Awake to Threats; Opposed to Fascism

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted October 15, 2025

Communications these days are filled with code words and abbreviations. For instance the simple verb “woke” now means being aware, alert, and educated, especially about issues of justice, equality before the law, and civil and human rights. ANTIFA is simply an abbreviation of “anti-fascist,” coined by persons who actively protest against the increasingly dangerous fascist trends in our government.

Sadly, the current administration uses both of these terms as pejoratives. In doing so they clearly expose their own opposition to justice, democracy, and the rule of law. They seem to want a compliant population, unaware of and indifferent to the dangers of authoritarianism.

Noted German theologian Dorothee Sölle (1929 – 2003) spent a number of years in the U.S. lecturing, leading workshops, and teaching at Union Theological Seminary. She often warned about the signs of what she termed Christofascism – a narrow, rigid pseudo-Christian dogma mixed with authoritarian politics – that she saw in our country.

In 1991 I was privileged to attend a weekend workshop/retreat with Dr. Sölle. Her presentation was a faith-filled and eye-opening urgent warning. I was awakened to threats to our Constitutional republic about which I had until then been unaware. In subsequent years those threats have grown tremendously into the present reality.

As a consequence of her urging and others I stand firmly against the cruelty, lawlessness, and corruption of the current regime. If that means they consider me to be an “enemy,” so be it. I invite others who care about our nation’s well-being to join me.

Trump Defies Constitution and Christ

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted September 15, 2025

Since his inauguration President Trump has issued Executive Orders which, in his view, eliminate perceived anti-Christian bias in government regulations and support Christian values. Most recently he reversed the long-standing IRS rule which penalized religious institutions that make political endorsements. These orders, along with his other actions, are both a direct defiance of our Constitution, and a complete contradiction of the values taught by Jesus Christ.

The First Amendment to our Constitution clearly protects us from government imposition of any religion. The lie that the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation is easily refuted by Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli, ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1797. It begins “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion …” To claim otherwise is to misrepresent actual history.

Equally troubling is the display of gross ignorance of the teachings of Jesus. For example, true Christians know that the first laws are “love God and love your neighbor.” Sending masked, armed operatives to disappear neighbors and terrorize neighborhoods is not love.

Christ preached that one cannot serve both God and wealth. Plastering every visible surface with gold, dealing fraudulently with banks, and privileging billionaires in business and political transactions demonstrate clearly where Trump’s loyalty lies.

Jesus taught “feed the hungry; heal the sick; comfort the afflicted” – administration actions are doing just the opposite. Anti-Christian bias is rampant in the White House. If the president sincerely wants to change that, he needs first to look in the mirror.

We Need True Conservatism

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted August 12, 2025

General understanding seems to be that the Democrats comprise the liberal party, and Republicans are conservative. This designation raises a multitude of questions.

To “conserve” is to preserve, to protect, and to save. How does allowing $800,000 worth of emergency food aid to rot in a warehouse rather than distributing it to starving children preserve life? What is conservative about the proposed rejection of the “endangerment finding,” which has underpinned environmental protection efforts since 2009? Will cancelling critical research projects and terminating the positions of thousands of medical professionals save our lives?

The repeated violations of and threats to the provisions of our Constitution demonstrate clearly that the current Republican regime is anything but conservative. The President usurps Congressional powers of taxation, while a supine Republican majority offers no protest. His on-going attempts to limit the definition of citizenship are the subject of several current court cases. He lies about conditions in our cities to justify sending in federal troops. His rapidly escalating grabs for dictatorial power, and the cadre that supports him, pose a dire threat to our democratic republic.

Our country needs an honest, legitimate conservative political party – one that takes a cautious, carefully researched and vetted approach to making changes in laws and policies; one that promotes highly skilled, scrupulously honest leadership in government departments and agencies; one that values strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

In the 1850s the Republican party emerged as a reformist movement. Now it needs itself to be reformed or replaced. We must all work together to stop these authoritarian threats and preserve the nation we love.

Non-violent Resistance Is Necessary

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted July 10, 2025

The cruelty of the Trump regime is heartbreaking. They began on day one with the termination of USAID and severe limitation of PEPFAR (U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), actions which are estimated to have caused nearly 300,000 deaths so far. They have moved on to captures and disappearances, to masked and armed individuals invading public spaces and spreading terror, to parents being ripped from crying spouses and frightened children.

A brutal concentration camp has been opened in the Florida Everglades, located in an isolated area infested with disease-carrying insects and dangerous reptiles. Elected state representatives desiring to inspect sanitation facilities have been denied access. It has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” and one prominent influencer close to the administration has contemptuously joked of feeding incarcerated migrants to the alligators. Trump himself has brushed off any concern for the dreadful conditions in the camp.

