How Should We Respond?
After the Assassination Attempt Against Trump
So how was your weekend?
The events of Saturday evening (I had to re-remember exactly when the assassination attempt occurred — it seemed longer ago already.), among many other things, presented me with some decisions as I prepared to lead Morning Prayer and preach Sunday morning at my parish. In the end, the only change I made from my earlier plans was to add a clause to the BCP’s prayer “For Our Country” — I thanked God for and prayed for “the continued protection of President Donald Trump.”
And is there any doubt that God protected Trump on Saturday? Wow.
I thought about additional changes, including replacing my sermon. But the rest of the service stayed the same, including the sermon, which I will post later this week.
I intended to post the sermon yesterday or today, but that is another change I’m making. I was too mentally exhausted yesterday (and perhaps physically as well — leading Morning Prayer in a cassock and surplice during a South Texas summer morning can drain one of a lot of sweat and more. I know my voice was not at its best.). And today there are some things that need to be said that should not be put off.
Today, Americans at the point where they have seen enough and have had enough. Rod Dreher, hardly a fire breather and no fan of Trump, expresses it well this morning:
They wouldn’t leave Evangelical Christian Jack Philips alone to bake his cakes and run his business.
They won’t let parents know if their children are transing themselves in school.
They won’t let parents remove pornographic books from school libraries.
They teach little children and teenage minors to hate everything normal — their families, their own bodies, even their very identity.
They told us that the President of the United States was a Russian Manchurian (Siberian?) candidate, and crippled his administration with these lies.
They told us Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation, though they knew it was not.
They lied to us about Covid and its origins.
They told us that we couldn’t have even a semblance of a normal life because of Covid … unless we were going out onto the streets to protest racism, or burn the cities down to honor George Floyd.
“Mostly peaceful” riots.
They have turned professional journalism into propaganda. For example, they ignored obvious signs of Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline into decrepitude, until he choked on live TV — and are now shocked, shocked that the White House deceived them.
They tried to ruin as a bigot a high school kid who wore a MAGA hat on the Mall, and was set upon by a provocative left-wing activist.
They have conspired to destroy institutions essential to running society by keeping out the accomplished and the meritorious, for the sake of letting in those who are incapable of doing the work, but who possess the favored demographic profile.
They have divided America and made us fear and loathe each other on racial lines.
They have demonized white people — especially white males.
They have destroyed statues and attempted to rewrite American history to reflect ideological convictions.
They have led near-pogroms against Jews on elite American campuses.
They secretly pressured, from senior government levels, a policymaking medical organization to abandon scientific considerations in order to eliminate lower limits on sexually and psychologically mutilating children.
They passed laws in some states allowing the government to seize minor children from their uncooperative parents, for the sake of sexually and psychologically mutilating them.
They are destroying women’s sports, and making women everywhere more vulnerable to mentally unwell men who think they are women.
They gaslit us into war in Iraq, and now they’ve gaslit us into an ongoing, unwinnable war against Russia, risking World War III for no plausible national interest.
They are wrecking the military with DEI, such that fewer normal men want to serve.
They have frightened millions of Americans into silence over fear of cancellation.
They have left the back door into the US wide open for migrants, including Hezbollah fighters, likely Chinese agents, and others.
They shipped America’s manufacturing base overseas, and blame Americans for being unhappy with their economic prospects.
They deregulated Wall Street, and when it blew up in 2008, managed to avoid punishing anyone for it.
They failed in Iraq and Afghanistan, but no senior military commander lost his job for it, even though the 2014 Afghanistan Papers report revealed that the Pentagon didn’t know what it was doing, and didn’t care.
All those American soldiers, physically and psychologically maimed by the invasion of Iraq on false pretenses, and by the stupidity of trying to build a liberal democracy in Afghanistan — swept under the rug.
In a country where you have to show ID to buy beer, this week they tried to defeat a law that would require people to show ID proving they are citizens in order to vote.
They declared that Americans who dissent from all this are on the “far right” and might be “domestic terrorists” — while mollycoddling Antifa and violent leftists.
