In The Face of Evil
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act” - Dietrich Bonhoffer
In the story of America, there have always been men who have sought to shape the future not through unity but through division, not through reason but through fear. Donald Trump stands squarely in that lineage. His words of cruelty and dehumanization have created a reality where Haitian families in Springfield, Ohio, retreat into their homes, afraid to let their children step into a world they no longer trust. This is no accident. It’s not some unintended consequence. This is the purpose. This is the agenda - to demonize, to terrorize, to mock the very image of God in which they are made.
We cannot fool ourselves into believing that such cruelty happens in isolation, or that it is confined to words and policies. It permeates the air and invades the hearts and minds of the vulnerable, especially children. Imagine for a moment, the terror that grips these young ones as they watch their mothers’ eyes widen with fear. And then there is their father, a man who seeks to protect and provide, standing on tenuous ground, unsure if he can win a fight against something far larger than himself. And for what? So that a narcissistic man can stoke division, manipulate fear, and pursue power at the expense of those already marginalized. These families are not pawns to be sacrificed to win an election. They are real people, made in the image of God, whose lives are being impacted. This is not a matter of broken laws or borders. This is a matter of broken souls.
The Bible teaches us that God has a special concern for the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan—the vulnerable among us. In Leviticus 19:33-34, the Israelites are commanded, "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt." God reminds His people again and again that their identity as former strangers in a strange land must shape their response to others in similar situations.
When we treat immigrant families—especially those like the Haitian community, who have experienced unimaginable suffering—with disdain and cruelty, we are not only violating the law of love, but we are also aligning ourselves with forces of darkness. The lies told about Haitian immigrants—that they are dangerous, that they are eating cats and dogs, that they are coming to take something from "real Americans"—are straight from the pit of hell.
Trump and his movement wear their contempt for the lives of others like a badge of honor. They are willing, eager even, to embrace terror as a tool for political power. Violence is not an outlier in this story—it’s the heart of it. January 6th, the rise in hate crimes, the ever-increasing political violence—none of this happened in a vacuum. These are the bitter fruits of a movement that has turned its back on the idea of the common good. They don’t pretend anymore. The mask has long since slipped. What we see now is the real face of this movement in America.
To grasp what is happening in this country, we must place it in context. America is a nation of immigrants. From its beginning, people from every corner of the globe have come here seeking a better life, believing in the idea of the “American Dream.” But the story of immigration in America is a story of contradiction. Alongside that dream runs the thread of fear, hatred, and exclusion. From the Know-Nothings to the Chinese Exclusion Act, from the internment of Japanese Americans to today’s xenophobia, America has often fallen short of its ideals. And in that gap—between who we say we are and who we actually are—men like Trump rise. And immigrants—those who look different, who speak a different language, who worship differently—have always been easy scapegoats. And so, when schools in Springfield, Ohio, are evacuated because of threats of violence, we should not be shocked. This is the reality Trumpism has created. This is the America we live in.
Therefore, the challenge for us today is not simply to reject Trumpism, but to rebuild a sense of common purpose. This will require political leaders who are willing to confront the fears and anxieties of their constituents not with demagoguery, but with empathy and reason. It will require policies that address the root causes of economic dislocation and cultural alienation without resorting to scapegoating. Immigration reform, in particular, is a crucial piece of this puzzle. We cannot simply close our doors to the world. We must find a way to balance the legitimate concerns of our citizens with our historical role as a refuge for those seeking a better life. And, perhaps most importantly, it will require repentance.
Repentance, in the Christian tradition, is not just about feeling sorry. It is about turning away from sin and turning toward God. It requires a transformation of the heart and a commitment to change our actions. In our addiction to falsehoods, we have forgotten that truth-telling is not simply a moral obligation; it is a spiritual act. Thus, we must repent of the ways in which we have allowed fear to cloud our judgment, leading us to embrace cruelty rather than compassion. We must repent of the lies we have believed and the lies we have told about our Haitian brothers and sisters. And we must repent of the ways we have allowed our political ideologies to override our allegiance to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What will we do in the face of evil? Will we reflect the character of the One who calls us to love the stranger, or will we continue to mock His name with our cruelty?