President’s Cabinet’s Bible study led by controversial minister

WASHINGTON — News from the Christian Broadcasting Network that members of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet are attending Bible study together didn’t come as such a shock in Washington.

The shock was who teaching them.

That teacher, Pastor Ralph Drollinger, is well known to some members in the California congressional is delegation. He is the evangelical spiritual leader who once counseled a group of Sacramento lawmakers that female politicians with young children have no business serving in the legislature. In fact, he called them sinners.

Drollinger also declared that Catholicism “is one of the primary false religions in the world” – precipitating his Bible study group’s move out of a suite of offices controlled by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Catholic.

It was the remark about female politicians, made in a written Bible lesson distributed to his group in 2004, that stoked the most controversy for the pastor.

“It is one thing for a mother to work out of her home while her children are in school,” wrote Drollinger, a Californian who created a group called Capitol Ministries to teach evangelical interpretations of the Bible to politicians. “It is quite another matter to have children in the home and live away in Sacramento for four days a week. Whereas the former could be in keeping with the spirit of Proverbs 31, the latter is sinful.”

At the time, the commentary caught the attention of the legislative women’s caucus, where several members expressed mortification at what they flatly labeled Drollinger’s misogynistic teachings.

Capitol Ministries boasts it “has planted biblical ministries” in 40 state capitals, and established a study group in the U.S. House in 2010. By last year, Drollinger and his associates also had a presence in the U.S. Senate, and counted 68 lawmakers as members.

The CBN report says the Trump administration study group includes Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

The offices of the Cabinet members who Drollinger told CBN are part of his Bible study did not respond to requests for comment or declined to comment. Trump has not yet attended a session but he receives a copy of Drollinger’s teaching weekly, and Pence plans to attend when his schedule allows, according to CBN.

Drollinger could not be reached for comment.