They put Trump through a show trial in Manhattan on flimsy charges, to make him easier to remove as a rival to Joe Biden
AND NOW … they have tried to assassinate Trump.
Dreher clarifies that “they” are the Ruling Class, which includes some establishment Republicans. Further (emphasis his): “I’m absolutely NOT saying they (“they”) conspired to kill Donald Trump. This kid who shot Trump is certainly not part of the American elite (though he did appear in a Black Rock commercial when he was in high school). What I’m describing is how the accumulation of these facts makes me feel. I see an order there — an order that does not imply design or conspiracy, but rather a collection of facts about events that have created within me a deep disgust with conditions in America today.” He continues:
So, when bloodied but unbowed Trump shouted, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” yesterday, I tensed up inside like a fist — and I don’t think it will unclench until Election Day.
And it should not.
I heartily agree. Americans are right to be stirred up and, yes, angry. Americans should be angry.
But Scripture and history remind us that anger, even righteous anger, is hard to handle and contain. Yes, the Democrats and allied RINOs have committed great evils against America. And, yes, they have blood on their hands, not only from inciting violence against President Trump with their inflammatory Big Lies, but also with allowing criminals and invaders to overrun our cities and more. I cannot see how a red-blooded American can not be angry.
But we must keep our eyes on the task at hand. We must defeat the Regime! I would call it the Biden Regime, as I often have, but it is so much more than the puppet Biden. So we must channel our anger into wise action to defeat them and to heal our country from their predations; we must not allow our anger to become foolishness.
Now I know my regular readers are all well “above average” as Garrison Keillor liked to brag. You are not a foolish lot at all. But if only one man takes what I’m about to say to heart and avoids foolishness, then it will be well worth saying. So I will say it.
This is NOT a time for violence. See how the country is turning against the Democrats and towards Trump after the assassination attempt? That includes many you would not expect. Dreher noted this tweet among many:
We are winning. See what has happened now that the Trump haters have so fully exposed themselves as the bad guys, even provoking and allowing this assassination attempt?
Do you also see how we could lose it all? If we become the bad guys. People would turn against us just as they have turned against them.
As I’ve stated before, I am no pacifist. But we have to let them be the bad guys. If you have to grit your teeth from saying violent words or doing violent acts, then grit your teeth and take yourself aside to pray and calm down. Don’t you be the bad guys.
I say this to myself as well. No, I am not tempted to go out and commit violence. But I can get a bit spicy in my words as you may have noticed. I do think it is important, especially at this time, to expose and oppose the profound evils of the Regime. But now I will take that much more care to do so in a manner that informs and reminds towards wise action, not inflames towards what might be foolishness. That is easier said than done as the evil of the Democrats is itself inflammatory.
But we need to be smart. We have to be smart. Democrats have way overstepped and become the bad guys. Let them be the bad guys, not you, not us. “Be angry, yet do not sin.” (Ephesians 4:26) You take your righteous anger and channel it into righteous wise action. Do you have a red-blooded friend who never gets around to registering to vote? You get him registered and make sure he votes. Heck, contact that good hard working young man Scott Pressler and help him get people registered to vote. You live in a swing state prone to election rigging? Become a poll watcher or even a (peaceful!) drop box watcher. Disinformation and ignorance is everywhere (and not just on the Left). So you do your part to educate others. And more. I heartily concur with Yuri.
What can we do as patriots? Pray. Stand with the man who is putting his life on the line to save our Republic. Subvert subversion and white pill harder than ever before. Challenge every lie you hear. Fight for what you believe in every way other than physical violence. Wear a MAGA hat as often as possible and buy a shirt with the iconic picture here to remind everyone about courage and what is at stake. Remember the innocent bystander who was killed tonight. Hug your loved ones tighter. I gave Baby Yulia the biggest hug of her life while putting her to bed last night. We will be telling our grandchildren about where we were when these shots were fired.
Hear! Hear! But, again, don’t be stupid with either your words or actions. Let them be the bad guys.
I will surely have more to say, but I thought I best say that right here and now.
Pray for our country. And, as I did at Morning Prayer on Sunday and as I will do just about every day now, pray for God’s continued protection of President Donald Trump.