{"id":1500,"date":"2016-06-01T20:40:07","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T00:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1500"},"modified":"2016-06-01T20:40:07","modified_gmt":"2016-06-02T00:40:07","slug":"anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not “Thugs,” in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick"},"content":{"rendered":"

In “Anti-Trump THUGS, not Protesters, in New Mexico,” I alluded to my friend and colleague whose private remarks to me via a private message provoked me to write my essay.\u00a0 In the interest of collegiality and fairness, I post here his response to me. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him only as Professor “Chris.” <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Jack Kerwick recently wrote a response to a question I posed to him regarding Trump\u2019s recent New Mexico rally.<\/p>\n

Referencing protests outside of Donald Trump\u2019s rally in Albuquerque, Kerwick calls those involved \u201canti-Trump thugs.\u201d Although no person was arrested at this event\u2014and while it goes without saying that violence for its own sake against any person is inexcusable\u2014I would argue that these protests don\u2019t exist in a vacuum: they are, at least in part<\/em>, a reaction,<\/em> a raw, pained, fearful reaction to Trump\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s comments on immigrants, particularly Mexican immigrants, are indeed \u201ccontroversial\u201d insofar as they\u2019ve disrupted the status quo.<\/p>\n

Kerwick mentions how \u201cthe displays of outrageous, indeed, the\u00a0criminal,\u00a0<\/em>conduct of Mexicans assaulting police, destroying property, violating Americans\u2019 right to peacefully assemble, and self-identifying as illegals\u201d serve to vindicate<\/em> Trump\u2019s judgment concerning the prohibitive cost of illegal immigration from Mexico.<\/p>\n

This seems unfair: Would we believe that such actions would occur without them first being provoked? Kerwick answers this question in the affirmative.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes anyone really think,\u201d Kerwick asks, \u201cthat if not for Trump, those igniting fires, hurling obscenities, flashing the middle finger, destroying property, and clashing with police would be volunteering to help the sick or going to work?\u201d But this loaded question assumes what needs to be shown.<\/p>\n

Of course, illegals must be dealt with, but while Kerwick cites \u201ccraven and greedy politicians\u201d as the reason such immigrants haven\u2019t been deported, a more plausible explanation is that a gaping hole would be left in the economy were such a wholesale move ever attempted. While it is doubtless that cowardice and greed are present within the political class, these factors alone can\u2019t account for the readiness to establish pathways to citizenship for illegals.<\/p>\n

As for Trump\u2019s \u201cwall,\u201d Kerwick asks, \u201cwhy should any\u00a0American\u00a0<\/em>regard the proposal of a wall as any more \u2018controversial\u2019 than the proposal for one to lock one\u2019s doors at night?\u201d He suggests those who are anti-wall are \u201cfor the erasure of a border between Mexico and the US.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cErasure\u201d is an interesting word for its focus on both removal and residue: an erasure is what remains after<\/em> forcible \u201cpurity.\u201d Apparently a \u201cwall\u201d is the only manifestation of such a process; those on one side legally must have \u201cerased\u201d that which would tie them to the other side.<\/p>\n

Kerwick\u2019s italicizing of \u201cAmerican\u201d suggests that he\u2019s advocating a bandwagon appeal, an ethos of \u201cAmerica\u201d that demands its \u201cotherness\u201d as part of its branding. Yet others, without reserve, would cite America for its plurality, its acceptance<\/em> of otherness. If people who contribute to America now are not breaking any laws save for the border they crossed to get here (chiefly to escape whatever toxic reality does<\/em> exist over there), why are we casting them aside?<\/p>\n

To deny that Trump\u2019s words haven\u2019t invited paranoia and fear from a pained populace in search of a scapegoat seems more than intellectually dishonest.<\/p>\n

Kerwick cites 9\/11 as the chief cause of Trump\u2019s suggestion of consideration of a \u201ctemporary ban on all Muslim immigrants,\u201d mentioning Louis Farrakhan\u2019s support of the plan. However, as A. Idris Palmer has argued, Farrakhan is not<\/em> a genuine Muslim but, rather, a \u201cheterodox, eccentric Batini who for over 55 years has masqueraded as a Muslim.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, any attempt to align the views of Farrakhan with that of the American Muslim population is doomed to failure.<\/p>\n

Kerwick maintains that my use of \u201ccontroversial\u201d is a rhetorical ploy reserved only for the views of one\u2019s opponents. I am<\/em> an opponent of Trump\u2019s. Still, even political outsiders with the most bemused, clinical interest could describe as \u201ccontroversial\u201d Trump\u2019s words within the contexts under discussion, for they need only observe the protests that seem to follow him wherever he holds a rally. After all, not unlike the Trump supporter <\/em>in North Carolina who was videoed sucker punching an unsuspecting protestor, they don\u2019t exist in a vacuum.<\/p>\n

