “Weak” for Promoting “Liberal Talking Points”

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Russell Moore used to be one of the top officials of the Southern Baptist Convention and is currently the Editor in Chief of Christianity Today. Last year, he was interviewed by NPR and explained why he thinks American Christianity is in crisis:

Russell Moore

It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — “turn the other cheek” — [and] to have someone come up after to say, “Where did you get those liberal talking points?”

And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, “I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,” the response would not be, “I apologize.” The response would be, “Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis.

I’m sure many want to discard this as some extreme, uncommon view among a very small minority of church goers, in spite of Moore telling us that multiple pastors has told him similar stories. However, the vital question is not how many evangelicals have a heretical view of Jesus’ words and teaching, but how this situation could even arise in the first place.

And it’s not that mysterious when you think about it, is it? Moore himself has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump and what the support for him among white evangelicals has done with their movement. With his adultery, sex with pornstars, constant lies, mocking of disabled people, hate against immigrants, disrespect for the poor and other sins, Trump is extremely unlike Jesus. Yet, he is constantly portrayed by many evangelicals as the one to save the country, sometimes in very blasphemous ways, which Trump himself makes sure to capitalize on:

And so, it’s not strange that when some evangelicals who are told over and over again that a Christian champion looks like Trump cannot recognize the true Jesus. As Russell Moore said in the very same interview:

I think if we’re going to get past the blood and soil sorts of nationalism or all of the other kinds of kinds of totalizing cultural identities, it’s going to require rethinking what the church is. And I don’t think that’s something new. I think it’s very old. I think it’s recovering a first-century understanding of what it means to be the church.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Politics

Trump has no Empathy and is a Threat to Democracy, According to His Former Aides

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More and more of those who previously worked for Trump are now warning about him, stating that he lacks a moral backbone and lies constantly—which most of us had figured out already, but now even those who were once his supporters are starting to realize the truth. Not a moment too soon!

Stephanie Grisham, on the right in the picture below, worked for Trump when he was president, called herself a “true Trump believer,” and was, among other things, his press secretary. She recently urged Republicans to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris instead and revealed what Trump says when he thinks no one is listening.

“Behind closed doors, Trump mocks his supporters—he calls them ‘basement dwellers,'” Grisham said during her speech at the Democratic Party Convention. “Basement dwellers” is an insulting term describing someone who is poor and lacks a social life.

“When people were dying in intensive care units, he was mad that the cameras weren’t filming him,” Grisham said. “He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me: ‘It doesn’t matter what you say, Stephanie. Say it enough, and people will believe you.'”

Trump’s campaign responded to this in a very calm, professional, and nuanced manner. No, of course not.

They wrote that Grisham is “a dummy and a liar” who “clearly suffers” from many “mental issues.”

The question that arises, of course, is whether that doesn’t make Trump an even bigger “dummy with mental issues” since he hired her to be responsible for his communication with the outside world. The claim that it’s Grisham who is lying and not Trump is bizarre, given that he has been caught lying over and over again.

Grisham’s account of how Trump was annoyed that TV cameras were filming intensive care patients instead of him is also confirmed by another of his former employees, Olivia Troye, who also urges Republicans to put democracy above party and vote for Harris instead of Trump.

Other former Trump employees who are warning about him include his former Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, who has called him a “threat to democracy,” and his former National Security Advisor, John Bolton, who has said that he is “unfit to be president.”

This is far from the first revelation about the gross things Trump says when he thinks no one is listening. He told his friend Billy Bush that you can grab women by their genitals and sleep with married women when you are as famous as he is, and he told a bunch of billionaires who support the Republican Party that he would make them and himself “rich as hell” by significantly lowering taxes for the super-rich.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Politics, Racial Justice

Trump’s Mass Deportations Would Cost Trillions and Leave Millions of Children Without Parents

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Donald Trump’s plan to deport 15 million people is both dangerous and inhumane. This plan would require enormous resources, cause humanitarian disasters, and lead to economic and social instability in the United States.

The former president Trump has promised, if he’s elected again despite now being a convicted felon, to deport more people than there are undocumented immigrants in the country, meaning even legal residents and citizens could be at risk. Such an operation would demand a massive amount of resources and personnel, making it extremely costly and logistically complicated—perhaps even impossible. The deportation process would cost over $210 billion and require a workforce larger than the U.S. Army.

Trump often claims that millions of undocumented immigrants to the US come from prisons and mental institutions, but that is simply false and has been described as “laughable” by experts. In reality, immigrants are just like other people: some are bad, most are good.

