Proud Boys at Asbury
The Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., released photos of some of the suspects, identified as Proud Boys members, who carried the Asbury United Methodist Church’s Black Lives Matter sign and lit it on fire in the street. (Photos courtesy of Religion Unplugged)
I am seriously concerned, nay, appalled, by something that is happening in our country: attempts by groups of individuals, supporting both parties, who each are taking it upon themselves to attempt to insult, intimidate, and even threaten with death or bodily harm, supporters of the opposite party. Since when did this become acceptable behavior in our society?
I will admit that much of my reaction comes from being (come next June) fifty years of being an ordained minister in The United Methodist Church. For those who don’t know this about my denomination, we are one of the most (lower case “d”) democratic institutions in our country. We literally believe that the Holy Spirit speaks through majority vote at 50% plus one of those authorized to vote at any level. We follow Roberts’ Rules of Order literally, and we vote on everything that happens in our meetings—even as to whether to take a ten minute “potty break.” I kid you not.
In that almost fifty years, I’ve made thousands of votes, within both my church and in secular society. Some of them are routine. When it comes to votes on issues that have been important to me, I’ve probably lost as many votes as I’ve won. But when any of us lose a vote, we accept that fact, and move on. If anyone started even muttering about wishing to inflict harm on others who voted against what that “anyone” wanted to happen, that “anyone” would, at best, be taken aside for a very stiff dressing down from our church leaders. At worst, formal complaints would be filed against that person that could leave to him/her losing his/her ordination and church membership. Railing against a vote that one lost, and saying that the count was incorrect, or that the presiding officer of a meeting had stolen some votes from the one complaining, is simply not accepted.
It used not to be accepted in our society, either. In fact, the crime of “assault” literally is threatening to inflict bodily harm upon someone. Inflicting that harm is the crime of “battery.” That’s why we sometimes hear of someone being arrested for “assault AND battery.”
In political protests that have been occurring in our country, we now have people, rarely the original protesters, coming out to loot and burn the property of others, or physically fighting against another, or stabbing, shooting, or killing one another, because some person doesn’t like what another person said, or for whom/what that other person voted.
It would be all too easy to call out one political camp for engaging in this kind of offensive behavior, but that would be wrong. This kind of behavior seems to be occurring on both sides of the political divide in our country.
For the sin of stating that our recent General Election was handled fairly, openly, and appropriately, a high federal official was terminated from his office. Then, others who are of the same party as this individual, have been sending him written condemnations and death threats; his home address and phone number have been published, leading to loud and offensive picketing of his home, his wife receiving sexualized insults, and an attorney from his own political party openly suggesting he should be drawn and quartered, and then (inexplicably since it is assumed his body would be in four pieces), suggesting he be taken out at dawn to be shot. People have been writing and shouting outside his home, that he, his wife, and his kids, are “traitors.” (The last I heard, that is a charge that can only be presented in a court of law by the Federal Department of Justice, outside of a declared war.)
Events like these have happened to numerous elected officials. A group of men who proclaimed themselves to be a “militia,” (even though Federal Law states that the only legal “militia” would be the National Guard) was arrested mid-plot to kidnap and murder the Governor of the State of Michigan, for the “sin” of declaring that many places where people could gather had to be closed, to try to slow down the number of people being infected with Coronavirus. Her house, and the house of the Michigan Secretary of State, have been surrounded with people packing guns, and shouting out death threats.
I am a diehard supporter of the First Amendment, where anyone who wishes to seek redress of their grievances may do so in public, in writing, or in peaceful assembly with like-minded folks. I say that I am such a supporter, even for people with whom I would gladly spend a lifetime disagreeing!
But when we see these kinds of threats being sent toward others, elected officials or not, or people carrying guns coming to other people’s homes and issuing death threats---that is the kind of behavior we have seen and condemned done by organized crime, or by neighborhood gangs. WHY ARE WE NOT STANDING UP AND CONDEMNING THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR IN OUR OWN CITIES AND STATES?
I find myself wanting to yell out “a pox upon all of your houses,” or some much less polite words. Yet doing that would put me in the same level of behavior as that which is done by folks about whom I am complaining!
For people of all political stripes, including my own friends for whom I love and care, and with whom I generally agree, all I can ask is: “Is this the kind of incivility we would like our children and grandchildren to grow up, see, and consider it to be normal behavior?”
ENOUGH! It is time for this kind of uncivil behavior to stop, and for us to call upon law enforcement to declare this kind of behavior to be “unlawful assembly” and criminal activity!
I believe that every citizen has a right to vote for, or against, any candidate or proposition they wish. I affirm that particularly for those with whom I disagree. But when the vote is over, by a majority of 50% plus one of those voting, whether our particular “side” wins OR loses, it is time to move on. That is what a (lower case “d”) democracy, or a “democratic republic,” is supposed to be about.
I invite you to join with me in raising our own voices against those who are unwilling to live within the political and democratic limits we put upon ourselves, so that we can be an inclusive and productive society.
Tom Griffith
The Rev. Thomas H. Griffith
The Rev. Thomas H. Griffith of Phoenix, Ariz., is a retired clergy member of the California-Pacific Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. This post is republished with permission from his Facebook page.