I often pass by a house that has statues of Joseph and Mary on their front steps, a depiction of the Nativity in their living-room window and a prominent “Trump 2024” sticker on the back window of their vehicle. The correspondence of the visuals makes me wonder if these fellow Christians experience the same things I hear in the news and see on our streets.

I was exiting a store this week when a pickup with large, fluttering flags raced by. One flag read, “(Expletive) Biden” (spelled out); the other was a “Trump 2024” flag. Later I learned that at a staged rally over a recent weekend, the former president referred to the current president as “a dumb son of a (expletive).”

How do thoughtful people, of whatever faith (or none), square these sightings and learnings with hoped-for civility in social discourse, with continued support of a candidate for the presidency who is now under a fourth indictment, for various offenses to our democracy, and to simple human decency – someone recently found liable of sexual abuse and defamation, which granted $5 million to the plaintiff?

And, how especially do fellow Christians compare this misbehavior of decades with the gentle Sermon on the Mount – and “do good to those who malign you … love your enemies”? Where has he ever done so?

Our democracy will be set on a precipice toward authoritarianism if the former president is ever returned to office, and un-reflective Christians, with others, will have placed us there.

Paul Baribault
Lewiston

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