“The Cruelty is the Point” 2.0

In 2017, when the stories began coming out about the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” immigration policy in which children were separated from their parents at the border, people began realizing that our horror was actually the desired outcome. The cruelty of children being torn away from their parents was something the administration wanted to be broadcast; their logic was that this would dissuade parents from seeking asylum in the United States.

I fear that leaders in the state of Texas now consider this to be a winning strategy. Worse, I am afraid that this is not limited to Texas.

With the Dobbs decision this past summer, there has been a rush of legislation in conservative states to discriminate against the LGBTQIA+ community, and decimate the civil rights of individuals. Our Texas legislature will be coming back into session January 10, and they already have a list of harmful bills they will work to pass.

And this week, the story broke that the Texas Attorney General’s office has been compiling data on those who had their gender markers changed on their driver’s licenses.

It’s cruel and threatening. And beloveds, I believe that is the point.

Tv actor Candace Cameron Bure recently received attention for moving from Hallmark to a new channel called “Great American Family channel (GAC)” and saying with approbation that she felt the channel would keep “traditional families” at the core of their programming.

What does that have to do with Texas politics?

I believe it illustrates the vision that conservatives now hold, post-Dobbs. A “two-state” nation in which conservative states will impose laws that will severely limit the civil rights its residents hold, aligned with conservative Christian values. So: limits on reproductive care, annihilation of abortion rights for any reason, a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people, draconian voting rights restrictions, and “freedom of religion” laws that will support discriminatory practices against the LGBTQIA+ community. In this vision, there will be “GAC” (conservative values) states, and there will be “Hallmark” (more inclusive) states.

We are a church. Is this our fight?

Yes. We are a Unitarian Universalist church, and we fight for the civil rights of all people. We have covenanted to affirm and promote the democratic process, the inherent worth and dignity of all people, and the goal of world community with justice for all people.

We will not be a party to this attempt to divide us, where your rights end at the state border.

Saddle up.