Why I am joining the women’s march

I will join the January 21, 2017, Women’s March on Austin, a part of the larger Women’s March on Washington.

I march not to protest a Trump presidency, no matter how distasteful I may find it. Instead, I stand in support of those who are likely to be hurt by the policies that are expected to find presidential and congressional support in the next few years.

As a retired clergywoman, I enjoy freedom to speak politically in a way that many active clergy people may not do.

So, this is going to be a political post, informed by theology. I am also married to a Republican who disagrees with many (but hardly all) of my worries about the direction our country will likely take in the next few years. This relationship pushes me to think clearly about my objections and concerns.

Below are specific reasons for my participation.

Trump and the Russians

First, it is likely that Mr. Trump is deeply in personal/business debt to various Russian people and banking institutions. Because of his unwillingness to disclose his finances, financial experts can only make guesses here, but the evidence is pretty strong. Here is just one of many articles about the possibilities.

So naturally Trump has routinely dismissed any suggestions that the now-established Russian hacking and manipulation of the 2016 presidential election had a substantive result. There is no way he will make decisions untainted by this financial entanglement.

Keep in mind that the P-E is first and foremost a businessman whose goal is life to become as wealthy as possible. Concerns he may have for the public good will take a backseat to the overriding concern of preserving and expanding his business empire.

Trump and his religious support

Second, the religious endorsement of Trump comes too strongly from the health, wealth and prosperity people AND from the right-wing Evangelicals, The first have no roots in biblical truth but support Trump’s desire to become unaccountably rich. The second feel strongly that the Bible declares the need to control women’s reproductive rights.

There is no more sure way to consign women into perpetual poverty than to remove their ability to get reliable birth control and health checkups. Couple female inability to control family size with the zero support for parents regarding reliable and affordable child-care. The result: the perfect recipe for keeping women subjugated and desperate.

I understand the many concerns about abortion access. I think abortion should be safe, legal and extremely rare. We have to recognize that there are times when it becomes necessary. But when we remove access to birth control, we ensure that illegal abortions will arise.

As it is, the maternal death rate in Texas now approaches that of third world countries. All agree that the reasons behind this spike are complex, but the systematic removal of women’s health clinics from rural areas has compounded the problem.

Trump, the GOP, and healthcare

Third, I am horrified at the likely and rash dismantling of the Affordable Care Act expected almost immediately. I am married to an insurance man and understand that the insurance industries are creating better and more affordable products for many. Clearly, there are major problems with the current structure.

However, even my husband says that the government absolutely must step in to find a way to provide coverage for those with pre-existing conditions. Those already ill people make up a significant number of those who stand to lose all coverage with the impending repeal.

Repeal of the ACA without provision for those with pre-existing conditions, many with absolutely no financial resources, will be a death warrant for many. “Survival of the fittest” will take over from any moral center we ever had as a nation.

In effect, we are no different from Nazi Germany in our preparations to remove the “unfit” from our society. We shall simply redefine “unfit” as those with health and financial problems rather than coming from certain racial lines.

Keep in mind that Hitler’s need for a pure German race started by killing off their own mentally/physically unfit. We must not follow this dangerous path. We must stop this no matter the cost.

It’s not all bad

Now, there are some things that Trump has planned that do make sense. I know there is much horror that he is routinely placing as head of federal agencies those who philosophically oppose much of the work of those agencies. Nonetheless, this is an established business practice. It forces organizations to defend what they do and how they do it.

There is no question but that bureaucratic red tape makes job creation more difficult. Without robust job creation, our economy will not thrive. Without a thriving economy, there are simply no funds to keep in place a necessary social safety net.

That safety net keeps us from degenerating into a dystopian future of the desperately poor fighting over scraps of food while the financially secure elite party endlessly.

We’ve built this nation on the backs of a solid middle class. However, we are rapidly losing the income group that keeps us civil and engaged.

I’ve recently read a lot of rage by clergy against high-income business people. Pastors, remember this: when you denigrate the very wealthy who use their wealth to create industry and jobs, you denigrate the very people who make it possible for your churches to survive and thrive.

The economic world functions as a complex, multi-layered and interconnected world. Take out one element, and the whole thing can quickly collapse. Furthermore, when you decry stockholder profits, you also imply you are not interested in seeing your pension grow. You also consign many in your congregations to retirement poverty.  Retirement and pension funds invest in many publically held companies. We need their growth.

The decision to march

I decided to participate in the Austin event, not because I think my participation is particularly meaningful, but because I felt it necessary for my soul to say, “I will indeed stand up to evil and oppression.”

The march alone means nothing if we all walk away saying, “Well, I’ve done my part.”

As one who calls herself a Jesus-follower, I have a corporate responsibility to the larger world. We all do. None of us lives as an island, disconnected from what happens around us.

Those of us, and I am most certainly one of them, who live somewhat protected from the possibility of extreme poverty or direct implications of the destruction of the social safety net have the largest responsibility here. We must stand up for those who have so little energy for anything but pure survival that they cannot even see clearly.

The dark part of my soul

But there is another group that needs support. Frankly, we must stand up for (not to) Trump voters who have been thoroughly conned into thinking that his election would help their financial and employment circumstances.

There is a dark part of my soul that says, “Those who voted for Trump and then lose health insurance deserve what they get.” But “What they get” will inevitably mean more suffering and much earlier deaths.

That is about as un-Jesus-like as it gets. I have to fight that. I have to stand in opposition to the parts of my life that still need redemption.

A healthy society, one informed by Christian values, is one that leaves no one out. “No one” means even our most vicious political opponents. It means even the utterly objectionable racists. It means the conspiracy theorists who worked hand in hand with Russian operatives to sway this election.

Everyone counts in Kingdom of Heaven economics. Followers of Jesus must fight for the mockers of the “liberal elite” and call us the source of all their problems. We must bind up their wounds and educate their children. Everyone, including rabid enemies, deserves adequate food, shelter, health care and the possibility of a future free of fear.

I also must care about the conservative members of the religious right who have routinely consigned me to hell because I served as a female senior pastor. This is what it means to love, not just our friends, but also our enemies.

So, I’m heading to Austin with thousands of others (oh yes . . .  the traffic jams!). More will head to Washington, DC, to other state capitals and to other localities that have decided to join in. We go because it is our right. The Constitution begins with “We the People.” “We” need to do our part. All of us.