Today is Good Friday. This morning's New York Times (NYT) correctly identified the day as "part of the holiest week in the Christian calendar."
It also recalled President Trump's campaign promise to "bring back Christianity." According to him and his first lady that means following "the living Son of God who conquered death, freed us from sin, and unlocked the gates of Heaven for all of humanity." The pair wants this to be "one of the great Easters ever."
The article went on to recall how Mr. Trump's aspirations were following and expanding the lead of George W. Bush who established the first White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives in the early 2000s.
Mr. Trump's "personal pastor," Paula White-Cain, who heads the Office affirms its ability "to weigh in on any issue it deems appropriate." Chief among them, she said, were the desire to "eradicate anti-Christian bias" including deviation from the position that there are two sexes, male and female. Such concerns have afforded the Faith Office "unprecedented access" for faith leaders to "officials in intelligence, domestic policy and national security."
Accordingly, Mr. Trump has often met with pastors from states like Colorado and Pennsylvania. On returning home, those reverends have shared photos taken with the president sometimes with heads bowed in prayer, imposing hands of blessing on the president's head, or with Mr. Trump joining them in singing hymns.
All of this led the NYT article and accompanying video to identify the White House as "one of the safest places in the world to be a Christian." In fact, one of the Christian pastors interviewed for the piece said that "he doesn't see any rails on the limits of the faith office."
Good Friday Perspective
As a Jesus scholar and theologian, I found all this quite ironic, false, and heretical. In my view it is reminiscent of Germany of the 1930s, when Christian pastors and Catholic bishops routinely endorsed the leader of the Third Reich, who also affirmed a llegiance to the Jesus reflected in Mr. and Ms. Trump's profession of faith.
The reality was, however, that Hitler's Germany and the policies supported by Trump's MAGA crowd reveal an actual hatred for Jesus mourned and celebrated this Good Friday. After all he was the son of an impoverished unwed teenage mother who was houseless at birth. He was an immigrant in Egypt. He was an unemployed construction worker. He was a harsh critic of the Jewish political and religious establishment, of the Roman Empire, and of the rich in general. He said that the future belonged to the poor, the non-violent, and those persecuted for justice sake. He ended his life as a victim of imperial torture and capital punishment.
Conclusion
So, if there are no rails, no limits, on Mr. Trump's faith office how about lowering them for pastors like Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde? (Remember how she infuriated Donald Trump and JD Vance at Trump's inaugural prayer service at the National Cathedral in Washington. She did so merely by pleading with Mr. Trump to "have mercy" on LGBTQ people and immigrants targeted by his policies.)
If there are no rails, how about lowering them for rabbis, ministers, priests, and faithful demanding that Mr. Trump stop the Hitlerian genocide he's committing in Zionist Israel?
If there are no rails, how about implementing policies that recognize and honor Jesus in the children of poor unwed teenage mothers, in the houseless, in refugees and immigrants, in the working class, in opponents of the rich and powerful, in those protesting the hypocrisy of Jewish Zionists, in U.S.-supported torture facilities, and on death row.
Only changes like those can convince followers of the historical Jesus that the White House is "one of the safest places in the world to be a Christian." Only changes like those can make this "one of the great Easters ever."
