Donald Trump’s War On Religion

using religion as a prop to enable him to satiate his appetite for cruelty, spite and hatreds, never loses its appeal for him.

Donald Trump’s War On Religion

The week started out with Trump spurring curiosity by declining to place his tiny hand over the Bible as he was lying through his teeth to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” and solemnly swear to “execute the Office of the President of the United States.” Wonder if it was the self same Bible that Trump infamously held upside down while disgracefully using St. John’s Church across from the White House as a backdrop.

That was the latest in a long litany of not at all subtle clues that Donald Trump is not at all the “baby Christian” that so many of his Christian Nationalist, fundamentalist, evangelical acolytes naively believe (or claim to believe) he is.

But it did not end there. The next morning, the Trump clan, with Agent Orange at the head, in his clownish, padded shouldered full length overcoat, sometimes known as pea coats or trench coats, which no one with any brains or sense of style has worn for centuries, attended a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.

The clergy person presiding over the service was Episcopal Bishop Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, who, if you take the reaction from the Trump orbit at face value, laid out and whacked Donnie with some awkward truth telling.

(Beginning at 2:20, you can watch the reactions of the Trump entourage, to Bishop Budde’s earnest entreaty to Trump, to not use the powers of the presidency to abuse and mistreat undocumented immigrants for political capital.)

She spoke of immigrants, including those lacking proper documents, which Trump and his sycophants describe as “illegals”. She referenced them that they “may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples.” She added, “I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.”

That alone was enough to make Trump and his nest of vipers and grifters, plus his very own immigrant wife, together with the V.P. Vance and his immigrant wife - collective heads explode. But then boldly going where angels of light or darkness fear to tread (maybe not), Bishop Budde invoked another marginalized and demonized group that Trump is training his sights on. She remarked that “There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.”

The reaction was fast and furious, beginning with Agent Orange foaming at the mouth on ‘Truth Social’;

"The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.... She and her church owe the public an apology!"

Then we heard from a member of the Trumpublican House delegation who called for the Bishop to be deported. Georgia Congressman Mike Collins commented that “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list,”

Fox News would have been conspicuous by their absence had not some of their vile hosts piled on as well, Hannity calling Budde a “so-called bishop”, attacked her, saying that she “made the service about her very own deranged political beliefs with a disgraceful prayer full of fearmongering and division.”

Excuse me for a moment, but isn’t it all too obvious that if you strip everything else away from that statement, but leave in “deranged political beliefs”, plus “disgraceful” and “fear mongering and division”, are you not precisely encapsulating both Sean Vanity and his adopted father, Donnie Drumpf?

Not to be outdone, was Phởx Nudes late night ogre, Greg Gastroenteritis Gutfeld, who was compelled to quip, “Who knew Satan wore granny glasses and stole his haircut from John Denver?” Fellow host and chief Harpy on the network, Laura Ingraham classified Budde as a “radical leftist”.

Other responses were typified by that of Matt Walsh, dubbing Budde a “fake bishop” and that “hell exists for people like Mariann” as well as calling her “exhibit A for why women should not be pastors, priests, or bishops." That comment touches on a common theme, now in vogue on the right – a call for the non-voluntary imposition of paternalistic enforced traditional gender roles on women. While most of us recoil in horror at the depictions in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, the likes of Walsh, see them as utopian.

That was just the tip of the scummy iceberg, the rest of which is recounted over at Media Matters.

You must understand, that Trump is not portraying a persona with his constant invective. Trump, being the malignant narcissist that he is, is offended when anyone or anything is worshipped before or beside himself and then he is, beside himself. Trump as the zealous demi-God that he is, does not abide by being challenged with the objective truth or being contradicted, and especially not by a woman. We’ve seen the history of that. Bishop Budde, I probably don’t need to tell you, is now receiving death threats from Trump’s “Beautiful Christians.”

But despite all the rationalizations, equivocations and Trumpsplaining, his followers contort themselves into issuing - Trump himself is very unequivocally against any sort of “religious freedom” that is broad based and does not fall under the category of Christofascism, the national tribal variant of Christianity.

And that was further evidenced by his royal edict, errrr “Executive Order” that US immigration authorities (ICE), will be able to arrest migrants at schools, churches and hospitals – all of which have historically been designated as “sensitive areas” and which the agency had been restricted from encroaching upon for years.

The US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, said in a statement:

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

I just have to pause for a moment here and make an observation about the last statement in that paragraph – well, really the entire paragraph. Trump, on his first day, awarded a mass pardon to over a thousand criminals who attacked the Capitol on January 6^th four years ago and assaulted our brave law enforcement, the Capitol Police, who were protecting members of the House and Senate that day.

The real criminals have been awarded a place to hide, under the shelter of Trump’s wings of protection for violent fascists. Spare me the Orwellspeak.

But one has to wonder about Trump’s imperial decree that immigration enforcement agents have been granted the agency to violate the sanctity of the sanctuaries and houses of worship.

The Center for Law and Social Policy said in a statement:

“This action could have devastating consequences for immigrant families and their children, including US citizen children, deterring them from receiving medical attention, seeking out disaster relief, attending school, and carrying out everyday activities.

Should Ice presence near such locations become more common, the likelihood also increases that children could witness a parent’s detention, arrest, or other encounters with Ice agents.”

Will this shock anyone’s eyes open? For those of us who know who and what Trump is and recognize his word salads and false contexts of “religious freedom” to be counterfeits and patent political opportunism run amok and nothing else, no, most likely not. We’re appalled but certainly not shocked. It’s not at all unexpected. Will this cause the MAGAvanJellicle cats to pause and reflect? It almost certainly will not.

It’s ironic how passionate the MAGAverse and the politicians who cater to it, are about the notion of plastering the Ten Commandments on the walls of every K-12 classroom, when the fact is that they are serially breaking number 3 on the list when they profess to defend religious liberties, while avidly supporting the armed invasion of houses of worship and fomenting policies that are in clear opposition to the admonitions in the Holy book, to be hospitable to, as opposed to scapegoating and terrorizing the sojourners in our midst.

Trump? The Ten Commandments are the Ten Suggestions and the Seven Deadly Sins were at some earlier point in his life, a bucket list, but he’s nailed them all. However, the ability to use religion as a prop to enable him to satiate his appetite for cruelty, spite and hatreds? That never loses its appeal for him.