President Trump - Week 6

March 5, 2017

Donald Trump

President, United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings. This is the sixth week and fourth letter in my attempt to write to you every week of your Presidency. Two weeks, again, have gone by without me writing to you. Sorry about that.

I write to you on weekends and my weekends are not spent at plush Florida resorts, as most of yours are. My weekends are spent with family, in volunteer service in the community, and in worship with my local church (which I serve part-time as pastor). I squeeze in a half-marathon training run or bicycle ride, but weekends are for me full of what, it seems to me, really makes America great.

Family, community service, and worship—not draconian policies on refugees and immigrants—are what make America great. Family, community service, and worship—not policies that unleash Wall Street speculators to take advantage of investors and roll back basic consumer protections—are what make America great. Family, community service, and worship—not weekends full of irresponsible Tweeting unfounded accusations and paranoid conspiracies—are what make America great.

On weekends, my wife and I spend time together. We together connect with our young adult children. I participate in leading a weekly dinner served to urban neighbors living in poverty with permanent disabilities, felonies, and life challenges that make work and normal life difficult. I lead weekly worship services and share a Bible-based sermon for a small urban community of faith that offers its facilities to address the needs of our low-income community.

I do this—week in, week out—not for reward or recognition, but because this is my faith and because it is what Christians and American citizens do. Because of my concerns for your leadership and its impact on America, I also try to find time to write to you. I found time this Sunday evening. I see you found time for another unhinged Tweet storm and a few rounds of golf. My concern for you and for America grows.

Sincerely,

John Franklin Hay

Indianapolis, Indiana

President Trump - Week 4

February 19, 2017

Donald Trump

President, United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings. This is the fourth week and third letter in my attempt to write to you every week of your Presidency. Obviously, I missed last week. Perhaps, I can explain why.

Last weekend, I participated in a local action with the Indianapolis Congregation Action Network (Indy CAN) in protest and counter to your Executive Orders regarding undocumented workers in the USA and travel ban on refugees from seven predominantly Muslim nations.

Over 1,500 concerned people of faith gathered in the gymnasium of St. Philip Neri Church, a Roman Catholic community, on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis--a community I serve as a pastor and in nonprofit leadership for community development. In that gathering, I stood with more than twenty clergy of Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Sikh faiths to declare that our congregations will engage in actions of sanctuary when our immigrant neighbors are treated in any way that has been declared discriminatory or unconstitutional.

In that meeting, with an overflow of people in hallways and outside in the cold weather, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett spoke heartfully to our people of faith and declared that City of Indianapolis resources will not be used in any actions deemed to be contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America or discriminatory.

In that meeting, we heard testimonies from otherwise peaceful, fully contributing local immigrants who have already been mistreated, whose family members have been unlawfully deported, and who are living in fear because of your words and actions. One was a scientist and employee of Lilly Company, which employs thousands of international immigrants.

In follow-up to that meeting, I met with clergy to plan actions of sanctuary for our neighbors when your misguided plans directly impact them.

This is one reason I did not write to you last weekend. It was for a just and freedom-guarding reason. It sounds like you were pretty busy yourself, so I’m sure you won’t mind missing just one letter of dissent from a citizen.

Sincerely,

John Franklin Hay

Indianapolis, Indiana

President Trump - Week 2

February 5, 2017

Donald Trump

President, United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings. This is the second week and second letter in my attempt to write to you every week of your Presidency. It’s a discipline I followed during part of the Presidency of George W. Bush. It’s partly to share my perspectives with you—which in his case and yours come from a place of respectful dissent—and partly for my own spiritual good.

The second week of your Presidency has been defined by your executive order to ban Muslims from seven nations from entering the United States. I say it is a “ban” because you have repeatedly referred to it as a ban, though your surrogates insist it is, actually, a “pause.” Which it is, in reality, time will tell. Given what is relatively easy to surmise from your campaign statements and the published interviews with your advisors, especially Steve Bannon, I’ll go ahead an anticipate it will be more in the range of a “ban.”

