My Commitment to Our New President

About 2,600 years ago, the surviving inhabitants of Jerusalem were forcibly removed to Babylon by their conquerors. The walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the Temple totally destroyed. The Jews were thus in exile from the Promised Land, with no king to lead them and no Temple in which to worship. All they had left was their religious heritage and their sacred writings.

In the most dire circumstances, the prophet Jeremiah brought them a startling message from God:

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29:7, NIV)

This ancient message speaks to us still, as many in America are also experiencing a sense of exile. For some, the sense of losing their homeland came during the presidency of Barack Obama; for others, it has come through the election of Donald Trump. Our country is terribly divided: partisanship abounds; unity is nowhere to be found.

I believe the time has come to embrace the words of Jeremiah. To that end, I invite others to join me in making these commitments:

I will pray for the success of President Trump and will celebrate his victories.

The president has promised to create countless new jobs and bring about a revival in American manufacturing. He has promised to renew our inner cities, making them safer than they have ever been, with increased access to quality education for all. He has promised to secure our borders from those who would come to wreak havoc among us. He has promised to replace Obamacare with something better, eliminating mandates while lowering premiums and reducing deductibles. He has promised to make our country more secure in order for us to live without fear. He has promised a society free from discrimination with increased opportunities for women and minorities to thrive. In all these things I will pray for his success and celebrate his victories.

I will lament the failures of President Trump and will pray for his victims.

It is impossible for me to imagine anyone being able to fulfill all the promises our new president has made. Everyone fails from time to time, sometimes due to poor decisions being made and at other times because of events beyond our control. Even the most altruistic plans often have unintended consequences. President Trump will have his failures and I will lament them, not gloat over them.

I will also pray for the innocent victims of President Trump’s failures. There will be immigrants denied the opportunity to seek peace and prosperity in this country through no fault of their own. There will be refugees turned away, not because of the threat they pose, but because of the fear we cannot overcome. There will be people discriminated against and brutalized because of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. There will be people who sink deeper into poverty because they lack access to education or healthcare. There will be many other innocent victims, and I will not only pray for them, but will join with others in doing what can be done to alleviate their suffering.

I will be persistent in seeking the truth as objectively as possible about President Trump’s successes and failures, his victories and victims.

In this era of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” I will not accept that we live in a “post-truth” era. I will do all I can to seek the truth from credible sources, choosing to consider both sides in every disagreement, never allowing one side to tell me what the other side thinks and why they are wrong. I will be informed, not gullible.