Following the assassination attempt on former U.S. President Donald Trump on at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, a number of evangelicals, commentators and political leaders across the spectrum are lamenting the extreme language that has marked the highly polarized election season.
"While the full details of what occurred are still rightfully being carefully investigated, it is in no way premature to call for Americans of all ideological perspectives, Republicans and Democrats alike, to commit to bringing greater civility to their advocacy in the public square,” Focus on the Family President Jim Daly said in a statement to the Christian Post.
"We should and must be better as a nation in our ability to lean into our shared humanity when we disagree on matters of public policy. Today’s events should steel our resolve to do just that moving forward.”
Similarly, Alveda King, the founder of Speak for Life and chair of the Center for the American Dream at America First Policy Institute, said on Saturday, “I grieve today for the hatred that was displayed tonight as an assassination attempt was made on the life of President Trump. My prayers are with President Trump, his family and all of America tonight! It’s time for our nation to commit itself to prayer, forgiveness, nonviolence and unity.”
King is the niece of the late Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
In an op-ed titled “Please, please, please, we must all tone things down”, Dr. Michael Brown, author and host of the nationally syndicated The Line of Fire radio show, called for reflection.
“As we all sit here stunned watching the footage of the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump, it really is a time for reflection. Are we contributing to this atmosphere of hatred and violence? What kind of emotions do we stir up with the words we speak and the memes we post? What are we fomenting? To what end?”
“As I write these words, political leaders from the Left and Right are expressing their solidarity with Trump and their absolute repudiation of political violence. But will we also hear from those who literally wished violence against Trump? Will they express regret for their poisonous words?
“There are also those on the right who have spoken against President Biden in the ugliest, most irresponsible ways. And there are radical rightwing militias rallying their followers to prepare for war against what they call an illegitimate administration. (In fact, there are violent militia-like groups on both the Left and Right.)
“Where will all this lead?” Brown asked.
Calling on Christians to be different, he wrote, “But all of us are responsible for the words we speak, for the posts we share, for the memes we create, for the environments we shape. And all of us would do well to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some honest questions: Am I fostering godly conviction or breeding vile hatred? Am I helping to produce courage and fortitude or do my words lead to hostility and disdain?
“Let us then be disseminators of light not darkness, agents of God rather than servants of Satan, calling for courage and conviction around righteous causes but with civility toward our political and ideological adversaries. Otherwise, all of us lose.”
'We must stand together', 'no place in America for violence'
In an address to the nation from the Oval Office at the White House on Sunday night, President Joe Biden said that “we must stand together”, “lower the temperature in our politics”, and oppose political violence. “While we may disagree, we are not enemies, we’re neighbors, we’re friends, coworkers, citizens and most importantly, we are fellow Americans,” he said.
“There is no place in America [for] this kind of violence, for any violence ever, period. No exceptions,” Biden said, and stressed that “we can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”
“The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down. We all have a responsibility to do that. Yes, we have deeply felt, strong disagreements. The stakes in this election are enormously high. I’ve said it many times that the choice … we make this election is going to shape the future of America and the world for decades to come. I believe that with all my soul. I know that millions of my fellow Americans believe it as well.”
At the same time, Biden acknowledged that “some have a different view as to the direction our country should take.” He characterized political disagreements as “inevitable” and “part of human nature” while maintaining that “politics must never be a literal battlefield and, God forbid, a killing field.”
“I believe politics ought to be an arena for peaceful debate, to pursue justice, to make decisions guided by the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution,” he added. “We stand for an America not of extremism and fury but of decency and grace.”
A New York Times analysis expressed concern about the potential of the assassination attempt to further “tear America apart”. It quoted some Republicans and commentators who blamed Biden, the Democrats and many of mainstream media for fueling an increasingly extreme narrative that Trump is a threat to democracy, contending that this kind of language directly led to the assassination attempt on Saturday. Democrats on the other hand point to Trump and Republicans for their history of violent language.
Seeking to strike a more balanced tone, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson said on “Today” on NBC that Mr. Trump had “been so vilified and really persecuted by media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system.” He also pointed to a recent comment by Biden to “put Trump in a bull’s-eye”.
“I know he didn’t mean what is being implied there, but that kind of language on either side should be called out,” Johnson commented, and emphasized that “both sides” needed “to turn the temperature down in this country.”
In a post on his TruthSocial platform, Trump expressed his gratitude for the prayers and also called for unity.
“Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness,” he wrote, and added, “In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”
