Clerical criticism of Trump is misguided
Churches are not just buildings. They are places that have significance beyond their often glorious facades. They are sites of celebration, and of mourning. They are oases in the midst of war and struggle. They are symbols of strength and power when we think we are powerless. Churches have been central in the civil rights campaigns, exploding with music and praise, and wailing supplication.
They are works of art in themselves, often touching the heavens with their spires like my beloved and beleaguered Notre Dame de Paris.
Churches are the stages where great men and women have sacrificed for their beliefs, like St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury Cathedral and St. Oscar Romero at the altar in San Salvador. And the vaulted ceilings and encrusted stained glass windows are not even necessary, because churches can be found in makeshift tents along the roads of Christians fleeing persecution in the Middle East.
The one thing a church is not is a backdrop. It is never a stage for a purpose that has nothing to do with God and our attempts to hear and implement his will. And no one who stands in front of a church should be accused of using that building, be it historic and treasured or small and intimately loved, for that purpose.
But of course, all the rules change when we are talking about President Trump, who has made a career of smashing the familiar paradigms.
When Donald Trump stood in front of St. John’s Church this week and lifted a Bible in what some media outlets called a “photo op,” he was accused of using that historic and vandalized church for political reasons.
After Trump appeared for what CNN and many other news outlets are calling a “photo op” at a church where the night before some vandal had stopped for a “fire bombing op,”
Bishop Marian Budde was all over the media with her righteous indignation, making statements like, “I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not even given a courtesy call that they would be clearing the area with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”
She also stated that, “Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence. We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.”
Then there was Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal denomination, who accused the president of using “a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes.”
It is clear that these ministers do not support Trump, and that is fine. It is also clear that some leaders of my own faith share their antipathy, including Archbishop Wilton Gregory of the D.C. diocese who objected to Trump’s visit to the Shrine of St. John Paul II a day later with this:
“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree.”
He’s entitled to his opinion, although I do not look to my church to tell me how to vote, even in those cases where I would likely vote in a way that reflects its principles.
What I really object to is the blatant dishonesty of bishops Budde and Curry, Archbishop Gregory and their allies in the media and elsewhere, who presume to tell someone when they can and cannot stand in front of a building they do not own in the most elemental sense, simply because they don’t like his politics.
I am also surprised at the reaction to the vandals who very likely tried to destroy St. John’s.
The rector of the church, Robert Fisher, made this observation after learning of the fire: “There’s understandably attention on us, but I want to point the attention back to where it really should be which is the purpose of the protests ...”
Guess they didn’t mind them standing in front of the church.