I’ve been trying to follow the logic of your Muslim ban, to see if it is rooted in truth and reality. So far, I can see there is logic to it, but not logic that reflects reality as most people understand and accept it.

It is logical for people to be afraid of mass violence fomented by extremist ideologies. It is true that extremist ideologies are at work among people who call themselves Muslims. But the same is true of Christians: we know that extremist ideologies, like neo-Nazism and white supremacy groups in the United States, have fomented gross atrocities in our homeland. It is not logical, therefore, to presume that people of Muslim faith from the Middle East are more likely to terrorize our citizens. In fact, crime and terrorism statistics do not support your logic.

As I see it, the tragic flaw in your Muslim ban is the false assumption, fomented by people you have uncritically listened to for years, that Islam is evil. Beyond being deceived into thinking Islam is evil, it appears you have been led to believe that Islam is not a valid religion. It seems you see it, rather, as an ideology that threatens the West. In presuming and demonizing Islam as an evil ideology, you and your advisors are both misled and misleading.  A change of mind and heart is desperately needed.

I grew up conservative Evangelical and heard, repeatedly, in church and Sunday School that Islam was violent, evil, and not real religion. Ever since, I have progressively learned through university and seminary studies and extended conversations that this is not true. My earliest teachers were wrong and they misled. Islam is a peace-loving, peace-promoting faith--no less than Christianity. Could it be that the same wrong/false teachings/assumptions about Islam in Evangelical church circles has directly or indirectly misinformed you and your advisors?

You call for “extreme vetting” for Muslim refugees, apparently without knowing the extent to which these refugees are currently being vetted in an 18-month to two-year process by the capacities of the United States. As part of your “pause,” please learn firsthand of the extent to which our public servants have been and are making America safe. Applaud their efforts; do not disparage them.

To reduce fear and violence, responsible leadership that people at home and abroad will come to respect will carefully discern between faith and violent extremism, between valid religion and radical ideologies—both at home and abroad.

Along with millions of fellow Americans, I am very concerned that your Muslim ban is having many unintended consequences that far outstrip your original intentions. Unless you intended to say to all Muslims, “we do not want you, we suspect you, we will oppose you,” your policy is badly missing the mark. But, if alienating the Muslim world from America is your intent, you certainly have hit that mark.

You can do better. We deserve better.

Sincerely,

John Franklin Hay

Indianapolis, Indiana

President Trump - Week 1

January 30, 2017

Donald Trump

President, United States of America

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Greetings. I have decided to attempt to write to you every week of your Presidency. Perhaps it is a way to try to make a connection between a heartland citizen and his President, though I doubt your eyes will ever view these letters. Most likely, this action is more for my own good (a therapy, of sorts), for your words and actions to this point deeply trouble me.

In one week, you have certainly acted with the boldness upon which you campaigned, issuing a robust number of executive orders intended to set a distinctive course for your Presidency. Certain people will praise you for your boldness, for it makes you appear as a decisive, strong leader. It is not boldness that concerns me, however, but lack of prudence and wisdom.

In issuing rapid-fire edicts in the first week of your Administration, you and your advisors have acted on the presumption that your understanding of governance and issues facing America and the world are definitively superior to all, that the manner in which these have been addressed in the recent past are wrong, and that consultation with Congress and resources outside The White House are unnecessary. This is, to me, unwise.

It may be that you and your advisors have already developed a level of groupthink that is self-justifying, circular, insular, and self-defensive. This would not be surprising; it would just be tragic for your Presidency. It would defy one of your campaign statements in which you said you would bring the brightest and best minds together to understand problems and address them winningly.

Instead, it appears you have chosen an “I know best” approach and have hastily rolled out sea-changing orders. It appears that the long-denied interests and passions of your inner circle have been initially satisfied. It appears that you have—instead of leading—cowed to their desires.

What I look for in your Presidency is evidence of thorough deliberation, meditated consideration, weighing fully and carefully an array of facts, options and opportunities. And I look for some evidence that there is awareness and thought of those who are not at the table to speak for or defend themselves. So far, this is not evident. I hope it will soon develop.

Sincerely,

John Franklin Hay

Indianapolis, Indiana