January 6th Pardons: It's Official. The Mob Now Rules.

Thou shalt not kill.  --Exodus 20:13* (*unless you get a pardon)

His forty-two-year life on this earth was ordinary and extraordinary, as many human lives are. Ordinary, and beautiful, in that he was a good son and good brother, a devoted boyfriend to his partner of eleven years, Sandra, and he so loved his dogs. Two dachshunds, Sparky, and Pebbles. Watching hockey too.

His was an extraordinary life, as a lifelong public servant: a soldier, a first responder. Brian Sicknick served in the New Jersey Air National Guard, deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1999, and Kyrgyzstan in 2003. He was honorably discharged that year and went on to serve as a United States Capitol police officer from 2008 to 2021. 

January of 2021, with a last day of service, end of watch, January 6^th.

That day Brian, while bravely defending the Capitol building along with his fellow officers, from a mob of thousands of rioters bent on overturning the 2020 election results, was sprayed at close range in the face with pepper spray by two of those assembled “protestors”. Officer Sicknick seemed to be okay but at 10 pm that night, he collapsed and was hospitalized. The next day, he suffered two strokes, was put on life support but then died, 32 hours after the rioters violently attacked him. Months later, the D.C. medical examiner Dr. Francisco J. Diaz concluded that Sicknick died of “natural causes” but, “all that transpired played a role in his condition."

He died serving his country. The two men who assaulted him were arrested, tried, and convicted, and sentenced to jail. They were serving out their punishment until this week, when they, along with more than 1,500 other insurrectionists, were pardoned by our new President. With the stroke of a pen, the President pardoned every last one of those so called “patriots,” they who marauded through the cathedral of our democracy.  Who unrinated and defecated throughout the building.  Who so traumatized Capitol police officer Jeffrey Smith that nine days after the riots, he committed suicide. Who cost taxpayers $1.2 billion for cleanup and the hardening of that building to prevent other riots.

Brutes. Bullies. Haters. Crazies. They all walked out of jails and are now free. 

I guess this is the country we are living in now.  You can cause the death of a first responder doing their duty and defending the democratic process and you can still get away with it. Walk scot-free with bloodstained hands, none the worse for wear apparently. Go back to rioting and using violence as a political cudgel against anyone who dares to opposes you or your beloved leader.

As a citizen and a person of faith I don’t know what breaks my heart more.  The unjust, unnecessary death and suffering of all those Capitol police and D.C. police officers who tried their best to hold the line on that darkest of days in American history? The descent into government sanctioned lawlessness? Do the crime and you don’t have to pay the time!

Imagine how hurt and insulted the survivors must feel, like their loved ones’ lives meant absolutely nothing, at least not to the commander in chief and maybe not even to some of the millions who voted for him too.

And of course, my faith always tells me, “Thou shalt not kill.”  That’s religion 101. Morality and ethics for beginners. If we as a country can’t get that right then we are doomed to more chaos, more suffering and the destruction of democratic ideals and values that really makes America great.

Mob rule? That’s not America.

Or is it?

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.

 

 

     

 

President Carter: Thank You For Your Service and Faithful Life!

"I have one life and one chance to make it count for something… My faith demands--and this is not optional--that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have, to try to make a difference.”                 --President Jimmy Carter

It was getting late. The sun was setting on a warm July Thursday night in South Dakota thirty summers ago, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation. That community was the site of the Jimmy Carter Habitat for Humanity Blitz Build, a yearly mega-building event. Thousands of volunteers from around the world like me arrived in Eagle Butte, to put up more houses than you can imagine, 30(!), all in seven days.

That’s right: one week to construct simple, decent housing for God’s people in need, as Habitat’s mission statement proclaimed. The dream was that from bare foundations on Sunday night, by the next Saturday night folks would be washing their supper dishes in the sink.  

I was one of more than 1,500 volunteers, and though I saw President Carter building a home’s front porch and heard him speak and offer prayers at the opening ceremony, my hope to meet him had yet to come true. Until that Thursday night. The house I worked on needed to be fully sheet rocked by midnight, when the crew with tape and spackle would put the final touches on, before painting. 

Despite our best efforts, by dusk we still had lots of sheetrock to hang. Then President Carter showed up, called us together and challenged us to get the work done. “We’ll bring in pizza, so you won’t miss dinner, but we need sheet rocking to continue until we’re finished.” He said this with a smile but in a tone that made clear we could not let our future homeowners down. We owed it to them to complete our service.

We hung the last sheet with about fifteen minutes to spare before the finish crew appeared.  I went home to my temporary digs and fell into bed exhausted but so happy and excited to have cut all those sheetrock pieces and met President Carter too!  

He was my hero then. He is still my hero.

I met him again on the last day of the build when he and his wife Rosalynn stopped at every new house to present homeowners with house keys and a Bible and to pose for a group photo. For a couple who had spent so much time in high powered places with high powered people, they were so down to earth. Kind. Attentive. Patient. Gracious. Humble. And I finally got to shake Carter’s hand that day long ago!

I’m grateful, we as Americans should all be grateful, for this good man and all that he did in service to others. Service to his nation as a nuclear submarine commander and President. Service to humanity in his post-presidential endeavors, everything from building affordable housing to helping wipeout diseases in Africa, like guinea worm, that once blinded tens of thousands.

And this life of service to others was always undergirded by Carter’s deep religious faith.  As a pastor and person of faith I think that is why I so admired him. He didn’t speak hollow words from the Bible, or pretend he knew what they meant. He taught Sunday School for thirty years! He never used faith as a cynical ploy to garner votes or to hoodwink or exploit believers. 

Carter talked the talk and walked the walk of faith, a rare trait in so public a believer. Yes, history reports Carter was not perfect. He could be arrogant and self-righteous. He was stubborn. He did not get along all that well with his Presidential successors. If Carter saw an injustice, he spoke up, political politeness be damned. Some judge his Presidency a failure, though the truth is he actually got a lot done.

So, Godspeed Jimmy.  I’m sure the pearly gates swung wide open when you arrived in heaven.  For you took the one life God gave you and used it well and wisely. You lived with compassion and mercy, especially for the folks most of us don’t even see.

Thank you for being a role model. And for the pizza too!  

Rest in peace.   

The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.

In the photo the Carters are in the first row and I am in the back row on the right with the oversized mustache and UMass baseball cap!