While the primary targets have up until now been immigrants and internationals, the recently-passed budget reconciliation bill extends the cruelty to the millions of U.S. citizens who rely on government assistance for basic needs. Drafters of the bill cunningly scheduled the worst of the cuts to take effect after the 2026 mid-term elections, hoping to obscure GOP responsibility for the suffering to come.

The current regime is intent on authoritarian control. They ignore the Constitution and disdain the rule of law. Razor-thin majorities in Congress are cowed into submission. A corrupt Supreme Court has granted immunity to the lawless president. To preserve our republic, we must resist with every non-violent tool at our command.

Attacks on Medicine and Research

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted June 8, 2025

I was born in a United States at war. Massive amounts of resources and millions of lives were being dedicated to battling brutal, deadly dictatorships. Everything else was secondary.

Within a year peace had come, and possibilities blossomed. Among them were great expansions in medical and scientific innovation. Universities and teaching hospitals tackled diseases that have plagued humankind for millennia. They welcomed skilled researchers; progress was heartening.

Vaccines nearly eliminated polio and other diseases that ravaged childhood. Failing organs were strengthened and replaced. As new viruses emerged, they too were subdued by the dedicated work of brilliant scientists and their assistants.

Medical procedures that were unthinkable when I was young have become commonplace. And U.S. institutions have been in the forefront of scientific progress for virtually all of my life … until January 20, 2025. In less than five months healing has been turned to suffering, nourishment to starvation, purpose-filled life to agonizing death.

Our foremost educational and research institutions are under vicious attack. Extraordinary doctors and eager international students are being expelled. Years of study and experiment that were close to major discoveries have been summarily ended, their results destroyed. The conscienceless billionaires who have seized control of our government don’t care. They think they’ll be fine. The rest of the world will suffer the results of their cruelty.

This is not the country we are intended to be. There is still hope. With every breath remaining in our bodies, we must resist the chaos and the inhumanity. Lives depend on it.

Anti-Christian Behavior in the Executive Branch

 Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted May 14, 2025

In February President Trump established a Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias. This is especially ironic because his administration frequently acts in opposition to Christ’s teachings. Just a few days after his inauguration, when Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde urged him to govern with mercy, a key attribute of Christian living, he and his supporters responded with vicious verbal attacks against her and her message.

Jesus summarized religious law as “love God and love your neighbor,” making it clear that everyone is our neighbor, especially the strangers among us. Trump is slandering, imprisoning, and expelling thousands from our country, seemingly delighting in the fear and torment his I.C.E. agents create.

Jesus instructed us to feed the hungry and heal the sick. Under the direction of Trump’s associate Elon Musk, one of the first acts of DOGE was to end the humanitarian work of USAID, denying food and medicine to millions of suffering people. As one commentator has observed, the richest man on earth is killing the world’s poorest children.

Jesus stated plainly, “You cannot serve God and wealth.” With his ostentatious décor, from gold overlaying much of the Oval Office to gold toilets at Mar-a-Lago; with his portrait emblazoned on his gold crypto-coin; with his eagerness to accept a palatial airplane from Qatar in direct violation of the Constitution, Trump makes it obvious which he serves.

I suggest that Trump’s task force begin with eradicating the anti-Christian bias in the executive branch of our government. That should keep them busy for quite a while.

Hands Off Our Democracy!

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted April 11, 2025

My tax dollars are paying for the torture of human beings. I object! I am outraged, infuriated, disgusted. So far more than 200 men have been seized by operatives of the Trump-Musk-Vance regime, flown to El Salvador, and thrust into a hellhole of unspeakable cruelty and abuse. Few prisoners survive to come out alive.

As human rights organizations work to identify the victims of this lawless action, it has become increasingly clear that the vast majority have no criminal record, no charges filed against them, and no opportunity or legal representation to contest their removal. U.S. officials are in blatant violation of constitutional and international law.

I ask: Where are all the Republicans who advocate for “Christian values” in our country? Where in Christ’s teachings do they find instruction to capture children of God and subject them to unbearable torment? Why aren’t they standing up and declaring that Jesus taught us to love our neighbors, not to destroy them? By their silence they implicate themselves in this atrocity.

A murderous authoritarian cult is doing its best to gain complete control of our nation. If they succeed, the suffering of those who have been disappeared into captivity will be magnified a hundred fold. None of us is safe from the threat. But last Saturday upwards of three million of us rose up and said Hands Off! Hands off our democracy, our well-being, our laws, our science, our freedom. We are determined to prevail in the struggle, with liberty and justice for all.

