“They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.”
Matthew 22:20-22, New Testament, King James Version
“Joe [Kent, Trump’s as director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC)] will help us keep America safe by eradicating all terrorism, from the jihadists around the World, to the cartels in our backyard,”
Trump wrote in a statement.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion? If you listen to the MAGA crowd and their sympathetic media, liberals are “killing Christmas,” promulgating deep anti-Christian, deviant beliefs that hold LGBQT+ as “normal,” that gay marriage violates the Bible, and that separation of church and state is both dismissive of the essentially our Christian history and values that cannot be separated from governance. The First Amendment, they maintain, does not require a separation of church and state. The bible suggests otherwise. See the above quote from the New Testament. Slowly, rightwing evangelical orthodoxy is creeping into Supreme Court decisions – from the right of a bake shop to refuse (for religious reasons) to provide a cake for a gay marriage, the anti-abortion ruling and the Court’s current consideration of state or local support for religious school – and state legislation. Love those “Ten Commandment” posters in Louisiana classrooms.
The number of Christian fundamentalists in Congress is substantial, clearly reflected in Speaker Mike Johnson (R – La) who has a lot of problems trying to be secular when he clearly believes that the United States should, while tolerating other faiths, declare itself to be a Christian nation… officially. Maybe not a theocracy like Iran but at least a country like Israel. For years, Donald Trump, a serial divorced playboy (“You can grab them by the pxxxy”) whose propensity to “bear false witness” is legendary, has attempted to provide that he is a deeply faithful, committed Christian. Notwithstanding his holding a bible upside down or making a few bucks selling his own patriotic version of the bible (see above).
When Trump survived an assassination attempt in the recent campaign, he notes that such attempts on his life changed him. His newfound religiosity is now rallying the religious right while drawing accusations of hypocrisy from other faith leaders. To Trump and his appointees, it is genuine Christians who are the excluded class… and that as immigrants of color “invade” the United States, white Christians are becoming the minority. Writing for the February 7th Associated Press, Aamer Madhani, brings this new white Christian effort into focus:
“President Trump said Thursday [2/6] that he wants to root out ‘anti-Christian bias’ in the U.S., announcing that he is forming a task force to be led by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to investigate the ‘targeting’ of Christians… Speaking at a pair of events in Washington surrounding the National Prayer Breakfast, Trump said the task force would be directed to ‘immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the [Department of Justice], which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI — terrible — and other agencies.’… Trump said Bondi would also work to ‘fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.’
“The president’s comments came after he joined the National Prayer Breakfast at the Capitol, a more than 70-year-old Washington tradition that brings together a bipartisan group of lawmakers for fellowship… The president told lawmakers there that his relationship with religion had ‘changed’ after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year, and he urged Americans to “bring God back” into their lives.
“An hour after calling for unity on Capitol Hill, Trump struck a more partisan tone at a second event across town, announcing that, in addition to the task force, he was forming a commission on religious liberty… He criticized the Biden administration for what he called ‘persecution’ of believers for prosecuting antiabortion advocates… And Trump took a victory lap over his early administration efforts to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion programs and to limit transgender participation in women’s sports…
“Trump said at the Capitol that he believes people ‘can’t be happy without religion, without that belief. Let’s bring religion back. Let’s bring God back into our lives.’.. The Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance, accused Trump of hypocrisy in claiming to champion religion by creating the task force… ‘From allowing immigration raids in churches, to targeting faith-based charities, to suppressing religious diversity, the Trump Administration’s aggressive government overreach is infringing on religious freedom in a way we haven’t seen for generations,’ Raushenbush said in a statement.
“Trump also announced the creation of a White House faith office led by Paula White-Cain, a longtime pastor in the independent charismatic Christian world. An early supporter of Trump’s 2016 campaign, she led his Faith and Opportunity Initiative in 2019, advising faith-based organizations on ways to work with the federal government.” Beyond these gestures, Trump’s appointees are littered with avowed white Christian nationalists (read: white rule), and with domestic terrorism easily exceeding any meaningful foreign terrorist threats, his quote above completely eschews making that point and he raves about counter-terrorism appointee, Joe Kent, who has openly supported the white nationalist Proud Boys.
“[NBC News writes:] Now, on paper, Kent appears to be qualified, unlike many of the diversity-averse appointees that the DEI-hating president has selected. He served in Army Special Forces for 20 years, and after that, he worked for the CIA. But Kent doesn’t believe the people who attacked police officers at the U.S. Capitol, stormed the building and threatened legislators, all to upend democracy by overthrowing the government, are terrorists. He also reportedly has an affinity for white nationalist groups, but don’t worry, folks, because he rejects ‘racism and bigotry.’” No wonder those innocent January 6th Capitol attackers were pardoned?! The Trump administration does not see angry evangelicals willing to injure uniformed police officers as a threat.
Oh, and Mr Co-President, the United States is not getting more Christian, according to the Pew Research Center: “The religious landscape of the United States continues to change at a rapid clip. In Pew Research Center telephone surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019, 65% of American adults describe themselves as Christians when asked about their religion, down 12 percentage points over the past decade. Meanwhile, the religiously unaffiliated share of the population, consisting of people who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or ‘nothing in particular,’ now stands at 26%, up from 17% in 2009.” The results mirror other polling (e.g. Gallup) as well. But when an angry minority is handed the reins of power, with its leadership not bound by the legal structures that have formed and maintained the basis of our nation for almost a quarter of a millennium, it’s amazing how much they can destroy and replace.
I’m Peter Dekom, and that angry minority is quick to take advantage of their newfound power… and if they push hard enough, their efforts may never get undone.
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