Donald Trump walked the USA into an even more disturbing and dangerous land of quasi-martial law on Monday night. Through a carefully scripted series of photo ops, Trump threatened all of us and demonstrated his willingness to use force even to break up a peaceful protest in violation of the First Amendment—which reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Prologue
Astonishingly, Trump violated every First Amendment protection, either directly or indirectly. It was as if a two-act play called “Autocracy” unfolded before our eyes. But this was not Broadway. This was the Beltway with the US president starring in a theatre of the absurd as the grotesque antagonist. It was also as horrifying as absurd to watch as the secretary of defense, in battle fatigues, and the smiling attorney general strolled from stage right to center stage for a performance that will go down in infamy. Envision St. John Episcopal Church’s marquee with the following words:
Appearing Now on Beltway
Donald Trump’s
Autocracy
ACT ONE: Threaten
Scene 1. [White House, or “Green Room”]
Trump: “I am your law and order president.” [To back up this claim, he threatens to sick the US military on its people as they exercise their First Amendment rights, the very bedrock of our democracy.]
Trump: “I strongly suggested to every governor to deploy the National Guard in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets.” Adding, “If a governor will not take such action, then I will deploy the US military and quickly solve the problem for them.”
Scene 2. [Lafayette Park] Across from the White House campus, thousands of protesters gather in Lafayette Park. A peaceful assembly forms to petition the government to end police brutality against people of color. The crowd waits there for hours before police arrive to shove them out of the way of Trump’s five-minute spectacle.
ACT TWO: Make Good on the Threat with Bible in Hand
Scene 1. [Entourage walks to St. John’s] US Attorney General William Barr assesses the crowd and orders As Trump leaves the White House, more than a dozen law enforcement agencies, including the Secret Service Agents, National Guardsmen, DC Metro Police, US Park Police, US Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and military police officers begin surrounding the peaceful protesters. They seem to appear out of nowhere. People flee for fear of being hit with tear gas and not knowing that the bullets are rubber and not real. Flash-bangs ring in their ears to ratchet up the panic further. The tear gas burns protesters’ eyes and throat as they struggle to elude police. [All of this happens so that the president could walk to the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church to have his photo taken.]
Scene 2. And as a result, a peaceable assembly devolves into assaults and batteries on the protesters. A police officer jams his shield into the torso of a video cameraman two times. Chaos ensues.
Scene 3. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, Rector of nearby St. John’s-Georgetown, helps staff at St. John’s to supply water, bandages, and moral support to protesters. They wipe the eyes and faces who had been gassed. Military police arrive and unceremoniously eject clergy and refuge-seekers from the church. Police do this even as clergy and volunteers exercise their religion through acts of compassion in the Holy Name of Jesus.
Scene 4. [St. John Episcopal Church] Trump arrives at St. John’s church in front of the marquee. Serving as his property mistress, Trump’s daughter Ivanka carries the Bible in her purse and hands the prop to him as he prepares to speak.
Trump: “We have a great country. Greatest country in the world. We will make it even greater, and it won’t take long. It’s not going to take long.”
Scene 5. Trump holds the Bible up and does not read from it or even open it.
Scene 6. Trump cues his unorthodox cast of characters over to stand with him including, the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, US Attorney General William Barr, US Military Joint Chief of Staff, General Malley, and Ivanka Trump. The group stands in a line for a “moment-of-silence” and photo-op. A reporter repeats the question, “Are you prepared to turn the US military on US citizens?” Trump makes a quieting gesture by drawing an index finger to his lips. He does not answer (although he has actually done just that). The cast walks back to the White House.
(Dead Blackout)
Epilogue
From a theological perspective, this unholy event cannot go unchallenged. Trump usurped the Bible as the prop in this blasphemous drama. Trump could not even manage to carry the Bible himself from the White House. Prop mistress Ivanka handed it to him just prior to his weird posturing with it. Trump held the Bible like a chunk of ice. Trump’s fingers could only stand to touch it for so long until that “cold burn” kicked in–he was clearly uncomfortable with it. Yet, he strangely nodded in self-congratulation. Trump shifted the Bible from hand to hand and sort of rocked the Bible up and down like a baby. At one point, he stared at the Bible’s spine with a quizzical look as if he saw the words “Holy Bible” for the first time.
In actuality, and before our very eyes, Trump pimped out the Holy Bible in a cheap act of pandering to his extremist political base.
Many theologians have a real problem with this irreverence. In a statement to the Washington Post, J.D. Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention said that “The Bible is a book we should hold only with fear and trembling, given to us that in it we might find eternal life (emphasis mine).” Greear added, “Our only agenda should be to advance God’s kingdom, proclaim his gospel, or find rest for our souls.”
Despite our significant doctrinal differences, Dr. Greear aptly described my view of the Bible. Importantly, we share an understanding that the Bible is our sacred text to be honored and studied. Certainly, the Bible must never serve as an object to be used as motivation or justification for Trump’s self-described “domination” of the situation.
Episcopal Bishop of Washington, the Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde firmly stated, “Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence,” she said of the president. “We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.” She excoriated him for disrupting the “sacred act of peaceful protest.” Senator Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, stated he stands “against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop,” on June 2, 2020.
Since his candidacy, Trump has worked endlessly to either set the federal constitution aside or weaken it beyond recognition. He has no use for the US Constitution because it serves us a substantial blockade to his lust for absolute power. Congressman Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, said, “We need to accept the fact that this president if given the opportunity, will try to be a dictator.” Gallego continued, “For us to just shut our eyes and somehow believe he won’t go that far — he just ordered the federal government to fire at innocent protesters.”
Trump tweeted his assessment in the aftermath of those unjust actions. “Great job done by all. Overwhelming force. Domination.”
As disturbingly, Trump actively violated all six of our First Amendment protections.
- Anti-establishment clause–violated. Trump fanned a Bible around in front of a church as some carte blanche license to dismantle a peaceful protest and whatever else he wants. From an anti-establishment perspective, I imagine many non-Jews and non-Christians were quite offended by the use of a particular sacred text as the supreme bellwether to justify state action. If Trump was holding the Sikh Granth Sahib or the Hindu Upanishads, Evangelicals would have been up in arms over such “apostasy.” The US president, in his official capacity, gave the impression that the Bible is the necessary Kryptonite talisman to ward off the peoples’ super-power—democracy. He held the Bible up like some auctioneer’s assistant would do as God’s Holy Writ was sold off to the highest right-wing/supremacist Evangelical bidder.
- The Right to Free Exercise of Religion clause–violated. When protesters, speaking out for justice according to their faith traditions, were stopped from doing so. And, at St. John’s, police agents swept clergy and laity out of the parish even as they helped protesters suffering from the effects of tear gas. No doubt, Trump committed countless acts to thwart the free exercise of religion.
- Free speech clause–violated. Police shot unarmed protesters with rubber bullets. They suffered violence, feared trampling by mounted police, and police targeted them with tear gas and flashbangs.
- Free press clause–violated. Police threatened or struck reporters as they sought to do their duty to report the news. The Australian Ambassador wants an investigation into this matter after a journalist was struck.
- The right to peaceably assemble–violated. The orderly protesters stood in Lafayette Park for hours before police arrived and did not pose threats.
- The right to petition the government for the redress of grievances–violated. Protesters held placards and said chants. They engaged in lawful petition of the government to stop police brutality. Unbelievably, More than 12 police agencies intimidated the peaceful assembly to quickly disperse the crowd, as ordered by William Barr, the Attorney General of the United States!
May God help us all.
[Curtain(s)]
