From Dictators to Today: The Cost of Hate and the Call to Love

A Pastoral Statement on Charlie Kirk, Violence Against Transgender People, and the Rising Tide of Authoritarianism

Statement from Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler Universal Rainbow Faith Church

We grieve the loss of life and pray for Charlie Kirk’s family and all affected by this violence. We also pray for the countless transgender lives lost through hatred and brutality, and for the healing of those who incite such violence.

It is most difficult to look upon other human beings with compassion who have caused such suffering through inciting genocide, fueling holocausts, and becoming part of the machinery of supremacy and oppression. And yet, we are now witnessing a modern-day genocide of transgender lives—justified by some who claim they act on God’s direction. This is most tragic.

When I look back through history, I see the countless lives lost in religious wars, a number greater than almost any other conflict—all in the name of someone’s God. We have seen genocide in the past, and we are seeing it now.

How much compassion can we have for totalitarian regimes, their leaders, and their supporters? It is very easy as we look back through history to see the rise of dictators and mass killers, and those who incited or supported them—and what became of them.

We are at a critical mass breaking point. Violence is never the answer. But let us look at history…

🌍 20th Century Dictators & Mass Killers

• Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1933–1945) – Nazi leader; Holocaust; World War II; millions killed.

• Benito Mussolini (Italy, 1922–1943) – Fascist dictator; ally of Hitler; responsible for war crimes in Africa and Europe.

• Joseph Stalin (USSR, 1924–1953) – Purges, forced famines, gulags; millions perished.

• Mao Zedong (China, 1949–1976) – Great Leap Forward & Cultural Revolution; tens of millions dead.

• Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975–1979) – Khmer Rouge leader; genocide killed ~2 million Cambodians.

• Hideki Tojo (Japan, WWII) – Militarist Prime Minister; atrocities in Asia (Nanjing, forced labor, Unit 731).

🌍 Other Infamous Authoritarian Leaders

• Francisco Franco (Spain, 1939–1975) – Fascist dictator; repression, executions, political imprisonment.

• Augusto Pinochet (Chile, 1973–1990) – Military coup; torture, killings, disappearances.

• Saddam Hussein (Iraq, 1979–2003) – Genocidal campaigns against Kurds; mass executions.

• Idi Amin (Uganda, 1971–1979) – Brutal rule; mass killings, torture, persecution.

• Slobodan Milošević (Serbia/Yugoslavia, 1989–2000) – Ethnic cleansing in the Balkans.

• Muammar Gaddafi (Libya, 1969–2011) – Authoritarian rule; violent repression.

• Bashar al-Assad (Syria, 2000–present) – Civil war atrocities, chemical weapons (still in power).

🌍 Lesser-Known but Deadly Regimes

• Mengistu Haile Mariam (Ethiopia, 1977–1991) – “Red Terror” campaign; famine and repression.

• Rafael Trujillo (Dominican Republic, 1930–1961) – Police state; assassinations, massacres (e.g., Parsley Massacre of Haitians).

• Jean-Bédel Bokassa (Central African Republic, 1966–1979) – Violent rule; cannibalism allegations.

• Enver Hoxha (Albania, 1944–1985) – Extreme isolationist communist regime; repression, executions.

• Leopold II of Belgium (Congo Free State, late 1800s–1908) – Atrocities in Congo; millions died.

• Suharto (Indonesia, 1967–1998) – Mass killings of communists; authoritarian control.

🌍 Supporters & Collaborators of Evil Regimes

• Vidkun Quisling (Norway) – Nazi collaborator; name became synonymous with “traitor.”

• Philippe Pétain (France, Vichy Regime, 1940–1944) – Collaborated with Nazi Germany.

• Ante Pavelić (Croatia, 1941–1945) – Ustaše leader; ethnic cleansing, genocide.

• Wang Jingwei (China) – Led collaborationist government with Imperial Japan.

⚖️ Common thread: These leaders and their enablers justified mass violence through ideology—whether fascism, communism, religious fundamentalism, or nationalism. Each shows how authoritarianism, hate, and dehumanization lead to mass suffering and death.

