The Spiritual Imperative to End the Trump Era

For the good of our children, it is time

I’m writing this article based on inner guidance to invite religious and spiritual leaders around the United States to make your views known to those who look to you for guidance.

I believe that we each need, in our own language and based in our own lineages, to make a clear case for why supporting Donald Trump for President represents a backwards step for our spiritual and moral development as a country. 

This is not a political call (since there is, of course, sacred merit in the values and policies from both the left and the right). 

It’s a moral and spiritual call for the protection and upliftment of our citizens.

While the case may seem obvious to you, it’s also clear that enough people are not connecting the dots and have relegated the decisions in our public sphere to a lower order of expectation. Too often, they see it through the lens of entertainment, sport or battle, with the desire to win the most important value. 

They do not recognize just how impactful our public square leadership is on the spiritual and moral development of our citizens.

Below, I will make my case to serve, hopefully, as inspiration for your own offering.  I invite you to write your own offering, infused with love and wisdom from your lineage, and forward this invitational article to any other leader whom you think should be invited to make their case at this time. Releasing these pieces around July 4^th is, a believe, a healthy expression of patriotism

It is a key moment for such moral, ethical and spiritual reflection. Thank you for caring for all human beings and being willing to lend your voice for their upliftment.

With love,
Stephen Dinan

Dear friends,

I’m writing this article not as a political act but as a moral and spiritual one. 

It is about why love, care, and dedication to our fellow humans requires us to let go of Donald Trump now as a country.

Our President is not merely a decision-maker, a protector, or an executive. They are a demonstration of what we value and what we cherish.  They are the message we send to our children.  They are an emissary to the rest of the world.

Do they represent the best in us?  It’s an important question because every single day with every single new cycle, hundreds of millions of people are receiving a clear message about who to be.

It is for this reason that I believe we cannot, as people of conscience who stand for moral and spiritual principles, even consider supporting Donald J. Trump anymore.

It is not his party affiliation.  Many noble and even great Presidents have served under a Republican banner. 

It is the quality of his character and the ignobility of his means that requires us to now let him go.

We cannot build a beautiful future on lies.  We cannot build a more perfect union on corruption.  We cannot build the American Dream on illusions.

Donald Trump would, it is clear, inspire millions to debase themselves morally and spiritually if he were elected again.  

He would encourage cheating, lying, deception, and violence at a scale that is truly unprecedented in our American history. 

As a convicted felon, he would stand as an affront to the rule of law, encouraging more lawbreaking.  As a proven serial liar, he would teach others that lying is an acceptable way to advance. As a proven cheater, he would undermine the integrity of our country.

He would model the kind of self-interested, morality- free existence that has always been the opposite of what our most revered religious and spiritual leaders have taught.

In his polarizing rages, he teaches the opposite of love.

In his feverish deceptions, he teaches the opposite of truth.

In his ruthless self-aggrandizement, he teaches the opposite of compassion and selfless service.

Four more years of relentless spotlight on his character would strike an unprecedented blow to the moral fiber of our country.  We would be saying, for the history books and to the world, that we had not learned from his first term.

We would be betraying the ideals our Founders put into our original documents and mission.  It would result in a real degradation of America’s moral standing in the world and empower despots the world over.

He would undoubtedly mobilize a new generation of deceivers, cheaters, and manipulators because he would show that you can return to the most powerful position of the world even as a wholly immoral person and a convicted felon.  He would model for a new generation of men a type of masculinity that degrades others vs. lifting them up.

This is, to be clear, not about policies. Many have put short-term perceived interests, especially economic or political, ahead of these impacts on our values. 

But our spiritual principles call for something deeper: to support that which ennobles us and our neighbors and to go beyond short-term greed, lust, and personal gain to build a better world for our children.

I have spent my lifetime amplifying the wisest people in the world.  I know that consciousness is contagious. To place Trump again in such a seat of vast power is to put him at the foreground of our national consciousness and to risk a cataclysmic decline in the character of our country.

Supporting him, in any way with not only votes but money or even attention, is not what this country was created to be.  We were created to be a shining light on the hill to inspire humanity. 

That means permanently turning our gaze from him as a country.

Trump has preyed on our weakness for entertainment and power.  He has mined the dark corners of our minds to manipulate us.  He has subjugated a once noble political party.

He is the opposite of a force of illumination.  He is an embodiment of darkness.

And for that, we need to say a clear and unequivocal “no,” regardless of our party loyalties, regardless of our beliefs, regardless of our desires for certain policies and perspectives to prevail. 

We simply cannot degrade America by elevating this man any further.   

People of conscience need to now say, “Enough” and call forth the better angels of our fellow citizens to end this chapter and learn from it rather than repeat it.

I believe, with all my heart, that is our sacred lesson now.  It is a lesson in remembering who we truly are.

We can do so without hating the man.  I believe that his soul is equally as redeemable as any of ours.  I believe he needs to be defeated for his own moral advancement. It is a loving act to restrain a soul from his worst impulses rather than to goad him on.

I believe that love requires that we do not choose to elevate him anymore.  It does not serve us, our country, or even him.  Love requires that the Trump chapter of history is complete.

May it be so.

With love and patriotism,

Stephen Dinan
Author of Sacred America, Sacred World, founder of The Shift Network