Where’s the Decency?

by Editor · February 12, 2017

This week’s editorial looks at the decline of decency especially with regards to the recent alarming developments in the US.

So much has been written on the personality and actions of US President Donald Trump that a key word is being drowned out: decency.

In the debates over the relative merits of Mr Trump and his team, it is important to understand that disagreement over Mr Trump is not a matter of “liberals” versus “conservatives”.

While it is true that Mr Trump’s agenda falls on the extreme conservative side of the political spectrum and that “liberals” are united in opposing him, it is also true that many conservatives, even on the far-right end, stand in opposition to the new president.

Established Republicans like both Presidents Bush, for example, categorically refused to vote for Mr Trump. A significant number of high-ranking conservative politicians regard Mr Trump as a threat to democracy.

It is a mistake to frame criticism of Mr Trump in relation to his party-political opposition, which also has severe failings. The Trump presidency must be assessed on its own merits.

The fault lines are not necessarily ideological, though those also exist. The primary battlegrounds concern good governance, and that is tied to the value of decency.

The decline of decency is not limited to the US or even to this era — South Africa has many tales to tell in that respect. But the ways of Mr Trump are threatening to normalise a callous way of governing, with the probability that this will spread to other democracies. Hate is contagious.

It is striking how Mr Trump in such a short time has galvanised a disparate civil society to opposition.

When he issued the notorious executive order that bars entry to the US to citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries (whose refugees in some cases are trying to escape a crisis the US helped create in the first place), it was not just the US bishops’ conference that protested in a statement, but also at least three cardinal-archbishops.

This is remarkable, since the executive order did not concern the rights of Catholics, life issues or migration from Mexico — on which the US bishops have commented widely — but people of another religion. And where love is dead, there is no place for Christ — other than in empty invocations of his name.

Cardinal Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, called the order contrary to Christian values.

Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego warned that it was “the introduction into law of campaign sloganeering rooted in xenophobia and religious prejudice”.

These are strong words from men who are versed in political diplomacy.

Critique of Mr Trump is not in itself about partisan politics. Inherently, it is about decency, in the president’s personal attributes and in his policies. Mr Trump never presented himself as a man of personal propriety. His election campaign was filled with the rhetoric of hate, fear and lies, and his presidency has not risen above that.

While one may find merit in some of Mr Trump’s policies — Catholics may applaud his anti-abortion measures, for example — the deficiency in decency shown so far by the Trump administration is alarming, especially to Christians, for where the values of decency are absent, love cannot thrive. And where love is dead, there is no place for Christ — other than in empty invocations of his name.

An example from late January illustrates the point. At Dulles airport in Washington DC, security officials handcuffed a five-year-old boy — a US citizen with an Iranian mother — and detained him for four hours, in line with Mr Trump’s immigration ban.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer did not criticise the action as an anomalous misinterpretation of policy, but strongly defended the action, describing the American pre-schooler as a potential “security threat”.

The White House approves of the handcuffing and detention of pre-school children! Where is the humanity in that? How can people of decency not be overwhelmed by shock, grief and anger at such callousness?

Disputes over policies and laws and political appointments will always divide people. But people of goodwill and humanity, including and especially the people of God, must be united — in South Africa, in the United States and everywhere in the world — in standing up for decency, for its absence diminishes us all.

Where there is no decency, there is no love. And where there is no love, Christ finds closed doors. We must open them.