When Leadership Becomes Mockery: A Spiritual Response to Words That Divide

When Leadership Becomes Mockery: A Spiritual Response to Words That Divide

By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

8-6-2026

Founder & Founding Minister Universal Rainbow Faith Church

Recently, President Donald Trump made remarks during a speech at the America First Policy Institute Summit suggesting that if he coached a women's basketball team, he would ask NBA legend LeBron James to "transition" so the team could dominate women's sports. The comments were delivered as a joke intended to mock transgender athletes. During the same speech, he described the movement for LGBTQ+ rights as "a hallmark of cultural and social decay" and referred to people who support gender-affirming care for young people as "sickos." He then added, "Neither do I, by the way," appearing to acknowledge that he did not fully understand puberty blockers even while discussing them.

Whether one supports President Trump politically or not, these are not words that should come from the leader of a nation.

Nor should they come from anyone.

Mocking human beings is not leadership.

Ridicule is not wisdom.

Humiliation is not strength.

Words matter.

They shape culture.

They influence families.

They influence how children see themselves.

They influence whether vulnerable people feel safe enough to exist openly in the world.

They either plant seeds of compassion or seeds of contempt.

Update: Another Reminder Why This Conversation Matters

Only days ago, I published a reflection inspired by actress, educator, activist, and transgender pioneer Alexandra Billings after reading her heartfelt and humorous Facebook post expressing the exhaustion so many transgender people feel today. Her words resonated because they spoke to something much deeper than politics. They spoke to the emotional and spiritual burden of living in a world where one's humanity is continually questioned.

Sadly, before the ink was even dry on that reflection, another example emerged.

This time, the comments came from the President of the United States.

While some may dismiss them as jokes, satire, or political rhetoric, words spoken from positions of enormous influence carry extraordinary weight. They shape public attitudes, embolden prejudice, and can make vulnerable people feel even more isolated.

This article is not merely a response to one speech.

It is a response to a continuing pattern.

A pattern in which transgender people—and indeed many marginalized communities throughout history—become the targets of ridicule, misunderstanding, fear, and political theater.

History Repeats Itself Whenever Fear Replaces Understanding

Perhaps the greatest lesson history has to teach us is that humanity has repeatedly persecuted what it did not yet understand.

There was a time when disease was blamed on demons.

Natural healers were accused of witchcraft.

Mental illness was believed to be possession.

Eclipses were seen as signs of divine wrath.

Scientific discovery was often condemned as heresy.

People believed the Earth was flat.

They believed the Sun revolved around the Earth.

Many believed that anything they could not explain must be magic, evil, or the work of the Devil.

History is filled with examples of human beings fearing what they did not yet understand.

Women, the elderly, healers, midwives, and innocent people were burned alive during witch trials.

People were hanged.

People were stoned.

People were stretched upon the rack.

They were drawn and quartered.

They were crushed beneath stones.

They were drowned in rivers to determine whether they were witches. If they floated, they were condemned. If they sank, they often drowned and were declared innocent only after death.

The medieval world produced horrific instruments of torture—the Iron Maiden, the rack, thumbscrews, branding irons, and countless other devices designed not merely to punish but to terrorize and dehumanize.

Many of these atrocities were carried out by ordinary people who sincerely believed they were doing God's work.

That is perhaps history's greatest warning.

The darkest chapters of civilization have often been written by people convinced they were righteous.

Centuries have passed since many of those medieval practices disappeared. Yet persecution did not disappear.

It evolved.

In more recent history we have witnessed slavery, segregation, concentration camps, forced sterilizations, institutionalization, criminalization of LGBTQ+ people, aversion therapy, electric shock therapy, conversion therapy, and countless attempts to erase people simply because they were different.

History changes its methods.

But prejudice often wears the same face.

When leaders mock vulnerable people, they may believe they are simply telling a joke.

History reminds us that ridicule has often been the first step toward something much darker.

Words normalize attitudes.

Attitudes influence actions.

Actions shape culture.

Culture determines whether people live in dignity or fear.

That is why words matter.

My Response

When I first heard these remarks, one thought immediately entered my mind.

The only sickness I see is the sickness of hatred itself.

These words should never come from the President of the United States.

They should never come from any leader.

They should never come from anyone.

Mocking human lives.

Spreading fear.

Deepening division.

That is not leadership.

It demonstrates one of humanity's greatest failings.

We live in a world where shameless prejudice is too often accepted as entertainment.

Where misinformation becomes applause.

Where empathy is treated as weakness.

Where compassion is dismissed.

Not one ounce of curiosity.

Not one ounce of compassion.

