To weep with those who weep...
...without exception, even though it's hard.
An event in Buffalo, New York, intended to show support for local journalism was postponed this past Thursday because of a furious online backlash, including death threats, against Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Adam Zyglis for an editorial cartoon in The Buffalo News:
An online fury erupted this week over an editorial cartoon in The Buffalo News by Pulitzer Prize-winner Adam Zyglis showing a man in a MAGA cap being swept away by the Texas floodwaters. Nose deep in the water, the man is holding up a sign that reads “Help” and a speech bubble floating downstream says: “Gov’t is the problem not the solution.” At least 120 people were killed in the Texas flooding and more than 170 were missing.
Amid threats to protest the event and confront Zyglis, and with statements of harm directed at him and his family, the Buffalo Newspaper Guild chose to postpone the happy-hour event scheduled at the Buffalo Museum. The guild criticized the response to Zyglis’s cartoon, declaring in an online statement that “We wholly condemn the individuals who have chosen to twist a positive, public event into an attempt to terrorize and silence Zyglis, spread fear among journalists and their supporters, and distort the mission of a free press.” Zyglis stated, “Threats to me and my family are never an acceptable response to disagreeing with an editorial cartoon.”
Similar expressions of schadenfreude have exploded online in the wake of the Texas flash flood tragedy, and even Christians have taken part. A pastor in my Facebook feed said the disaster “is what judgment looks like” and linked this “act of God” to the signing of “that godless bill” by President Trump just 24 hours prior, saying there “are no coincidences.”
While representatives and supporters of Trump are expressing outrage, they seem to have conveniently forgotten how quickly the MAGA universe attempted to blame the political assassination on June 14th of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, as well as the attempted assassination of state senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, on the political left. Senator Mark Lee of Utah drew his weapon faster than a western gunslinger, posting on X, “This is what happens (w)hen Marxists don’t get their way.” Several other MAGA influencers tried to spin the suspected murderer’s appointment to a couple of bipartisan state commissions by Democratic governors as evidence of his leftist credentials. However, the initial investigation paints a different picture:
His friends said he was right-leaning, a supporter of President Donald Trump and opposed abortion rights. While preaching in the Democratic Republic of the Congo a few years ago, he spoke against abortion. Still, authorities discouraged people from drawing conclusions about Boelter’s motivation or what ideology might have driven his actions. “Obviously his primary motive was to go out and murder people,” acting US Attorney Joseph Thompson said during a June 16 news briefing after Boelter was apprehended. “They were all elected officials. They were all Democrats. Beyond that, I think it’s just way too speculative for anyone that’s reviewed these materials to know and to say what was motivating him in terms of ideology or specific issues.”
Investigators recovered several notebooks in which Boelter wrote out extensive plans to murder several politicians, all Democrats, “including more than 45 state and federal officials in Minnesota,” with politicians in Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin also mentioned in his writings.
His Democratic colleagues widely condemned Senator Lee’s actions, and one of them, Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota, a personal friend of the murdered state representative, confronted him personally to express her disappointment:
“I wanted him to know how much pain that caused me and the other people in my state, and I think around the country, who think that this was a brutal attack,” Smith told reporters afterward. “I don’t know whether Senator Lee thought fully through what it was — you have to ask him — but I needed him to hear from me directly what impact I think his cruel statement had on me, his colleague.”
This tendency to portray tragic events politically to undermine opponents highlights the polarization that has affected our nation for over a decade. It’s probably better left to historians to dictate when the tone of political discourse changed. Nevertheless, we’ve gone from seeing fellow Americans on the other side of the political spectrum as well-meaning people whose perspective and life experiences lead them to different conclusions than our own, to enemies whose very presence is an existential threat to the nation. Human beings are conditioned to hate their enemies. Hate leads to dehumanization, and the removal of an opponent’s humanity provides a justification for all manner of condemnation and cruelty to be directed at them.