Speak Out for the Disappeared

 Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted March 14, 2025

In the years when I was involved in Latin America solidarity work, we mourned the “disappeared.” They were the resisters, the justice and civil rights advocates, the teachers, doctors, and priests. They were grabbed from homes and offices, classrooms and shops. The fortunate ones turned up in prison somewhere, but most were found as corpses, or never found at all. In many countries the reign of terror lasted for years.

Now ICE is “disappearing” people. Every day we learn another name – Mahmoud Kahlil, Jasmine Mooney, Becky Burke. While each one of these has now been located, all three in brutal detention centers with no clear path for release, in each case it took days for concerned family to learn their whereabouts. These are the few whose names are now public knowledge. I have no doubt that there are and will be others. Cruelty is a hallmark of the Trump-Musk regime’s modus operandi.

German Lutheran Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous quote, spoken after he was freed from eight years in a nazi prison camp, bears repeating now: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Now is the time for each of us to speak out loudly and clearly. The lawless, hateful destruction of our country must not prevail.

Trump-Musk Abuses Begin

 Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted February 19, 2025

Amidst the flood of atrocities coming from the Musk-Trump regime, several common themes stand out. Foremost are contempt for the rule of law, disregard for our constitution, and immense cruelty directed at others.

Senator David McCormick, in reply to my email, wrote “President Trump has nominated a team of disrupters …” In this he is correct. Disruption of once-dependable institutions and services is a tactic of authoritarians intent on taking over democracies. The would-be dictator can then convince a traumatized populace that only he can save them.

In just a month’s time the U.S. under Trump and Musk has become a much less safe place. Vast databases of our confidential personal information are under attack by Musk’s operatives. We do not yet know what malignant actors may have access to our private data with intent to harm us.

The suffering increases daily. Thousands of federal workers lose their jobs. Contracts with farmers and grants for critical medical research are cancelled. Promised support for food and heating aid in poor communities is withdrawn. International cooperation is replaced by threatened land grabs. With the cancellation of USAID, disease and death increase worldwide. Countries that were once our firm allies now regard the U.S. as an adversary, viewing us with suspicion and distrust.

Terrible as this all seems, there is still opportunity to correct course. Please speak out. Join the non-violent resistance as you are able. We live in the oldest democracy on the planet. Don’t let anyone take that away from us.

Paths of Resistance

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted January 1, 2025

The coming year promises to be difficult for many in our nation. A plurality of voters have elected a convicted felon and adjudicated sexual abuser as our next president. He has in turn named a number of cronies as intended nominees for leading government positions. Most range from astonishingly incompetent to intentionally dangerous and destructive toward the agencies they would head. If they succeed in even half their stated plans, our safety and quality of life will be significantly diminished.

Here then are things I intend to do as my small part in maintaining sanity and justice. I recommend them to others as they may seem possible and appropriate in your life.

•            Stay informed. Choose news sources carefully, screening them for accuracy and honesty.
•  Fact check before sharing anything, especially on social media.
• Let your voice be heard. Communicate your opinions to elected officials at all levels of government. Insist on democracy and integrity.
• Help others if you have the means. Don’t hesitate to ask if you need help yourself.
• Maintain your moral standards; don’t accept excuses for others’ bad behavior. Proposing incarceration of political opponents is outrageous. Threatening the territorial integrity of other countries is unconscionable.

Most of all, take care of yourself and those you love. When the chaos and cruelty wear you down, take time to find joy and replenish your energy. We are in this for the long haul. With hope and determination we can preserve our nation from the authoritarian forces now arrayed against us.

Hold to Constitutional Values

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted November 30, 2024

We are living in troubling and uncertain times. Because the president-elect is a frequent liar who floods his social media with torrents of threats and dangerous assertions, it is impossible to know at any given time what he actually means and what is simply gaslighting and bluster. His purpose appears to be to keep his opponents off-balance and unsure of what we must do to protect our nation from the chaos and distress that he generates.

Our response must be measured and in accordance with the values on which the U.S. was founded. We must hold to the truths that all are created equal; that our government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people”; that justice and rule of law are paramount. We must not yield to the temptation to oppose lies with lies, violence with violence, fraud with corruption.

His criteria for choosing staff are clear. Blind loyalty to the president is essential; knowledge and competence are not. The goal is destruction of functional government agencies. Billionaires will benefit; the rest of us will struggle.

We need to sustain our well-being and create communities of resistance. Support those who are in a position to stand strong against tyranny. Run for office and be one of those people yourself if that is your calling. Protect and care for those who will suffer under the dictates of the incoming regime. The good people of our country have overcome oppressive forces before. We can do it again.