Not one ounce of humanity.

The greatest tragedy is not simply that these words were spoken.

The greater tragedy is that millions hear them, laugh, applaud, or repeat them without stopping to ask how those words affect another human being.

We have become extraordinarily advanced in technology.

Most people carry a smartphone whose inner workings they could never fully explain.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping civilization.

We explore space.

We map the human genome.

Yet despite all of this progress, we still know remarkably little about consciousness, the human soul, gender, sexuality, and the profound mystery of what it means to be human.

And yet some speak with absolute certainty.

Perhaps future generations will look back upon our certainty about gender the same way we now look back upon those who insisted illness came from demons, that witches deserved to be burned alive, or that scientific discovery threatened God.

Every age has mistaken ignorance for certainty.

Every age has declared something "evil" before understanding it.

History has humbled humanity before.

It will humble us again.

The question is whether we will learn compassion before history once again teaches us through suffering.

We are truly not as civilized as we imagine ourselves to be.

Civilization is not measured by faster computers.

It is not measured by artificial intelligence.

It is not measured by economic power or military strength.

Civilization is measured by our capacity for empathy.

By our willingness to protect those with less power.

By our courage to stand beside those who are mocked instead of joining the laughter.

From a spiritual perspective, what I witness is not strength.

It is a failure of human evolution.

Not biological evolution.

Moral evolution.

Emotional evolution.

Spiritual evolution.

The human brain evolved remarkable intellectual abilities, yet too often we fail to develop the heart with equal determination.

Knowledge without compassion becomes arrogance.

Power without empathy becomes oppression.

Religion without love becomes judgment.

Leadership without humility becomes mockery.

A Different Vision

At Universal Rainbow Faith Church, we believe every human being is created with inherent dignity.

Whether one is transgender, cisgender, gay, lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, straight, religious, agnostic, or atheist, every person deserves to be treated with respect.

Disagreement does not require dehumanization.

Questions do not require mockery.

Leadership does not require humiliation.

The world does not need louder voices of division.

The world needs deeper compassion.

Greater understanding.

Greater wisdom.

Greater courage to love.

One day I believe humanity will look back upon this chapter of history and ask itself:

"Why were we so afraid of one another?"

I hope that future generations will answer:

"They eventually learned."

Because evolution is not merely biological.

It is emotional.

It is moral.

It is spiritual.

The measure of a civilization is not found in its technology, its military, or its wealth.

It is found in how it treats its most vulnerable people.

May we become the generation that finally chooses empathy over ridicule...

Understanding over fear...

Truth over prejudice...

And unconditional love over judgment.

Because every soul is sacred.

Every life has value.

Every person bears the image of the Divine.

And love remains the greatest force in the universe.

A Final Reflection

Donald Trump has a deep hatred for transgender people, LGBTQ+ people, women in power, everyone and everything different than himself, Black and Brown people, Muslims, minorities, disabled people, immigrants, and the list goes on and on.

We must pause and ask ourselves: Why do human beings like this exist? What is their role in the world? Why do we live in a world where people behave in such a way and think like this, where they make a total mockery of other people's lives?

One thing is very certain. He seeks total power and domination. It is driven by greed and a lust for more.

We only have to ask ourselves one question: If everyone in the world believed, acted, and said the things that he says and does, what kind of world would we live in? Would it be a kind and loving place? Would we be able to go on? Would we survive?

The truth is, absolutely not.

If tomorrow morning everyone woke up and was a version of Donald Trump, we would have total collapse in no time.

They frame their talk as common sense and moral virtue and moral values, but it's not. It's actually uncommon sense, and it's immoral, and there is no human value in it whatsoever.

These are truly dangerous times, and we have been dealing with evil like this for millennia.

We must not give up.

We must ask ourselves: How is it that human beings like this exist or are produced? Are they really human?

We must look deeper.

There is a spiritual sickness that has overtaken him and many like him, and it truly does come from a source and a power that we could call evil. But this is unlike believing in superstitions from medieval times.

We must look to the faces of murderers, rapists, warmongers, and vicious, violent groups that seek to destroy and commit genocide against others.

We must look to those who have no empathy and no compassion, who believe that violence, aggression, and dominance are the ways forward.

They are the ones destroying humanity.

They are the ones destroying the planet.

They are the ones destroying the values of love.

They deeply believe in division.

We see this in white supremacy, racism, and prejudice. Prejudice can come from many groups, but there is always a first cause.

We must look to the dominant party who caused the first division and continues to perpetuate the greatest division and prejudice.

At the heart of white supremacy and racism is a soul sickness that cannot be described as anything else but evil.

