June 15, 2025: "The Need for Trustworthy Leadership"

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

Trust is something we give another person or group. Trustworthiness means being worthy of the trust of others. Too often we don’t see this in leaders. How can we rebuild the importance of trustworthiness so that we may come to demand and expect it?

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Sermon Text

The Need for Trustworthy Leadership

Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray

UU Church of Bloomington

June 15, 2025

Readings

“Some Day” by Langston Hughes, the American poet, activist, playwright, who is often known as the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance

Once more

The guns roar.

Once more

The call goes forth for men.

Again

The war begins,

Again

False slogans become a bore.

Yet no one cries:

ENOUGH! NO MORE!

Like angry dogs the human race

Loves the snarl upon its face

It loves to kill.

The pessimist says

It always will.

That I do not believe.

Some day

The savage in us will wear away.

Some day quite clearly

Men will see

How clean and happy life can be

And how,

Like flowers planted in the sun,

We, too, can give forth blossoms,

Shared by everyone.

Excerpt from T.H. Breen’s essay “Trump’s Un-American Parade.” The Atlantic, June 2025, in recognition that June 14th was Flag Day, a day that commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777. It was also on June 14, 1775 – 250 years ago yesterday that the U.S. Army was established.

“To discern the values of a nation and its leaders, watch their parades. President George Washington offered a very different model of an American parade. In October 1789, Washington was scheduled to visit Boston, which had planned a celebration in his honor. Unlike Trump, Washington resisted attempts to turn the event into a military display. The very notion of a ceremony organized around him made the first president uneasy. In Boston, they organized a parade that honored not just Washington and the military but also the city’s artisans and tradespeople. Workers marched past the president in alphabetical order: First came the bakers and blacksmiths; much later the wharfingers and wheelwrights. They carried banners expressing pride in their various crafts and in the values that united the nascent republic.

“The carvers displayed their belief that ‘The Arts Flourish Under Liberty.’ The coppersmiths extolled ‘Union.’ The lemon dealers proclaimed ‘Success Through Trade.’ The event pleased Washington because it represented what was, for him, the most important achievement of the American Revolution. That achievement wasn’t military in nature but political: a constitutional republic based on the will of the people, dedicated to advancing prosperity and protecting liberty. As The Massachusetts Magazine explained in 1789, the freer ‘the constitution of any country, the less we see of pageants, titles, and ceremonies.’”

T.H. Breen ends his essay with this reflection, “What looks like an excess of strength may really be a deficit of liberty.”

SERMON The Need for Trustworthy Leadership

This June, we have been reflecting on the theme of trust. Why it matters and how we create it in our community, our relationships and even how we learn to trust ourselves and our own knowing.

One thing about trust that we explored at the beginning of the month is how each of us is on a spectrum for how easily we trust. Some of us are very trusting by nature and expect that generally people are trustworthy so our default is to trust – unless we have a reason to be wary. On the other hand, some of us are far more cautious with our trust. We don’t trust automatically. We need trustworthiness to be demonstrated before we give our trust to a person. And for some, we can still find trust difficult even when people have demonstrated they are worthy of it.

One of the reasons for our different comfort levels with trust is rooted in our experiences. I initially chose this topic for Father’s Day because having fathers, parents, mentors, grandparents, and care givers – adults in our lives who are worthy of our trust – helps us build a foundation of trust for our lives. Having adults who care for us, who are consistent, reliable, loving, and who don’t break our trust helps us learn to trust. These experiences become a foundation not just for being able to trust others and be trustworthy, but also to learn to trust ourselves. Of course, our parents and families are not our only influence. We can have our trust broken by people and institutions, by our families and also by our communities. And experience – our “nurture,” if you will, is not the only factor in our comfort level with trust, but it does contribute to how we experience trust later in our lives.

Trust is something that is relational – it exists in-between. And offering trust is just one side of it. The other is being trustworthy – having the character and integrity and faithfulness to be worthy of another’s trust. I started off wanting to explore this with respect to parenting and mentoring, but I can’t help but also think of it in the context of our nation.

In just the first few months of the current President’s term, public trust has been so deeply damaged. To be fair, it was already damaged. And many leaders share responsibility for that damage. For too long, profits have been valued over people and that has eroded civic trust in our government to do what is best for the public good. That weakened trust became a seed bed to be exploited by lies and propaganda to convince people they needed a strong man – one who wished to be a dictator to fix things.

But even so, many people have not gotten what they expected. I know there are people surprised to see the current administration go after Social Security and Medicare and food stamps and federal workers and national parks and weather services. I believe the plan is to permanently damage these institutions so that they are privatized – so the wealthy can make money off what has previously been public goods for all.

And there are people who are surprised that the administration is sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to raid workplaces and neighborhoods, disappearing students, parents, caregivers, and neighbors.

