Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu announced their joint missile strike on Iran with a laundry list of the sins of the ayatollah’s regime while ignoring the violence they themselves have inflicted upon their own citizens and the people of Gaza.
Both men are playing war games to cover up their own crimes and keep themselves out of jail.
This has nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction or a genuine desire for regime change; it has everything to do with the political survival of both men. Both are facing elections that threaten their legacies and may finally hold them accountable for crimes that have impacted the global village and threaten to destabilize our entire world.
TJ Williams Hauger
We all should be writing and protesting and expressing moral outrage about these strikes against the people of Iran. These are the actions of bullies and little men.
Isaiah 5 warns: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight! Woe to men … who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man!”
Trump and Netanyahu have spent their lives calling evil good and gaslighting the cause of justice. They have terrorized marginalized communities and betrayed their own people and governments.
Even Republican leaders prior to Trump spoke of that “shining city on a hill” as a symbol for building sustainable communities that promote freedom, justice and equality. These principles fostered a deep respect for institutions such as the United Nations and the World Council of Churches.
Jesus taught that leadership is fundamentally rooted in servanthood. To serve is to prioritize the well-being of the people, recognizing a political and religious “yes” constitutes a moral mandate to care for the needs of those one may never meet. While servants are not perfect, they are called to be prophetic voices for justice.
“The sacred moral codes of Judaism and Christianity are being systematically violated.”
The sacred moral codes of Judaism and Christianity are being systematically violated by so-called leaders who claim a mantle of moral character yet fail to manifest the “fruits of the Spirit.” Instead, their rhetoric and genocidal intent mirror the deception of the ancient serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Trump’s dehumanization of immigrants — labeling those with brown skin as “rapists” and promising the establishment of mass detention camps while masked ICE agents gun down citizens on the streets of America — mimics the historical patterns of fascist regimes and the very structures of white supremacy the gospel calls us to resist.
As we wait amid the performative moralizing of figures like Trump and Netanyahu, where is the jury to hold them accountable — for the abuse of children and the systemic fraud of the Netanyahu administration?
Psalm 13 is a lament central to both Jewish and Christian traditions, wherein David cries out, “How long, O Lord?” This plea resonates throughout sacred Scripture 60 times, giving voice to the oppressed.
I echo this lament, summoning the ancestral voices of my faith: How long, O Lord? How long will the voices of evil remain dominant?
TJ Williams Hauger is a Baptist pastor in Chicago, an activist and content creator. He earned a master of divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary and is a doctoral student.