You’re the pastor of a church. You’re in your church building, holding a worship service. It’s a regular Sunday, and a normal service.
Suddenly, a group of men enter the back of the sanctuary. You recognize them as part of a local gang. They begin shouting at everyone to leave. Then, when people don’t move fast enough for them, they set off tear gas to drive your worshippers out of the sanctuary.
As people scream and run for the exits, the gang leader enters behind his men. He strides down the center aisle, looking with approval on the scared faces of your parishioners.
He comes up the steps to the platform and approaches you. He stops for a moment, staring at you. Then he roughly pushes you aside, shoving you back down the steps.
He steps to the pulpit and picks up the Bible you had placed there before you began preaching. He holds it up and points, as if he is preaching. As he does so, one of his gang members takes multiple pictures of him posing in the pulpit.
Having gotten what he came for, the gang leader strides back out of your sanctuary, followed by his gang members. He takes your Bible with him. As your eyes sting from the tear gas, you look around and notice that the tear gas canisters have burned holes in the carpet.
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Evangelicals – How do you feel, reading this? Are you outraged? If this happened in your church, or in a church in your city, would you condemn it? Would you use the word “blasphemy” to describe it?
Because this is what Donald Trump did on Monday night.
He ordered armed personnel to use tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a peaceful crowd in front of an historic church. Included in those attacked with tear gas were priests of that church.
He then walked to that church, not to worship or pray, but for a photo op for his campaign.
He stood on the steps of that church and used it as a theatrical backdrop for his next act.
And finally, he held up a Bible for the picture, not because he reads it or believes it, but as another prop.
This man, who says he doesn’t ask for forgiveness because he says he doesn’t need to, claimed the symbols of faith for his own symbols of power.
This is an act of disrespect toward the church, toward the Bible, and toward the Christian faith. This is using God as a plaything, as a prop.
This is blasphemy.
And before you accuse me of hyperbole, ask yourself two questions:
If the church building had not been boarded up and closed, do you have any doubt that Trump would have gone all the way to the pulpit for his photo op?
And, if Barack Obama had done this, how would you have reacted? Would you have called it disrespectful? No, you would have called it blasphemy.
So, evangelicals, how will you react to this?
There has already been widespread condemnation of Trump’s actions among people of faith. For example, the Episcopal bishops of New England wrote in a statement,
What President Trump did in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Lafayette Square on the evening of June 1 was disgraceful and morally repugnant. Displaying a Bible from which he did not quote, using as a mere backdrop an Episcopal church where he did not pray, and – more callously – ordering law enforcement to clear, with force and tear gas, a path through demonstrators who had gathered in peace, President Trump distorted for his own purposes the cherished symbols of our faith to condone and stoke yet more violence.
His tactic was obvious. Simply by holding aloft an unopened Bible he presumed to claim Christian endorsement and imply that of The Episcopal Church. Far more disturbingly, he seemed to be affecting the authority of the God and Savior we worship and serve, in order to support his own authority and to wield enhanced use of military force in a perverted attempt to restore peace to our nation.
And yet, I have not heard any well-known evangelicals call out President Trump on this. Not a peep from Jerry Falwell or Ralph Reed or any of their compatriots. Nor have I heard many of my evangelical friends say anything about it. The silence speaks volumes.
So, evangelicals, are you okay with this? Is your loyalty to Trump stronger than your loyalty to God? Or will you publicly name this for what it is: using the Bible as a prop, using God as a campaign slogan, taking God’s name in vain –
Blasphemy.
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