🌍 Today’s Worst Offenders

We must understand and see the truth of our own time. Current regimes of oppression include:

• Vladimir Putin — Russia

• Kim Jong-un — North Korea

• Ali Khamenei (Supreme Leader) & Masoud Pezeshkian (President) — Iran

• Taliban Leadership (Hibatullah Akhundzada, Supreme Leader) — Afghanistan

• Mohammed bin Salman (Crown Prince) — Saudi Arabia

• Yoweri Museveni — Uganda

• Ramzan Kadyrov — Chechnya (under Russia)

• Min Aung Hlaing — Myanmar (Military Junta)

• Hassanal Bolkiah (Sultan) — Brunei

• Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (President) — United Arab Emirates

• Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (Emir) — Qatar

• Bola Tinubu (President) — Nigeria (laws enforced at federal + state level against LGBTQ+ people)

And in this list we must also include:

• Donald Trump & the MAGA Movement — U.S.

• Project 2025 (Heritage Foundation agenda) — U.S.

• Christian nationalist / Christian Reformation movement — U.S. & global

Just because we live in the United States does not mean our government, past or present, is absolved of atrocities. We have had our own brand of genocide, war, and violence, and it continues today. How much can people take before they fight back?

✝️ Spiritual Reflection

The spiritual high road has us pray for ascension. When these leaders face their life review, may they grow spiritually, learn their lessons, and become eternal demonstrations of God’s true grace.

But the evil of today is rising from within the Evangelical white Christian movement and fanatic religious sects worldwide. Not all Christians, but a growing segment of reformed evangelicals and their offshoots are proposing segregation, criminalizing LGBTQ+ lives, criminalizing women’s choices over their own bodies, and pushing for a one-world religion—a one-world government of white Christian supremacy run by men—just like The Handmaid’s Tale.

These are the times we are truly living in. In Atwood’s vision, the handmaids rebelled, and though many were killed, they fought a regime that dehumanized them and made them slaves. For LGBTQ+ people, labeled as “gender traitors,” they were executed. And are we not seeing the same spirit today? Perhaps not hanging by a rope or drowning in a pool, but in psychological abuse, spiritual abuse, emotional torment, physical violence, rape, murder, criminalization, and the systematic erasure of both children and adults for existing.

Do those who perpetuate this truly believe people will not fight back? Human beings can only take so much before they reach a breaking point. That is how revolutions are born. And history shows: revolutions and wars of independence are costly, with countless lives lost.

But it does not have to be this way. If only the other side would love, accept, and seek to understand—if they would simply allow people to live—the world would not end. It would flourish. Society would be healthier than ever before. We could live in the best of times. I pray this vision comes before it is too late—before total collapse, shattered dreams, a destroyed environment, and raging wars. Let us dream of something better.

⚖️ The Contrast Today

In the United States this past year, one conservative commentator—Charlie Kirk—was killed. By contrast, in the same year at least 32 transgender and gender-expansive people were murdered, the vast majority transgender women. Globally, the most recent Trans Murder Monitoring report documented 350 murders worldwide in a single year, 94% trans women or transfeminine. And we know these numbers are undercounts, as so many are misgendered or erased in death.

🗣️ Quotes / Reported Statements by Charlie Kirk on Transgender People

1. “A throbbing middle finger to God” — public speech.

2. “An abomination to God.”

3. Deadnaming Lia Thomas: “You’re an abomination to God.”

4. “Against the natural law … so against our senses.”

5. (Implied) Trans people should be “taken care of” like in the 1950s–60s (widely seen as a call for repression).

6. “There are only two genders … transgenderism and gender ‘fluidity’ are lies that hurt people and abuse kids.”

7. “We must ban trans-affirming care — the entire country.”

🌈 Closing Charge

Violence only begets violence. The way forward for humanity is not dehumanization, but embracing one another with unconditional love.

Religious conservatives—and people of all faiths—must recognize that their freedom to believe in God cannot mean stripping away the freedom of others to live, love, and be. History has shown what happens when authoritarian regimes rise: they burn bright for a time, but always fall in tragedy and shame.

We must choose another path—the path of love, justice, and freedom for all. That is the only way healing will come to our culture, our communities, our nation, and our world.