The Value of Sympathy for Ridiculous People

To My Dear Friend Guy:

A while back, I posted on Facebook that I had sympathy for Megyn Kelly about her losing her job at NBC. As you will recall, I stated that a lot of white people put their feet in their mouths because they don’t fully know the parameters of what constitutes racist speech or action, or they are ignorant of how consequential this can be to their lives, and that this ignorance is largely born of a lack of awareness, knowledge, or empathic appreciation of the breadth and depth of past suffering and injustice towards blacks in America and how it persists even in the present day.

You didn’t have any sympathy for Kelly. You felt that she was basically lying down in the racist and insensitive bed she made, and it was good enough for her. You also challenged me that, if I had sympathy for her, then I needed to have sympathy for Donald Trump as well, and that I should have it for integrity and consistency’s sake.

Of course, Donald Trump is not a person that I am inclined to have sympathy for. He has lied so many times to so many people. He has abused and denigrated so many others. He has forcibly separated children from their parents. He has animated forces of hate in the land in unprecedented ways. He is corrupt, has many corrupt associates, and has a knack for corrupting those with good reputations who enter and remain in his universe. He is mean and petty, selfish, craven, incontinent of speech, and a respecter of persons. In spite of all that, my simple answer is yes, I do have sympathy for Donald Trump, and here’s why.

First of all, I have to. The mercy you give is the mercy you get, according to the Bible. (Matthew 7:1-2 – “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”) This does not mean that people who say and do things based on race that are hurtful should get a free pass. If there is no accountability or consequence, there will never be any meaningful change. Megyn Kelly had consequences for her actions. If justice is still alive in America, Donald Trump will deal with the consequences of his actions as well. But I still sympathize with their plights nonetheless.

Some of the sympathy comes from an understanding and knowledge of the consequences of what these people are doing to themselves. Take Donald Trump, for example. Obviously, I am not “the Decider,” but if you line up the President’s conduct alongside Scripture, the only reasonable conclusion you can draw is that if he doesn’t repent and change his ways about how he engages the poor and oppressed, foreigners, women, and the truth before his final breath, the last Trump Tower built will be on the shores of the “Lake of Fire" with his soul as his eternal mortgage. Guy, there is sin, there is rebellion, and there is iniquity. Sin is what people do. Rebellion is what people do as a result of sin, but iniquity is a whole ‘nother level. Iniquity is teaching, encouraging, and exalting sin. It is sin on steroids. Iniquity is the establishment of sin as the standard, sin as virtue, sin as an heirloom that should be passed on to one’s children. Iniquity is hellcraft. It makes good “bad” and bad “good,” and lot of our American political leadership is involved in hellcraft; that is, an embracing of lies, hatreds, and corruption as a legitimate means of acquiring earthly power. This is Trump’s most significant legacy thus far – leading people in the wrong direction and making them forget there ever was a right one – and it is a damning legacy indeed.

Finally, sympathy allows me a fuller perspective of how and why people say and do what they do. People generally do or say what makes sense to them, and the only way you are going to decode what that sense is, is to look at their situation from their perspective to try to understand what fears, shame, and aspirations fuel their behavior. When folks stop focusing on how white racism makes people of color feel and start focusing on how it makes white folks feel and why, we will know better what should be done to end it. (More on that later...)

Truthfully, I don’t pray for Trump as much as I ought to. It sho’ ‘nuff ain’t easy. But if Jesus could get up on a cross for me, I guess I can send up a prayer to Him for Trump – and for us all. In the meantime, keep fighting – and put a little mercy in your boxing glove…

Fortson