I have never in my life been ashamed of my nation. I am now, profoundly and angrily ashamed. In recent weeks the president of the United State has insulted and alienated the allies who have fought and died with our brave soldiers, sailors and Marines, including members of my own family, fighting and defeating fascism, confronting communism and combating terrorism, nations who share with us a commitment to values of democracy, freedom and the sanctity of the individual. Leaving the G7 meeting a day early he hustled off to embrace the dictator of the most oppressive regime in the world, declaring that it was an honor to sit across the table from a petty tyrant who has poisoned his critics, executed members of his own family – one with an anti-aircraft gun – imprisoned hundreds of thousands of his own people.

Every night I go to bed wondering, why is this happening? What purpose is this all serving? How long will it take for the America I love to recover?

I have always been proud of my nation, its courage, goodness and values. I have also been proud of individual Christians’ brave opposition to Hitler’s totalitarianism, the Church’s opposition to Stalin’s oppressive communism, South Africa’s apartheid, and our own shameful slavery and oppression of people of color. I have loved my nation’s traditional commitment to freedom of the press, now under assault from our own president, education for all its children, equal rights for all its citizens and its willingness to fight and die for the high ideals of liberty and justice for all people.

I find myself asking every day: what has happened to us? Is the American dream dead? Our president, with the full-throated support of the Republican Party, has withdrawn from international treaties, the purpose of which is to assure a safe environment for my children and grandchildren, pulled back from international agreements to protect the world order and the rule of law, embraced and fawned over unsavory dictators in Russia, the Philippines, Turkey and Egypt, and now, unbelievably, seems determined to undermine the political stability of our closest allies, Great Britain, France and Germany.

But what is keeping me up at nights now is the despicable policy of our president, “zero tolerance” at our southern borders, carried out with obvious enthusiasm by our scripture-quoting Attorney General and resulting in the United States government ripping children from their mothers’ arms. I simply cannot believe what I am seeing. I cannot sleep at night thinking that I am citizen of a nation that would do this… The children… the mothers… the babies.

There are words and acts of Jesus that early in my life touched me and ultimately convinced me that he, and the Christian faith, was good and true and worth committing my life to. High among them was the day Jesus, contradicting his own disciples, invited the little children to come to him.

He said, “Let the little children come to me, do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.

Under withering criticism from all sides and intense pressure from Republican senators and representatives, the President yesterday rescinded the family separation part of “zero tolerance”. But 2,300 children, toddlers and infants are still separated from their parents with no plans for reunion, and he is still insisting that immigrants coming to our borders to protect their families from terror and violence are dangerous to our society. He continues to claim, in the face of facts, that immigrants will “infest” our society, take our jobs and commit crimes. And his Bible-quoting Attorney General just ruled that domestic abuse is no longer a legitimate reason to request asylum.

And so, tonight, I will be asking God to forgive the United States of America, my nation.

John M. Buchanan