Need Kindness and Community in Time of Darkness

 

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted November 6, 2024

Wednesday morning I woke up to the news that a majority of voters in the U.S. had chosen lies over truth, fraud over honest dealings, revenge and abuse over compassion, hate over love. It is a dark and dangerous time for our nation. The inevitable suffering will be great. And according to the voters, this is what we want.

Decades ago I attended a weekend retreat led by renowned German theologian Dorothee Sölle. In one urgent message to us she warned about the drift toward fascism that, even then, she observed in our country. Alas, her alarm was never taken seriously enough by the majority, and now here we are.

It will be up to us who still cherish freedom and decency to find ways to share kindness amidst the oppression. The first groups to be targeted have already been identified by the incoming administration – the immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, Black persons and people of color. They will need sustenance and protection as we are able to give it. Beyond these, anyone who disagrees with and protests against abusive policies will be labeled “the enemy within,” subject to whatever horrors may be implemented. We must band together to care for each other and to find allies in resistance as best we can.

Above all else, we must not lose hope that someday the U.S. will once again be a nation that respects the rule of law and provides liberty and justice for all. Our young people deserve nothing less.

To Serve and Protect

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted September 1, 2024

Early in my career, the senior officer who promoted me to a position in Loan Administration advised me that my tasks would be to “serve the customers and protect the bank.” Ideally, the goals of serving and protecting should guide everyone’s work with the public, from junior clerk to highest government official. The Republican nominee for President, however, falls dangerously short.

As we prepare to vote, we must not forget that when Trump left office in January 2021, he took with him thousands of official documents, including more than 300 bearing classified and highly sensitive U.S. defense information. It took government authorities more than two and a half years to reclaim and secure all the files Trump carelessly and unlawfully held in his possession. During that time, with thousands of visitors passing through Mar-a-Lago, the danger that national secrets could fall into the hands of our country’s adversaries and other malicious actors was immense.

We may never know the extent of the damage to our nation and to our allies that has resulted from this blatant mishandling of classified documents. The safety of our military personnel was certainly threatened. Lives of foreign nationals working with our troops may have been put at risk.

Returning to office the perpetrator of these security threats should be unthinkable. Yet here we are, with a significant portion of our population ready to do just that. When election time comes, may criminality be rejected and may honesty, service to, and protection for our nation prevail.

U.S. Not a Christian Nation

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted August 2, 2024

It is said that everyone is entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. Entertaining diverse opinions encourages creative solutions to complex challenges. Dangers arise, however, when stated opinions are based on false data. In today’s political climate careful fact checking is essential in choosing the information on which one bases one’s opinions.

One false, and increasingly pernicious, claim made in far too many opinion pieces is that our country was founded as and intended to be a Christian nation. This is simply not true. The First Amendment clearly states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” but for some theocratic advocates this is not enough.

The simplest fact check of this claim is to cite Article 11 of the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli, which was negotiated under President George Washington, ratified by the U.S. Senate, and signed by President John Adams. It begins “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion …”

To state otherwise endangers the civil liberties of any who do not share the particular kind of Christian belief being imposed. But the claim also threatens the Christian faith itself by depicting it to the public as bigoted, abusive, and authoritarian. More and more Americans, especially youth, are rejecting all Christianity because they see it as hateful and oppressive. For the sake of both our Constitutional Democracy and the Gospel of Jesus, the falsehoods about both must stop.

Trump Candidacy a Threat to the Nation

 

Letter to the LNP Editor; text as submitted July 2, 2024

“Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side.” So wrote American poet James Russell Lowell in the divisive years leading up to the Civil War. It took four years and more than 600 thousand lives to defeat the evil of slavery, but the truth that “all people are created equal” finally prevailed.

Our nation is again locked in such strife. The Republican candidate for the presidency spews torrents of disinformation, distortions, and lies. He fomented insurrection. He has promised retribution and revenge, even execution, against his opponents should he win the upcoming election. His falsehoods threaten the very existence of our republic.

On Monday the Supreme Court, stacked with his loyalists, for the first time in our history ruled that the president is above the law, immune from prosecution for most crimes committed while in office. Six members of SCOTUS have granted to the president the abusive powers of a monarch that were specifically rejected 248 years ago by the signers of our Declaration of Independence.

We who value freedom, justice, and equality have four months in which to organize. The contrast between truth and falsehood, between good and evil, is clear. The elections in November will determine the kind of nation we, and the generations coming after us, will live in. May we resolve to support the goals of our nation’s Founders with our voices, our actions, and our votes.