Antithetical to the Teaching of Jesus

Last evening a hideous sequence of events unfolding in the capitol of the United States. In the midst of national turmoil over the senseless, racist murder by police of a black man, George Floyd, the president made a public statement. He did not express condolences to the grieving family, nor did he acknowledge racial tensions and call for calm. Instead he insisted that governors of states where there are demonstrations "dominate" the protesters with force, or he would send in the military.

While this impostor president was making his vile statements police and national guard members cleared a path through peaceful protesters , including the Episcopal priest and members OF THAT CONGREGATION, with tear gas and rubber bullets so that he could walk from the White House to a nearby church. In front of a place of worship, a sacred space he posed for  photos, then returned to his den of iniquity.

This shameless display was quickly condemned by the Episcopal bishop of this diocese and the pastor of the congregation, neither of whom were informed of what was about to transpire. They saw this theatrical ploy for what it was, as have many American Christian leaders. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde expressed her outrage by saying  "Let me be clear: The President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus"

I think Luke Bretherton, a professor of moral and politcal theology at Duke University sums up what transpired well:

There is something theologically fitting about Trump holding aloft a closed bible before a shuttered church he cannot enter. It is a book he doesn't read & a structure dedicated to something he can't understand that preaches a narrow way he entirely opposes in all he says & does.

Yet many in the president's conservative Christian cult have praised him and speak  of his bravery and devotion. What do they think the bible is, some magical talisman to be waved about for political gain? This is such a disturbing confusion of the role of empire and the subversion of genuine faith and worship.

 Do we need to be reminded that an innocent Jesus was executed by the powerful empire of his day with the collusion of some religious leaders? Jesus' peaceful but subversive Palm Sunday demonstration was the beginning of the end, and yet a new beginning. Easter declares that  Jesus, peacemaker and saviour, was not "dominated" by that empire nor by any other.