“Listen to him shout. I like his strength and his passion,” an audience member said as he explained his reasons for backing the hand waving speaker in the red baseball cap.
The omnipresent Donald Trump is accidentally reminding loving leaders & caregivers of something we sometimes forget: Shouting is not strength unless it is shaped by the eloquence of high purpose. Degrading others is the mark of a charlatan not a statesman. Simplistic declarations about walls & immigrants & bimbos & bombing are not the principles on which America was built, much less the teachings of Jesus.
To listen to Trump during these sacred days causes one to wonder if this is Hell Week in America rather than Holy Week in the world. According to him nothing is right & everything is wrong. His opponents are "liars, cheats, low-lifes & losers" and America is "going down the toilet."
Does Trump (uncharacteristically awkward discussing his Christian faith) sound more like Jesus or more like Jesus' Roman detractors? Do his crowds sound like the disciples of Love or the mob that called for Jesus' crucifixion?
Governor John Kasich remains the only Republican candidate to strike a note of civility by saying, "I'm not going to take the low road to the highest office in the land." He is in last place.
Passion is crucial to loving leadership. It is the energy in high purpose inspiration. Hateful rhetoric is not on the resume of any great leader. Fear speech is the language of bullies & dictators. Its fertile fields are the hearts of the weak and the cowardly that, finding no strength in themselves, turn to one who imitates strength.
Loving passion courses through the veins of every committed caregiver. Passion is Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Van Gogh’s, “Starry Night,” and Atticus Finch in “To Kill A Mockingbird.”
Passion is Lincoln at Gettysburg (can you imagine Trump giving such a speech?) It is Winston Churchill in 1940 stirring Londoners to stand strong against Hitler’s bombs. It is Martin Luther King stirring dreams among millions in 1963. It is Mother Teresa speaking her vision to serve not simply the poor, but “the poorest of the poor.”
It is also the surgeon separating Siamese twins, the nurse helping a newborn breathe, the ER manager encouraging a tired second shift and the Chief Financial Officer congratulating the staff on making budget.
Passion and its sister Compassion are the arms of love reaching out for the hands of need. It is Jesus standing on the mountain to tell us that it is the poor who are blessed & the meek who shall inherit the earth. It is the passion of Jesus hanging from the cross, hungry, thirsty, bleeding from hands and feet and forehead, a wound in his side, suffering for all of us, offering us living water & the path to light.
Since Jesus called us to love our enemies we can pray for those so fearful they respond to hate speech.
High purpose passion ignites the firewood of hope not the hellfire of hate. It alone illuminates the light of God’s love amid the darkness of despair. It is the resurrection from the cave as well as the passion on the cross.
-Reverend Erie Chapman
Images from Library of Congress & Charis Ministries
