(RNS) — If you say things that are not true and innocent people are hurt as a result, and you know they’re not true and you keep telling the lies, and people continue to be hurt, you’re perpetrating evil. And you should be called out for it.
It was a month ago that Donald Trump began lying about how Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating people’s pets. Since then, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists have descended on the city, spewing hate, slashing tires and terrifying the immigrants, most of whom are in the country legally.
Yes, the mayor of the city and the governor of the state, both Republicans, denied the story and spoke up for the immigrants. But neither called out the perpetrator-in-chief. Nor did the 10 Ohio Catholic bishops in their subsequent letter on behalf of the Haitian migrants.
“As the residents of Springfield, Ohio struggle with violent threats and life disruptions fueled by unfettered social media posts, we exhort the Catholic faithful and all people of goodwill not to perpetuate ill will toward anyone involved based on unfounded gossip,” the bishops wrote. “Instead, we ask for prayers and support for all the people of Springfield as they integrate their new Haitian neighbors and build a better future together.”
Unfounded gossip? Why not tell the former president to take back his false witness? Why not tell him to stop doubling and tripling and quadrupling down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric, his lies about their criminality, his literal dehumanization of them as “animals” and “not people”?
While they were at it, why not call on Ohio Sen. JD Vance, that convert to their faith, to enunciate the Catholic position on immigrants, on neighbors, on the least among us, when he took the stage in the vice presidential debate? Which, when he did nothing of the sort, would have served to dramatize their higher purpose.
More recently, there have been Trump’s lies about the federal government’s response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton — suggesting not only (despite Republican governors’ assertions to the contrary) that President Joe Biden was failing to do the right thing, or that Democratic officials were preventing federal aid from getting to Republican areas, but that FEMA was diverting aid and seizing property.
The result? Widespread attacks on FEMA, leading to resistance to its help from people who need the help the most. Not to mention that, in Rutherford County, North Carolina, FEMA workers had to stop their work this week because of threats to their safety.
Normal politicians, such as the Republican governors of the affected states, understand that it is their responsibility to put partisan politics aside when it comes to providing relief for those suffering from natural disasters. But as in Ohio, none of those governors has been prepared to call out Trump by name.
And so it goes.
Speaking at a rally in Coachella, California, on Sunday (Oct. 13), Trump said: “The massive costs of illegal immigration are now being experienced by communities all across the country and are destroying your children’s education, their safety, and indeed their lives. Your children are in danger. They can’t go to school with these people.”
Let’s be really, really clear: It’s evil to say this. But Trump has so deranged American political life that his supporters say nothing to contradict this evil.
President Donald Trump speaks to the Rev. Franklin Graham as they attend a ceremony to honor the late Rev. Billy Graham in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, on Feb. 28, 2018, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool via AP)
Take Franklin Graham. Here is a religious leader who has devoted the bulk of his career to running an agency dedicated to helping those suffering from disease and natural disasters around the world. It’s called Samaritan’s Purse, after Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, about a member of a community of disdained outsiders who helps a man in need, after a priest and a Levite walk past and do nothing.
For years, Samaritan’s Purse has worked in Haiti as it’s suffered through earthquakes and the collapse of political authority. Earlier this year, Graham tweeted on X, “The situation in Haiti seems to have gone from bad to worse & continues to deteriorate. Pray that Pres. Biden will take action so that law & order can be restored. Also pray for the millions of innocent people living in the midst of this evil & chaos.”
But has Graham, long-standing supporter of Trump that he’s been, stepped up to criticize his dear leader, or said a word on behalf of the Haitians in Springfield? By no means. The head of Samaritan’s Purse has walked by and done nothing.
He has, however, threatened a lawsuit against Evangelicals for Harris for putting up an ad that intersperses clips of his father, Billy, denouncing evildoing with clips of Trump manifesting those evils. If that’s not complicity in evil, Franklin, I don’t know what is.