Critiques of President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration speech tended to focus on how divisive and angry it was. What few noticed was the extent to which it was infused with religious language.<\/p>\n
Most incoming presidents invite a couple of religious leaders to participate in the ceremony. Mr Trump had six \u2013 a Roman Catholic, a Jew and four evangelical Protestants. Having made speeches on the campaign trail which largely avoided references to the Bible or to God, or were clearly uncomfortable on that turf, he now made explicit reference to Psalm 133. \u201cThe Bible tells us how good and pleasant it is when God\u2019s people live together in unity,\u201d he said, though he primarily addressed those who had voted for him rather than the entire nation.<\/p>\n
The speech was shot through with other biblical allusions. Americans lives must \u201cshine\u201d before others. They were told \u201copen your hearts\u2019, although to patriotism rather than to Jesus. America was a great nation, echoing Psalm 33. All America\u2019s children were \u201cinfused with the breath of life by the same almighty creator\u201d.<\/p>\n
Not all this resonated as intended. When he said \u201cwhether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots\u201d the bleeding conjured something sinister rather than inclusive.<\/p>\n
Before the ceremony Mr Trump went to church, as presidents traditionally do on Inauguration Day tradition. There the First Baptist preacher he chose, Robert Jeffress \u2013 a man with a history of incendiary remarks about Muslims, Mormons, Catholics and gays \u2013 compared Mr Trump to the Old Testament figure of Nehemiah who helped rebuild the city of Jerusalem and its walls after the people of Judah had been exiled from the land of Israel. \u201cYou see, God is not against building walls,\u201d he concluded, dubbing Nehemiah\u2019s biblical detractors as \u201cthe mainstream media of their day\u201d.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s critics suggested that the embrace of Christianity was no more than \u201ca dishonest and cynical attempt to appeal to the Christian right\u201d. One sketchwriter noted that the inaugural choir from Missouri singing about welcoming strangers from overseas to their new land didn\u2019t seem quite in tune with Mr Trump\u2019s immigration policy. Prayers noting that the poor and humble are blessed, opponents said, merely emphasised the wealth and ego of the new President.<\/p>\n
The Pope was more ambivalent. In an interview given on inauguration Day, Pope Francis insisted we must wait and see. \u201cI don\u2019t like to judge people prematurely,\u201d he said. But he offered two revealing riders. He criticised what he called \u201cspray religiousness\u201d insisting that Christianity was found only in specifics. And he warned against people looking to a charismatic leader as a \u201csaviour\u201d to restore a nation\u2019s identity, adding: \u201cHitler didn\u2019t steal power, his people voted for him, and then he destroyed his people. That is the risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incoming President\u2019s clerics turned everything to his advantage. When the heavens began to rain on Mr Trump\u2019s parade Rev Franklin Graham proclaimed: \u201cIn the Bible, rain is a sign of God\u2019s blessing\u201d. The rest of us may take a rather different view.<\/p>\n
from The Church Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Critiques of President Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration speech tended to focus on how divisive and angry it was. What few noticed was the extent to which it was infused with religious language. Most incoming presidents invite a couple of religious leaders to participate in the ceremony. Mr Trump had six \u2013 a Roman Catholic, a Jew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,725],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-trumps-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8461"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8467,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8461\/revisions\/8467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}