Jesus is not a prop!

I was sitting in my suburban home, enjoying the benefits of decades of racial discrimination in housing. I flipped on the TV to listen to Trump’s response to the protests over the death of George Floyd. The cameras were covering the protest by Lafayette Square and St John’s Episcopal Church. Suddenly and without provocation, the police turned on the protesters firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd. I witnessed horse mounted police charge the people. It was a scene of chaos.

Immediately, I assumed Trump’s message to the nation would be delayed. The reporters said the smell of tear gas was drifting into the Rose Garden. I was shocked when Trump appeared at the podium and spoke only to his base. His deafness to the hurting people of the United States, as he feigned concern and talked about his support of peaceful protests, was clear for the world to see. Just a block away Trump had ordered the clearing of peaceful protesters. They were gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and met by the full force of mounted police at his order.

What no one saw coming was that Trump had a peaceful protest attacked for nothing more than a blasphemous photo opportunity.

Within minutes of the end of his tirade he was seen walking across Lafayette Park towards St. John’s church. Arriving at the church he held up a Bible while people took photos of him. 

Within seconds I posted on Facebook, “As a Christian pastor I must condemn the idolatry of the President's photo op with a Bible outside St John's Episcopal Church after first declaring military might and having the police attack peaceful protesters to clear the way for him to get there. This was about as anti-Christ as anything I've witnessed from a western leader in my lifetime.”

I chose strong theological language to express what happened in that moment. I said Trump is anti-Christ. He is thoroughly opposed to the gospel and in that moment last night was trying to use God’s word, the Bible, as a political tool of power. The complete antithesis of everything Jesus represents.

It was important for me to make this statement because my friends are not all Christians. Indeed many of them are highly suspicious of Christianity due to the nationalistic tendencies in white, conservative evangelicalism. I have friends in Muslim majority nations where it’s very important for my Muslim friends to know this is not the way of Christians and for my Christian friends to have people they can look to for encouragement and support.

Mark Labberton, president of Fuller Seminary, articulated it far more succinctly that I did, “God will not be mocked!”

Yes, what we saw was a mocking of God.

 I know there are some who will take umbrage with me. Indeed The Atlantic reports that megachurch pastor Robert Jeffress said, “I thought it was completely appropriate for the president to stand in front of that church, and by holding up the Bible, he was showing us that it teaches that, yes, God hates racism, it’s despicable—but God also hates lawlessness. So, I’m happy.” David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network said, “I don’t know about you but I’ll take a president with a Bible in his hand in front of a church over far left violent radicals setting a church on fire any day of the week.”

I’m tired today and don’t have the emotional energy to unpack adequately unpack the theology here. So please just look at these two columns and tell me which one is the way of God?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Utilizing the power of the United States to physically attack and hurt a peaceful gathering of people who all bear the image of God.

Tear gas Christian clergy and lay people like the Rev. Gini Gerbasi who noted, “They turned holy ground into a battleground.”

The final word goes to Miroslav Volf, ““A new low in the long tradition of abusing religion for political gain: Trump tear gassing peaceful protesters so he can pose before a historic church he doesn't attend holding a Bible he neither reads nor intends to obey! Why are so many of us who love the Bible and the church so easily duped?”