Yet Kerwick suggests that I am misinformed for my use of this term, controversial, and that my disagreement with Trump is unreasonable. Using an example of the moon landing of 1969, Kerwick underscores that, even if there\u2019s disagreement between \u201cfolks who insist [it] never happened and [\u2026] the rest of us,\u201d the event in question is not <\/em>controversial.<\/p>\n

Such an analogy fails for several reasons. Chiefly, the Apollo moon landing was a singular occurrence in time, an action televised for all to see. There was no rhetoric<\/em> involved (save for Armstrong\u2019s indelible quotation).<\/p>\n

Secondly, there were no direct references to any groups of people that would stroke either their ire or that of other<\/em> groups of people. Indeed, there was most certainly nothing<\/em> \u201ccontroversial\u201d about Armstrong\u2019s walk because nothing about it divided people who witnessed it: it was a uniting force.<\/p>\n

Does Trump\u2019s rhetoric serve that purpose?<\/p>\n

Kerwick contends that those who don\u2019t share the viewpoints of those from \u201cdifferent political parties, religious denominations, ideologies and so forth\u201d view them<\/em> as \u201ccontroversial.\u201d But I would never deny that Sanders and Clinton are just as worthy of critique where they deserve to be critiqued. The difference, though, between them and Trump is that the most sensible of the latter\u2019s positions gets lost in the style in which he delivers it. And there are times, in policy alone, where he\u2019s eminently disagreeable.<\/p>\n

Kerwick fundamentally misreads me when he says that I assume that \u201cmob\u00a0violence<\/em>\u00a0against innocents is an understandable, if unjustified, reply to \u2018rhetoric<\/em>.\u2019\u201d Trump seems to suffer under the delusion that he can speak provocatively without being provocative. The acknowledgment that people are, in fact, reacting to his rhetoric is a far cry from \u201cexcusing\u201d or \u201cjustifying\u201d these reactions.<\/p>\n

Kerwick hypothesizes that, were \u201cwhite Southerners with Confederate flags [to visit] destruction down upon the heads of attendees at an Obama, Black Lives Matter, or even a Nikki Haley rally,\u201d I would have never sought a connection between the protests of the former and the rhetoric of the latter.<\/p>\n

Aside from the obvious fact that, if the KKK or white Southerners never existed, we would more than likely never have Black Lives Matter\u2014and might have had a black president 50 years earlier than we ended up having one\u2014I don\u2019t know how else to reply to such a faulty comparison.<\/p>\n

My position is that this election has exposed a searing pain, and anger felt from all sides. It\u2019s time to pour water on incendiary words that have already intoxicated far too many vulnerable minds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In “Anti-Trump THUGS, not Protesters, in New Mexico,” I alluded to my friend and colleague whose private remarks to me via a private message provoked me to write my essay.\u00a0 In the interest of collegiality and fairness, I post here his response to me. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAnti-Trump PROTESTERS, not "Thugs," in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not "Thugs," in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In “Anti-Trump THUGS, not Protesters, in New Mexico,” I alluded to my friend and colleague whose private remarks to me via a private message provoked me to write my essay.\u00a0 In the interest of collegiality and fairness, I post here his response to me. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-02T00:40:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not \"Thugs,\" in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not \"Thugs,\" in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick","og_description":"In “Anti-Trump THUGS, not Protesters, in New Mexico,” I alluded to my friend and colleague whose private remarks to me via a private message provoked me to write my essay.\u00a0 In the interest of collegiality and fairness, I post here his response to me. Because he wishes to remain anonymous, I will refer to him…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html","og_site_name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","article_published_time":"2016-06-02T00:40:07+00:00","author":"Jack Kerwick","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html","name":"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not \"Thugs,\" in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-02T00:40:07+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-02T00:40:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/anti-trump-protesters-not-thugs-in-new-mexico-a-response-to-jack-kerwick.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anti-Trump PROTESTERS, not “Thugs,” in New Mexico: A Response to Jack Kerwick"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/","name":"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jack Kerwick","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/6832222998cc14717ded1849531201c5","name":"Jack Kerwick","description":"I have a Ph.D. in philosophy from Temple University, a master's degree in philosophy from Baylor University, and a bachelor's degree in philosophy and religious studies from Wingate University. I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1501,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500\/revisions\/1501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}