I want to be clear that I am not a proponent of “bothsidesism.” We are in a time of American history where too many people, seeking to be “fair” in their analysis of current events, arrive at a false equivalence. You hear it all the time at a grassroots level - “They’re all corrupt;” “They all do it;” “A pox on both their houses.” However, objectivity involves following substantiated facts and credible evidence wherever they may lead. If you want to identify those who lack support for their agendas, look for the individuals whose mission seems to be to undermine anyone and anything that seeks knowledge and truth.
One particular faction consistently promotes disinformation, elevates loud voices and massive followings over those who have dedicated their lives to rigorous scholarship, and aggressively works to discredit peer-reviewed research. They portray world-class scientists, medical experts, and academics as either pawns of corporate corruption or self-serving ideologues. At the same time, they dismiss our most reputable journalistic institutions as mere propaganda machines. I’ve written about this before at length, so I won’t repeat it here.
However, I am dismayed at how the opponents of the current political movement in power have tried to hang the tragedy in Texas around their necks like a dead albatross. I know how hard it is after being bombarded daily by the cruelty of word and deed emanating from the MAGAsphere not to give some of it back. I haven’t forgotten how they suggested that Democrats somehow manipulated the storm’s path to cause the deaths of at least 251 people during Hurricane Helene, all of them in red-leaning states. I share your frustration as Immigration and Customs agents roam the streets in masks and tactical gear as if they are going to war against civilians. I get it, I do.
Do you recall what former First Lady Michelle Obama said about responding to their bullying and cruelty? Let’s go back to 2016, when Donald Trump emerged as a real and present force in American politics.
That is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight -- how we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith. How we insist that the hateful language they hear from public figures on TV does not represent the true spirit of this country. How we explain that when someone is cruel, or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level -– no, our motto is, when they go low, we go high.
With every word we utter, with every action we take, we know our kids are watching us. We as parents are their most important role models. And let me tell you, Barack and I take that same approach to our jobs as President and First Lady, because we know that our words and actions matter not just to our girls, but to children across this country –- kids who tell us, “I saw you on TV, I wrote a report on you for school.” Kids like the little black boy who looked up at my husband, his eyes wide with hope, and he wondered, “Is my hair like yours?”
In later interviews, Ms. Obama explained that “going high” didn’t mean a lack of feeling about what is happening in our country, but rather encourages us to channel those emotions into positive action:
“‘Going high’ doesn’t mean you don’t feel the hurt, or you’re not entitled to an emotion,” she explained. “It means that your response has to reflect the solution. It shouldn’t come from a place of anger or vengefulness. Barack and I had to figure that out. Anger may feel good in the moment, but it’s not going to move the ball forward.”
She continued: “For me, when you are a public figure in power, everything you do models what you want the country to do … Responding to a dog whistle with a dog whistle is the exact opposite of what you’d teach your child to do.”
When faced with a specific scenario, Obama tactfully maintained her diplomacy. “I wouldn’t even respond,” she said. “I say: Let’s just do the work … I’d have to understand why you feel that way. I’d have to be your friend and get into your pain and hurt, your fears. And that takes time. That’s the work that needs to happen around kitchen tables and in our communities. When I say ‘go high,’ I’m not trying to win the argument. I’m trying to figure out how to understand you and how I can help you understand me.”
This isn’t easy to do. Going low is the path of least resistance; Ms. Obama spoke to that as well:
“Going low is easy, which is why people go to it,” Obama said. “It’s easy to go low. It’s easy to lead by fear. It’s easy to be divisive. It’s easy to make people feel afraid. “That’s the easy thing and it’s also the short-term thing,” Obama said.
For a decade now, we have had our minds, hearts, and souls assaulted by the politics of grievance and fear, our better angels swamped by an avalanche of anger and mistrust from hurting people who were made to believe lies about their fellow Americans, and persuaded to discard civility and social harmony for resentment, rage, and retribution. Honestly, I don’t blame them for where they are; it’s Donald Trump and his lieutenants who took advantage of their pain to advance political or personal agendas, and I regret where they may find themselves before long - still hurting with no solutions in sight despite the promise that “only I can fix it.”