Spiritually, we know that it is a separation from God, and that a soul has lost its way.

It is not enlightened, and it may not become enlightened in this lifetime. That we do not know.

But we are not alone in this world.

There are powers of good.

There are powers of evil.

There are powers of light and darkness.

That is the difference between an innocent child coming into the world, being loved by its parents, and being fully free from hatred and preconceived notions...

...and then looking into the faces of serial murderers, many of whom have been caught and imprisoned.

Some with that same mindset have infiltrated every level of government, major corporations and organizations, and even the highest levels of world religions and faiths.

We see it everywhere.

The souls of people who have committed the most heinous crimes...

You must ask yourself:

Where have they gone?

Have they returned to us?

Or perhaps they have been here all along.

It is not transgender women or transgender people that we must be afraid of—in bathrooms, in sports, in public spaces, as teachers, or simply living in the world.

That is not the face of evil in the world.

But when one group is oppressed and brutalized, just like animals who are beaten, some become meek and withdrawn.

Some lash out in aggression in the pursuit of survival.

We have seen both sides of this coin.

That should not be happening or existing on Earth as we know it today, in 2026 and beyond.

And it should never have happened at any time in our history.

Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler Founder & Founding Minister Universal Rainbow Faith Church

"Activating the Rainbow Light of Love."

THE MEDIA IS THE NEW RACK

History Repeats

History never disappeared...

It simply changed its clothes.

The rack...

The stake...

The prison...

The courtroom...

The television studio...

They burned the healers.

They drowned the women.

They stretched the innocent

Upon the rack.

They called them witches.

They called them heretics.

They called them evil.

Never asking,

"What if we were wrong?"

Every century

Finds another victim.

Every empire

Finds another name.

The media is the new rack,

Stretching human souls

Until they crack.

The headlines laugh.

The ratings climb.

History repeats

One lie at a time.

We will survive.

We will thrive.

Love is stronger

Than every lie.

They call us

"Lunacy."

They call us

"Insanity."

They call us

"Sickos."

They say we're

"Mutilating children."

They laugh,

Calling women

"Dudes in dresses."

They erase our names,

Our dignity,

Our humanity,

Then claim

They're protecting children.

"Did you ever have any desire to be a woman?"

"Transgender insanity."

"They're sickos."

"The mutilation of our children."

"Dudes in dresses."

They call us mentally ill.

They call us dangerous.

They call us confused.

They call us predators.

While children

Hear every word...

Another bedroom

Falls silent.

Another family

Breaks apart.

Another prayer

Ends in tears.

Another suicide

Becomes another statistic.

Who profits?

Who benefits?

Certainly not

The child.

The rack

Has become

A television screen.

The executioner

Now carries

A microphone.

The media is the new rack,

Stretching hearts

Until they break.

While politicians laugh.

While commentators cheer.

While children wonder...

"Would they miss me

If I disappeared?"

We will survive.

We will thrive.

Love will never

Be denied.

Project 2025...

Rights disappearing...

Courts dividing...

Fear deciding...

Proud Boys marching...

Oath Keepers shouting...

White supremacy

Still breathing.

Religious zealotry,

Preaching judgment

Instead of love.

Who taught hatred

In God's name?

Certainly not

The God

Who is Love.

Once...

The torture chamber.

Now...

The television studio.

Once...

The iron rack.

Now...

The twenty-four-hour news cycle.

Once...

The executioner.

Now...

The influencer.

The politician.

The pundit.

The algorithm.

Turning...

Turning...

Turning...

The rack.

Call us

"Lunacy."

Call us

"Insanity."

Call us

"Sickos."

Call us

"Dudes in dresses."

Call us

Whatever you wish.

You cannot

Rewrite

The soul.

You cannot

Legislate

Identity.

You cannot

Erase

The image of God.

No more racks.

No more chains.

No more hatred

In God's name.

No more fear.

No more shame.

No more children

Lost to blame.

We will survive!

We will thrive!

We will rise!

We are alive!

Love remembers.

History remembers.

History

Will remember

Who chose compassion...

And who chose cruelty.

The witches

Were human.

The healers

Were human.

The prisoners

Were human.

The transgender child

Is human.

The refugee

Is human.

The immigrant

Is human.

The Black child

Is human.

The gay child

Is human.

The lesbian child

Is human.

The nonbinary child

Is human.

The transgender woman

Is a woman.

The transgender man

Is a man.

Love remembers

When history forgets.

History

Will remember

Who built the rack...

And who

Chose

To tear it down.

We will survive...

We will thrive...

Love has already won.

Amen.

Copyright 2026 Paula Sadler Music