Dear friends,
Sixty six years ago this month, on October 12, 1958, the Temple, a reformed Jewish congregation on Peachtree Street, was bombed. Although no one was injured, the early morning blast caused significant damage to the building.
The bombing was provoked by both anti-Semitism and racism. The Temple’s rabbi, Jacob Rothschild, a friend of Martin Luther King Jr., was a vocal supporter of civil rights and integration, making him and his congregation targets of hate.
Exactly a week before the Temple blast, a high school in Clinton, TN. was destroyed by 100 sticks of dynamite. Clinton High School was targeted because 12 Black students had begun studying there.
Although authorities suspect the bombings were related, no one was ever convicted for either of them.
The morning after the Temple bombing, Ralph McGill, the editor of The Atlanta Constitution, and one of the few Southern newspaper editors who supported civil rights, wrote an editorial excoriating both bombings.
“Dynamite in great quantity Sunday ripped a beautiful Temple of worship in Atlanta,” he wrote. “It followed hard on the heels of a like destruction of a handsome high school in Clinton, Tenn.
“The same rabid mad-dog minds were, without question, behind both… The school house and the church are targets of diseased, hate-filled minds.
“Let us face the facts.
“This is a harvest. It is the crop of things sown.
“It is the harvest of defiance of courts and the encouragement of citizens to defy law on the part of many southern politicians…It is not possible to preach lawlessness and restrict it.
“To be sure, no one said go bomb a Jewish temple or a school.
“But let it be understood that when leadership in high places fails to support constituted authority, it opens the gate to all those who wish to take the law into their own hands.
“This, too, is a harvest of those so-called Christian ministers who have chosen to preach hate instead of compassion.
“When the wolves of hate are loosed on one people, then no one is safe.”
McGill’s editorials brought him hate mail and death threats. A cross was burned on his lawn, bullets fired into the windows of his home, and a bomb placed in his mailbox. His courageous words also earned him the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing.
So why am I giving you this history lesson? Because once again the wolves of hate have been unleashed in our land.
They were on full display last night at a Trump rally in New York in Madison Square Garden. It was an evening of hate spewed at Puerto Ricans, Blacks, Jews, Palestinians, and women.
It was the most hate that vaunted arena has seen since a pro-Nazi rally there in 1939. But unlike that rally, this one was presided over by the presidential nominee of a major political party.
Here are just a few of the toxic, hate-filled comments made last night.
“There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah, I think it’s called Puerto Rico,” from “comedian” Tony Hinchcliffe, echoing Trump’s statement earlier in the week that our country is “a human garbage can.”
Businessman Grant Cardone implied that Kamala Harris is a prostitute. “Her and her pimp handlers will destroy our country,” he said. He added “we need to slaughter” those who do not support Trump.
“America is for America and Americans only,” said Trump aide Stephen Miller. “America for Americans” was a Ku Klux Klan slogan. Miller also echoes Hitler’s exact words, “Germany is for Germans and Germans only.”
That’s just a sampling of what was on display last night. Much of what was said is too crude and vile to repeat. And no, Trump himself did not say any of these things (although he’s said similar things many times). But he also did not refute them. The campaign knew what they were getting when they invited his minions to speak.
For nine long years Trump has been feeding the wolves of hate with lies and violent rhetoric. His primary campaign tactic (other than deifying himself) is denigrating the “other”– immigrants, African Americans, women, Latinos, gays, lesbians, and transgender Americans.
All of these Americans have been portrayed by Trump as the “other,” and the “others” are to be feared. They’re taking our jobs, they’re responsible for the housing shortage, they’re eating our pets, they’re corrupting our kids, they’re destroying traditional American values.
The list could go on and on. And all of it is lies, told to stoke fear and polarization. One of the most upsetting things is that this demonization of the “other” is being advanced by pastors who Ralph McGill would refer to as “so-called Christians.”
One of them is evangelical leader Lance Wallnau, who believes that Trump has been anointed by God to be the next president. He organizes rallies across the country to mobilize Christians to campaign for Trump, who he describes as “God’s trumpet,” who can take “a wrecking ball to political correctness.”
What is political correctness? It is the radical belief that all people are created in the image of God, one of the core tenets of our faith.
We engage in “political correctness” every time we affirm our baptismal covenant.
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” we are asked. “Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”
We answer both of those questions with these words, “I will, with God’s help.”
We can live out our baptismal covenant in the coming days by voting for the candidate who promotes true Christian values, who believes in the dignity of every human being, and loving our neighbors as ourselves.
That candidate is not Donald Trump.
Wallnau believes this presidential election is no less than a battle of good versus evil.
“I don’t see how anyone with moral clarity sits out an election like this,” he says. “I mean, the issues are so clear.”
I couldn’t agree more.
With love,
Tricia
Here is a link to Ralph McGill’s entire column:
To learn more about the Temple bombing I recommend Melissa Fay Greene’s excellent book,
The Temple Bombing.