As an American Christian, I lament that so many brothers and sisters with whom I’ve found a home in recent years have been so battered in spirit that they lashed out in kind when the deadly outcome of the Texas floods became clear. As I said, I get it. However, we must do everything in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to resist the anger that wells up inside us in these moments.
As I read about Camp Mystic and the young girls who were swept away to their deaths, I grieved not only for them and their families and friends, but for the burden on those who survived. We refer to natural disasters as “acts of God,” which always bothered me. It’s as if God, with deliberation and forethought, ordered the skies to open up and engulf central Texas, and, as I indicated earlier, many believe He did just that to punish the Trump-favoring state. If this were true, then what was his intent with Hurricane Helene and the red-leaning states it pummeled? It didn’t stop Trump’s victory in November, so did God fail?
It’s the same bad theology that MAGA-aligned Christians use to assign divine intent to Trump surviving an assassination attempt. If that was a reflection of God’s favor toward Trump, then what were the 42 documented failed assassination attempts on Nazi leader Adolf Hitler? Surely, by the faulty logic of Trump supporters, for Hitler to escape death at the hands of others at least 42 times is an indication of God’s favor!
We are like the disciples of Jesus, who assumed a man’s suffering was brought upon him by God as punishment for his or his parents’ sins:
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. (John 9:1-3)
In the Book of Luke, Jesus warns us that calamity can befall any of us regardless of the lives we lead, so we should prepare ourselves before disaster strikes.
Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:1-5)
Jesus warns us throughout the Scriptures that no one knows when the end is coming, so being prepared is essential. While He was speaking of His eventual return to reconcile all of God’s creation to Himself, it should be evident to us that “the end of the world” comes to some of us every day. It’s not because of God’s targeted judgment, as some are implying, but simply the way of the world.
Suffering is a mystery to us, and it’s not confined to those we consider “good” or “evil.” When Jesus told us to love our enemies, He made it clear that no one gets a pass when it comes to suffering, and everyone can experience favor, even those we deem unworthy of it.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. (Matthew 5:44-45)
The apostle Paul refers to a creation that has been corrupted since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. This implies that God is not actively causing disasters; instead, these disasters are the inevitable consequences of sin entering the world.
For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. (Romans 8: 20-22)
Jesus assured us that “in this world, you will have trouble” (John 16:33) and the promise of God is not that He will relieve us of the travails and tribulations of the created order, but that “even in the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4), He would be with us and we have nothing to fear. I don’t know if that is enough for those who suffered so much loss, but that is where our faith and trust in the Lord must rest.
As Christians, our obligation to love our neighbors, even if we consider them our enemies, is non-negotiable. We are called to “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15), and we are to comfort others as we have been comforted.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
There has been a heated debate in this country recently over the topic of empathy, and even some Christians, mainly in the MAGA camp, have embraced the notion of “toxic empathy,” the idea that we can feel too much for others and neglect to stand for God’s righteousness as a result. However, it would have come as a surprise to Jesus that empathy is a sin, because He taught the disciples that all the law and the prophets hang on loving God with all our being and loving others as ourselves. We are also told to leave vengeance and ultimate judgment to the Lord. Still, some of us keep wanting to lend God a hand in that department, giving ourselves license to be self-righteous, judgmental about the sins of others while excusing our own, and hateful toward people who don’t fit our definition of holiness.
If anything, they are guilty of “toxic religiosity.” While we condemn them for their coercion, control, and cruelty, we must be careful not to mimic them when misfortune falls upon them, as it inevitably will. Whether we are willing to admit it, all who profess Christ to be their Lord and Savior are part of the body of Christ, and “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). If you’re struggling with how to do that, as I often do, just remember what Paul wrote following his statements about the body of Christ and how it should function.
And yet I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 12:31[b] -13:3)
Don’t let anyone’s words or actions take love away from you. It’s the most powerful weapon the Lord has given us.