The humanitarian consequences of Trump’s plan would be devastating. Mass deportations on this scale would result in the separation of millions of families and leave approximately 4.5 million American children without one or both parents. This would place a massive burden on social systems and likely lead to a humanitarian crisis. If the children are not deported themselves, they would need state care, which would cost an additional $118 billion. Most of these children would belong to Christian families.

Economically, deporting such a large portion of the workforce would create labor shortages in several sectors, driving up inflation and harming the economy. It has been estimated that the U.S. GDP would immediately decrease by 1.4 percent and by $4.7 trillion over the next decade. This would also negatively impact the housing market, putting over a million mortgages at risk.

Socially and politically, Trump’s plan involves state National Guards and other security forces conducting mass arrests in cities and communities across the country. This would create a situation where residents live in constant fear of arbitrary and violent interventions. There is also a risk that this would lead to violent confrontations between federal forces and local authorities or residents trying to protect their neighbors.

The motivations behind Trump’s plan are also troubling. Stephen Miller, who has a history of racist, white nationalist, and xenophobic views, sees the deportation of non-white immigrants as a personal mission and has been appointed by Trump to oversee this monstrous project. The plan is not just a political proposal but part of a broader agenda to change the demographic composition of the U.S. Which is in line with Trump’s ambition to remain in power at any cost, even if it requires terminating the Constitution.

Legally and constitutionally, Trump’s plan raises significant issues. The proposal to revoke birthright citizenship violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and bypassing legal processes to carry out mass deportations would contravene fundamental legal principles. This would undermine the rule of law and set a precedent for future authoritarian measures.

Overall, Trump’s plan to deport 15 million people is both dangerous and inhumane. It would cause significant humanitarian and economic damage, create social and political instability, and undermine the rule of law. We must take this threat seriously and work to prevent Trump’s plans from being realized, as the consequences would be devastating for both individuals and society as a whole.

Jesus said: “When I was a stranger, you welcomed me… Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:35, 40). Deporting millions of people from the richest country on earth while making millions of children of children orphans is the opposite of that.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!

Nonviolence, Politics

The United States of Assassinations

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Assassination attempts are always horrendous, evil and sinful, and we condemn the attempted murder of Donald Trump in the strongest terms. No political disagreement is an excuse for violence. Yet, the United States has a dark history of political assassinations – Lincoln, Kennedy, Luther King – as well as assassination attempts. And before Trump, there was Pence.

In this election cycle, many seem to have forgotten the attempted assassinations of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress on the January 6th storming in 2021 when Trump supporters tried to overturn the results from the 2020 presidential election. Some of them had even made a noose, shouting that it was time to hang Mike Pence for accepting the election results.

Trump has repeatedly supported the January 6th rioters, calling them great patriots, and has even expressed support for those who shouted “Hang Mike Pence” according to his White House chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows.

Of course, this does in no way legitimize or excuse the assassination attempt of Trump. As a peace organization, we reject all typs of violence, both when it comes from Trump’s camp as well as when its directed towards it.

Violence is all too often a vicious cycle: sin that leads to sin that leads to sin. After Trump had been hit and the Secret Service had killed the attacker, his bodyguards wanted to immediately take him to a safe area but the former president ordered them to wait so that he could raise his fist to the audience and shout: “Fight!”

The audience loved it, and even some in the non-MAGA crowd have called it “badass”. At the Republican convention where Trump was nominated as presidential candidate in spite of being a convicted felon, the audience shouted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as he entered the stage with a damaged ear from the attack.

This conflict narrative of fighting is strangely combined with calls for unity, primarily directed at political opponents. Trump’s speech at the convention, which was his first after the assassination attempt, called for unity and respect for a couple of minutes only to then go after the Democrats for over an hour, calling them dangerous and a threat to democracy that uses the justice system for illegitimate “witch hunts”. Meanwhile, president Joe Biden was asked by reporter Lester Holt to stop pointing out facts about Trump in the name of unity, including when Trump welcomed and laughed about a political opponent being attacked with a hammer.

Do you see the double standards here? Trump and many of his supporters have welcomed political violence and threats of violence multiple times, but when political violence is aimed at Trump the demand is not only that his critics should denounce the violence (which, of course, they should) but also denounce factually correct statements that are critical of Trump, such as him being a threat to democracy with his disdain for election results that don’t go his way. And if calls for unity is incompatible with talking about threats to democracy, why don’t Trump’s supporters criticize him when he described the Democrats as a threat to democracy?

Because of the very fact that we’re against all violence, we feel obliged to remind everyone that the Trump movement is in no way foreign to assassination attempts and deadly threats. Violence begets more violence – what’s needed is the way of the Prince of Peace who tells us to love our enemies and reject all kinds of killing.

Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.

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Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!