OPINION: The intersection of religion and politics
In the 1960s, clerics led powerful movements to protest human rights violations and war. It was their religious devotion that motivated them to step into public policy.
As Trump co-opts Christianity for his own selfish purposes, we are again seeing religious people step up and speak out.
To be clear: Christianity is not the only source of American morality. People with ethical principles exist across many religions, and among those who are non-religious.
Religious leaders occupy a position of authority. They have power.
Recently, two prominent members of the American clergy spoke in opposition to some of President Trump’s controversial and inhumane actions.
Reverend Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C. gave a sermon at the Inaugural Prayer Service on Jan. 20. What she said made Trump and Vice President JD Vance uncomfortable. In the words of C.S. Lewis, “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”
Bishop Budde described three essential pillars that support unity in a multicultural nation like the United States of America: Dignity, Honesty and Humility.
With the president, first lady, vice president and second lady seated in the first pew, Bishop Budde began.
“Joined by many across the country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a nation …a unity that engenders equality, dignity, and livelihood, a unity that serves the common good.”
Bishop Budde expanded on the three pillars and then added a crucial and timely fourth pillar, Mercy.
She specifically asked the president to show mercy for farm workers and service workers, most of whom are law abiding immigrants, who now fear family separation and deportation.
She asked the president to show mercy for members of the LGBTQ community who are now living in fear of debasement, discrimination, and even violence.
Bishop Budde’s sermon sent a unifying message to the nation after a bitter and divisive election season.
But just a week later the president wrongly blamed DEI policies of the Biden administration for the midair collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people.
With this worn out racist accusation, the president alleged that unqualified air traffic controllers hired by the Federal Aviation Administration placed lives at risk. This is a despicable lie.
In fact the FAA’s DEI policies were implemented under Trump’s own first administration.
And there is absolutely no cause-effect relationship between DEI policies and bad outcomes in any industry.
Nonetheless, with bodies still on the bottom of the frigid Potomac and families absorbing the grief of sudden loss, the president said that his harsh remarks were based on “common sense.”
The Reverend Raphael Warnock, in an interview, directly criticized President Trump’s reaction to the airline disaster.
Reverend Warnock, a Democratic US Senator from Georgia, said, “People expect their president to show up on the scene. To take a beat, take a moment and comfort those who are directly impacted, and the nation itself.”
“I was and am a pastor… For Donald Trump to pile on his politics and his bigoted agenda on top of the pain that these families are already feeling is way beyond the pale.”
“Not only is it shameful, quite frankly it’s dangerous. The reason we have the safest aviation system in the world is that all prior presidents have left politics out of it. He should do the same.”
Reverend Warnock had more to say about the president’s threats to marginalized communities, separation of immigrants’ families, and stripping others of their much needed Medicaid.
His policies bear “false witness against the God I know. I am a Mathew 25 Christian: Jesus said I was hungry and you fed me, I was sick or in prison and you visited me, I was a stranger, an immigrant, and you welcomed me.”
He then quoted directly from the text:
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Sixty years ago, courageous clergy members like Dr. Martin Luther King and the Catholic priests Phillip and Daniel Berrigan led protests that brought about major civil rights legislation and turned the tide of public opinion against the miserable war in Vietnam.
Today if more religious leaders join Bishop Budde and Reverend Warnock to take the lead and speak out, perhaps we will see our way out of the current crisis and even avoid the same thing happening after the next big crisis.
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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.