But this was always the plan.

It began with lies about our immigrant neighbors – casting them as dangerous and criminals. But the fact is, we already have a plethora of laws and police forces (local, city, county, state, and federal) that investigate, adjudicate and punish criminal behavior. We don’t need ICE. And, any mass deportation campaign – which the President promised and people chanted for – meant targeting mothers, fathers, children, neighbors, factories, farms, restaurants. Because for generations the United States has had two signs on its southern border: Help Wanted and Keep Out.

The entire system is built on a foundation of exploiting immigrant workers while denying them basic human and civil rights. Cruelty, indignity, exploitation have always been present. And deportations, disappearing people from their communities, separating families is just one of the most extreme forms of this cruelty and inhumanity.

Perhaps I should have called this service: No Kings! The Need for Trustworthy Leadership. Because the two are related. Because there is no need for trust when you have unchecked power and authority. Control, dominance, violence – these are the opposite of trust; they negate trust.

Trust thrives in conditions of freedom and mutuality. Trust is something we freely give to another, or choose not to, for our own protection. Trust is something that grows with time in a relationship where there is respect, honesty, honor, and compassion. Throughout this year, as we have worked to build trust in our relationship as new minister and congregation, we explored components of trust – like honesty, commitment, belonging, tradition, intention. We even acknowledged how vulnerability and forgiveness are a part of building trust, but only in a context of mutuality, not in a context of being vulnerable because someone has power over you. No, it’s the kind of vulnerability that allows each of us to be our full authentic selves safely with one another.

But with a king, an autocrat, a despot, there is no need for mutuality. They hold the power to dictate and control circumstances that impact you, your loved ones, your community, your country. Of course, you might trust a king to do what is right, or you might not – but trust isn’t relevant when the power is absolute. This is true whether we are talking about leadership in our country, in our communities, or in our families. But, we must remember that no power is absolute. For when the people organize themselves collectively and build enough power to say, as Langston Hughes writes, “Enough. No More,” as millions of Americans said yesterday, then change is possible! For just governments require the consent of the governed.

And while kings and autocrats and dictators do not require the consent of the people to act – the people ultimately – through the power of their numbers – can and have throughout history found ways to free themselves from monarchies and dictatorships.

As the Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Whether we are talking about governments, presidents, or parents, if our model is one rooted in control, violence, and demanding obedience – rather than fostering mutual respect – trust cannot, will not, grow in that environment.

It’s why trustworthy leadership matters. And why we need to build it in ourselves as parents, as partners, as mentors, and leaders – and build it in our communities and institutions, and then demand it from our elected leaders. Because democracy requires trust. We have been learning just how much of our system relies on people doing what is right and ethical.

Ours is a system that is built on and requires trust. And without it, without trust, we perpetuate patterns of division and fear and insecurity that always lead again to violence.

As Hughes writes,

“Once more

The guns roar.

Once more

The call goes forth for men.

Again

The war begins, Again…”

But it doesn’t have to be this way. I agree with Langston Hughes that the pessimist will say it will always be this way, but “That I do not believe.”

Change is possible. Change has happened before. And fathers, dads, grandfathers, men, boys – you have a critical role in this. You matter – and you are needed to help build another way. Bless you – all of our dads and granddads and men who are doing this every day in your families and communities.

Early Universalists – those who rejected the image of God as vengeful and violent – and rejected the belief in a hell (except for the one we too often create in this life through injustice and inequity) – they said that when we imagine God as angry and vengeful, then we consciously and unconsciously create and expect that type of leadership in our human families and communities. Those early Universalists believed in a loving God, who would never punish God’s creation for eternity – and who wanted all to be reconciled to God’s love. And so, they, like us, sought leadership and faith rooted in love, in compassion and in care and justice for all. It is why we seek models of community rooted in mutual care, democracy, diversity, and justice.

We are the models for our children. How we practice leadership, parenting and community in ways that build trust, respect, compassion and that share power and are rooted in justice, fairness, peace and mutuality matters – it makes a difference for our kids. It isn’t everything; but it is crucially important. And mutuality in a family doesn’t mean equality in a parent-child relationship. Parents hold more responsibility for the relationship and the care of their children. Yet, they can use their power and responsibility to build trust and help their children build trust in themselves. This means remembering that our children’s voices matter and we can foster mutual respect in our relationship with our kids through honesty and listening. This is not about perfection but integrity. And creating these environments and relationships encourages them to grow their own agency and confidence and learn to trust themselves, and love themselves and nurture love in their lives. And this how we begin to nurture the “Some Day” that Langston paints for us with this poetry:

“Some day quite clearly

[All] will see

… how,

Like flowers planted in the sun,

We, too, can give forth blossoms,

Shared by everyone.”