“No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.” Abraham Lincoln
“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car
into a group of innocent bystanders,
I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe,
then comfort the wounded and bury the dead.
I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the
hands of the driver.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
He spoke his own death sentence.
It was simple.
“In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cries rise to Heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you in the name of God: Stop the repression!”
It was because of this appeal - directed at the oligarchs, military officers and ordinary soldiers of El Salvador who were conducting a yearslong campaign of torture and assassination against the poor of the country – that military intelligence officer Major Roberto D'Aubuisson dispatched a hit squad.
The following day, March 24, 1980, as the fourth archbishop of El Salvador finished the homily/sermon of a memorial Mass in the Carmelite chapel of the Hospital de la Divina Providencia, two mercenaries entered the chapel and fired a single shot from a U.S. military assault rifle. Prophet and Martyr Oscar Romero, the greatest threat to the greed and arrogance of the oligarchy of 14 families who ruled El Salvador as if it were their own fiefdom, died within minutes.
Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdamez was declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Francis on October 14, 2018.
The Anglican/Church of England/Episcopal Church has honored him with his statue – one of ten statues of Christian martyrs of the 20th Century – above the west door of Westminster Abbey.
“The ones who have a voice must speak for those who are voiceless.”
Archbishop Oscar Romero
Let’s start with the basics:
We are baptized – Anglican/Episcopalian and Roman - Catholics.
From the moment of baptism we have had three spiritual/moral commitments: To live the day-to-day priesthood of the People of God with the responsibility to share – in word and deed - the Good News of the Resurrection; to live as members of communities freed from the fear of death and with a committed understanding that what we do to “the least” of His brothers and sisters we do unto the Christ; and to stand fearlessly against untruth and injustice.
We are ordained Catholics – priests of the Anglican/Episcopalian and Roman Churches, vowed and promised to preach and live the Good News.
Our Churches share a common Lectionary – the assigned lists of readings for daily and Sunday Masses. We preach from and according to the Lectionary. From the pulpit, we do not preach about politics (as difficult that might be in these highly charged times).
At Baptism, we are reminded “As Christ Jesus was anointed priest, prophet and king, so may you live always as a member of His body, sharing everlasting life.”
In our theologies, prophets do not – never did – foretell the future. Prophets can’t give you the winning lottery numbers, predict the results of an NFL game, or tell who will win the next Super Bowl.
“A church that doesn’t provoke any crises,
a gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin,
a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin
of the society in which it is being proclaimed –
what gospel is that?”
Archbishop Oscar Romero
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the role of the prophet was threefold. (I) To wander the world in which he lived and to see, to understand the ways in which his fellow Chosen People, especially their religious and political leaders, had turned away from and been unfaithful to their God. Israel of the Old Testament was called to remain faithful to the One God – to be the “faithful remnant.” The prophet recognized the ways in which his own people – by establishing altars and offering sacrifices to pagan gods, through intermarriage with pagan communities or by committing to political alliances with the worshippers of other gods or peoples who offered human sacrifices, especially of babies and children, or through outright sinfulness – had turned away from the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (2) To prayerfully reflect upon this evil and the will of the One God for His people. (3) To return to the highways and byways, to the synagogues and the Temple, and accuse priest, king and commoner of their sinfulness, calling them to return to the One True God.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church addresses the issue of lying:
“III. Offenses Against Truth
“2475 Christ's disciples have ‘put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.’ By ‘putting away falsehood,’ they are to ‘put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander.’
“2482. ‘A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving.’ The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: ‘You are of your father the devil, . . . there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.’
“2483 Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead into error someone who has the right to know the truth. By injuring man's relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
“2484 The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.
“2485 By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.
“2486 Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.
“2487 Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation….”
On Tuesday, August 1, 2023, a federal grand jury indicted Donald J. Trump for knowingly lying about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. The following day, CommonCause.org summarized the indictment. It states that Donald Trump:
“lost the 2020 presidential election,”
“was determined to remain in power,”
“spread lies” about 2020 election fraud,
“knew they were false,” and
“repeated and widely disseminated them anyway.” Donald Trump was told repeatedly he lost the 2020 election, including by those inside his circle. Here are the eight times—at least—that people told Trump he lost fair and square, according to the indictment:
Vice President Mike Pence: He told Trump “he had seen no evidence” of fraud that would change the result of the 2020 election.
Senior Justice Department Leaders: They told Trump multiple times there was no evidence to support his claims of election fraud.
Director of National Intelligence: Told Trump the intelligence community did not find any evidence of foreign interference that “would change the outcome of the election.”
Department of Homeland Security: Issued a public statement that “that there was no evidence any voting system had been comprised” and ‘the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.’”
Senior White House Attorneys: Told Trump there was “no evidence” of election fraud.
Senior Trump Campaign Staff: The day before the election, they told Trump he only had a 5-10% chance of winning his re-election, and only if he won ongoing vote counts and litigation in Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin. A week later, he lost in Arizona, “meaning he had lost the election.”
State legislators and officials: Many, who supported his re-election and voted for him, repeatedly told him that his election fraud claims were “false.”
State and federal courts: They assessed all of his lawsuits alleging election fraud and ruled “his allegations were meritless.”
[Emphasis in original text.]
“We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.”
Archbishop Oscar Romero
Therefore, as priests – called by Baptism and Holy Orders to be prophetic, we declare “Donald Trump is a liar.” In good conscience, in fidelity to our baptismal and ordination commitments, we cannot and will not vote for him in the November 5 presidential election and he should not receive the votes of men and women of faith or no faith.