Hateful political rhetoric is commonplace, and the leap to violence, it appears, isn’t that far.
So how did we get here?
For that, Albert Mohler, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, answers quickly.
“One thing the secular press is missing is the darkness of the human heart that gives itself over to evil,” Mohler said on “Washington Watch,” Wednesday.
“That’s something the secular world doesn't have a category for other than, say, pathological. Biblically we have the category of the one who follows evil to the point that they actually are serving evil,” he told show host Tony Perkins.
President Donald Trump was forced to take cover in a public appearance again Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton hotel.
Mohler predicts the Washington Hilton, also the site of an assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981, has hosted its last presidential event.
This time, Cole Thomas Allen, 31, of Torrance, California, sent a 1,052-word document to his family outlining his plans and motivations just minutes before firing shots and being overtaken just outside the final security checkpoint between himself and Trump.
The first attempt against Trump was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024, when a bullet from a rooftop shot by the late Thomas Matthew Crooks pierced his ear. Crooks was killed quickly by Secret Service agents.
The second attempt was Sept. 15, 2024, at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach when agents fired upon a man in the shrubbery holding a firearm. Ryan Routh was apprehended, tried and found guilty of attempted assassination, assault on a federal officer and other firearm offenses.
“We’re talking about very intelligent individuals in terms of so many of these suspects,” Mohler said. “So, the secular world says, ‘how could this happen?’ What they lack is the category of a heart given over to evil, and that comes out with murderous intent.”
Paul in II Thessalonians writes about the spirit of the evil one already at work in the world. But that evil one is being restrained, many believe, by the Holy Spirit through the church, the body of Christ.
Assassination attempts — even successful attempts — are not new in world history.
“When restraint is taken off a society, more and more of this appears. At least a part of that is God’s judgment,” Mohler said.
Evil intent isn’t new, but the response to it might be. It appears different at least.
There exists a sharper definition of sides in America’s political discourse that prevents a nation from coming together even in times of crisis.
The country rallied together after the assassination of John F. Kennedy; it rallied together after the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
This time, Democratic U.S. House Rep. Katie Porter, a California gubernatorial candidate, sent a profanity-laced email to donors attacking Trump roughly 18 hours after the attempt on his life.
“You have people who have tried to say from the Left, ‘oh, this is actually kind of understandable. I mean, clearly this was wrong, but it's kind of understandable.’ This is where all morally sane people have to say this is so far outside the bounds of anything of moral acceptability that it needs to be called out for exactly what it is,” Mohler said.
The attack was a threat to an entire democratic order, a threat to the entire rule of law, he said.
“We don’t have to make inferences here because he wrote out (his intentions) in a manifesto,” Mohler said.
These attacks stem from a spiritual problem that a secular media can’t identify.
“The press wants to deal with this entirely in politics. Politics can’t answer this,” Mohler said. “We’re reaping some actuality of seeds that have been sown for generations.”
In that way, the attacks, the hate that flows through social media and more are a reflection of the spiritual state of America, Mohler said.
“There are people on the streets who under any sane society would not be on the streets, but this is another problem in terms of our system of law. So much of it's been turned into therapy,” Mohler said.
