Trump is sowing chaos for no good reason
Many of us are praying that sanity will return south of the border.
Minneapolis holds a special place in my heart because, as a young man, I attended a Christian university in Minnesota’s Twin Cities. I grew to love the area’s numerous lakes, Minnehaha Falls, the many Lutheran churches, the Dinkytown neighbourhood near the University and the many friendly, hospitable people who lived there. There is even a suburb in Saint Paul called Little Canada, testifying to the presence of early French Canadian settlers. While the severe climate was definitely a trial, at the time I thought it was a place where I might eventually make a home.
Although half a century has passed since those days, news of the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration officials in Minneapolis has affected me at a deep emotional level. I was stunned to see footage of one confrontation between ICE and protesters at the corner of 34th Street and Park Avenue. At that very corner stands the church I attended nearly every week during my studies in the mid 1970s.
A city of courage
Minneapolis has long been known as a peaceful, progressive city with hardworking people and close-knit communities. But in recent years, it has been the site of unrest, largely engendered by officials abusing their power under the pretext of enforcing the law. The death of George Floyd in 2020 occurred only blocks from where I lived on Chicago Avenue in 1977-78. The two most recent deaths were not far from this spot.
Unfortunately, many people, including Christians whom I otherwise respect, are too willing to place blame on the victims, giving the benefit of the doubt to an administration whose autocratic style and inept enforcement of immigration policies show open contempt for constitutional constraints and needlessly antagonize ordinary citizens. Rather than castigating peaceful protesters, as I’ve now seen even some Christians do, we should praise citizens with enough courage and public spirit to challenge such obvious abuses of power.
Only Americans can stop this
We are barely a year into the second Trump administration, and the President persists in bullying friendly nations, cozying up to autocratic rivals, and targeting American citizens with Hispanic and non-European familial origins. It is difficult to see how all this will turn out, given that another three years remain in the President’s term. Sad to say, too many people are willing to endure official violations of due process if it supports their preferred ideological narrative.
Many of us are praying that sanity will return south of the border and that the federal government will live up to its divine calling to do public justice and to refrain from sowing chaos for no good reason. But this will require Americans of both parties to seek common ground and to avoid the divisive rhetoric to which, sadly, they have become accustomed.
I join you, David, and countless others in prayer for a return to decency and sanity on the part of the US administration. It seems an unlikely hope, but still…..
My disappointment with the USA arm of our CRCNA is deep and I have written our General Secretary a number of times about the lack of a strong voice speaking out against the inhumane treatment of refugees and immigrants, (both legal and illegal who are not criminals, rapists, and murderers), who are being detained and denied due process under US law. I urged our denominational Leaders to live up to our Position Statement (see CRCNA website) on immigrants and refugees, by communicating directly to the Trump administration that we join other Faith communities such as the American Catholic Bishops, the Lutherans etc in condemning what is happening to our brown sisters and brothers under ICE agents’ free reign to arrest and detain without warrant or due process. While the CRCNA has sent two statements (most recent being Feb. 2026) to the CRC churches in both the USA and Canada, and while those statements reflect Biblical teaching and a prayer, in my opinion it falls short of confronting the powers that be in unambiguous terms of the abuse of governmental powers and authority. I hope others will take time to write our General Secretary to take an unequivocal, public stand on this grave and dangerous situation.
Thanks for this David.
I have always appreciated David as an astute analyst of political culture both foreign and domestic but Janette hits the mark on what a Christian response should be. What mitigates a response from Canada is the fact that we are not American but very much in the sphere of influence of their awesome power. So too are those members of the CRCNA who reside in Canada and although we can only view the spectacle of our southern neighbour’s descent into an authoritarian nightmare, that is currently not the case when it comes to being members of the CRCNA. Christians are called to be prophetic voices calling out injustice and seeking comfort for the poor and sick and welcoming the stranger into our midst. Proclaiming truth to power may be difficult in our age falsehood and persecution but the missives sent out by the CRCNA are a lukewarm gruel served with tepid water. If the CRCNA cannot condemn the outright heretical support of a cruel, loathsome, perverse, lying, thieving, (and soon to be proven pedophile) president by the side show barkers of a Christian Nationalist persuasion, then they are no better than the collaborators of the second world war. The move to disassociate from the CRCNA by Canadians gains more legitimacy by the day as each new act by this evil administration proves there is no bottom to their degeneracy. At Davos, our Prime Minister delivered a prophetic broadside to the Fascist desires of a soon to be single party state, a failed state, a hell hole of depravity that even the fires of Gehenna cannot purge. That speech made me a proud Canadian citizen of immigrant stock and I wish I could be as effusive of my membership in the CRCNA. The residents of the Jewish ghettos in Poland didn’t believe their German neighbours and friends were capable of the rumours they were hearing until they were in the cattle cars. The rumours have started again and it will get much, much worse than we can imagine.