They were playfully called “the Three Amigos.” During the days of a much more functional and less partisan congress, Senators Joseph Liberman (D-CT), John McCain (R-Ariz) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) wore well the reputations of not only being best friends but being bi-partisan, willing to work across the aisle for the good of the country, not just their respective parties. All three have now died, with Lindsey Graham being the last and most recent, affectionately called “the Last Amigo.” His death, on July 11, 2026, was both sudden and seismic. Sadly, while Graham was once a harsh critic of Trump and his administration, after the death of McCain, he became a zealous ally, most assuredly tarnishing his personal and political legacy. Steven Schmidt, the one-time presidential campaign advisor to McCain, wrote the following scathing opinion on his Substack under the title: “Lindsey Knew Better. He Chose Wrong.”
Lindsey Graham was a lonely and unprincipled man who betrayed his country for power and his decency for attention.
(He)… helped Trump divide America and break our alliances, ideals and traditions.
Former President Barack Obama offered quite a stark and contrasting view of another ‘Amigo’ in his eulogy for John McCain (September 1, 2018). Two quotes stand out for me from that eulogy:
First: Others this week and this morning have spoken to the depths of his torment and the depths of his courage there in the cells of Hanoi when day after day, year after year that youthful iron was tempered into steel. And it brings to mind something that Hemingway wrote, a book that Meghan referred to, his favorite book. "Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today."
Second: John understood as JFK understood, as Ronald Reagan understood, that part of what makes our country great is that our membership is based not on our blood line, not on what we look like, what our last names are, not based on where our parents or grandparents came from or how recently they arrived, but on adherence to a common creed that all of us are created equal. Endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.
The Trump Era represents a full-throated and sometimes violent betrayal of that common creed. Along with his war of choice and his assault on civil and voting rights is the most egregious of violations, immigration. ICE continues its murderous behavior on the streets of our neighborhoods. Its shameful warehousing of immigrant families, including children, in detention centers, is disgusting. The Washington Post reported today that ICE has arrested more than 1,400 people every day in July. The number of people arrested and sent to detention facilities in June totaled more than 39,500. And of course, we are also dealing with the shootings and deaths in Houston and Biddeford, Maine. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, made the following statement in Low T, High Chair (July 18, 2026):
He is willing to undermine and destroy any institution, law, norm or ideal cherished by Americans in a bonfire of his vanities. He claims to be Christian but mocks the sanctity of human life with his cavalier attitude about ICE murders.
“…CLAIMS TO BE CHRISTIAN BUT MOCKS THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE!”
Today, or any given day, may be only one day in all the days that will ever be but what will happen in all the days that ever come will assuredly depend on what we do or don’t do today! Is this the kind of nation we want to be, one that professes to be Christian and then mocks the sanctity of human like?
The Vice President, J.D. Vance, in remarks that he made at the Claremont Institute in 2025 actually questioned “the logic of America as a purely creedal nation.” arguing that you can’t define America as “just agreeing with the principles.” In a recent Opinion piece for the New York Times, (July 7, 2026) Carlos Lozada reviews Vance’s just published memoir, Communion. He writes:
Now, in “Communion,” he specifies his vision of the creed. “Christianity is America’s creed, the shared moral language from the Revolution to the Civil War and beyond.” Here, Vance is citing himself, quoting at length from a speech he delivered late last year at a Turning Point USA conference. In another passage of the speech, which does not appear in “Communion,” Vance affirmed that “the only thing that has truly served as an anchor of the United States of America is that we have been, and by the grace of God we always will be, a Christian nation.”
There is, of course, some measure of truth in what Vance claims. However, Christianity is not America’s creed, but it does inform it. At our best, we are a Christian nation but only to the extent that we develop a deep personal relationship with Christ and follow the ideals and moral mandates that Christ sets before us.
In another part of Lozado’s article he writes:
Vance seems to acknowledge, however grudgingly, the imperative, shared across major religions, to welcome the stranger. “I can believe (as I do) that I owe a given immigrant — even an illegal one — duties of charity and grace,” he writes. And he admits that “immigration is a particularly thorny version of a challenge I encounter every day in my job: how to take an accepted moral principle and apply it in the real world as a Christian leader.”
Vance neglects his duties of charity and grace when he does not acknowledge, let alone apologize for, spreading unfounded rumors in 2024 that Haitian immigrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. He writes that critics say the administration is “too tough” on immigration, but he waves it all away. “The point is not to litigate this issue on these pages,” Vance writes, “but to highlight that any application of moral principles in the real world requires a constant evaluation of trade-offs.”
It’s just as the hymn says: They’ll know we are Christians by our constant evaluation of trade-offs.
I went to church this morning and the service focused on the experience of a group of young people and their advisors from the First and Second Congregational Churches of Coventry on a recently completed mission trip to Newport, Tennessee. I was deeply moved by their testimonies and reminded anew of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
Isaiah 58:6-12; New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator[a] shall go before you;
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, “Here I am.”
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
10 if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
11 The Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your needs in parched places
and make your bones strong,
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water
whose waters never fail.
12 Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
There are no trade-offs in the prophetic vision of Isaiah, only the uncompromised call to action against injustice, hunger, poverty, homelessness, the speaking and doing of evil and burdens of suffering and hardships. There are no trade-offs in living faithfully for Christ. Indeed, the obligation that emerges from our profession of faith is to embrace the roles of ‘repairers of the breach” and “restorers of the streets’ which are, today, too often made into places where neighbors and friends die instead of live safely.
Jesus once told a story that was meant to challenge all the nations to reflect on the moral metrics of their lives. Remember these words?
34 Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, 35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.’
Matthew 25:34-40 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)