Stop Hateful Language
This letter to the editor, by Laurie Harmon, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on July 31, 2025.
Propaganda comes in all forms, but using the Bible to promote hate is a vile version. Most recently, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem has perversely used an Old Testament verse in Isaiah to promote a dark film showcasing immigrant detention centers. In the verse, the prophet Isaiah states: “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me’” (6:8, King James Version).
Churches often use the verse as a hopeful, uplifting commission for missionaries and others who have chosen to commit their lives to spreading the loving word of God. Noem’s mission, however, is the inhumane agenda of placing people in cages, deporting them to foreign lands, and destroying lives indiscriminately.
This is a far cry from spreading the peaceful, loving, forgiving word of God.
How did we get to a place where we equate “God’s work” with delivering pain, torment, and sadness? Simple. He who controls the language controls the society.
George Orwell addresses this scenario in his classic dystopian novel, 1984. In it, the government creates a simplified language to control the masses called “NEWSPEAK,” using brainwashing nonsense like: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” The government need only continually repeat the rhetoric until people become fully indoctrinated.
Perhaps Orwell’s vision explains today’s America. Heather Cox Richardson observed that Noem’s video “makes it clear Noem’s justification was cover for a violent Christian nationalist vision in which ICE and the Border Patrol are enforcing God’s commandments… The exchange is widely interpreted to show volunteers willing to do God’s work.”
The plan is working. The current regime controls the language and the minds of many and uses Christian doctrine to promote hate.
Christian churches are at a crossroads. Recent court rulings now allow churches to challenge the rhetoric of the far right and the misuse of the Bible for political and societal maneuvering. I urge responsible religious leaders to name and condemn the hate-speech and violent language currently turning God’s words into Trump’s loathsome agenda.