When Trump ‘triumphantly’ held up a Bible outside a church

A lot of things have happened since Pentecost Sunday, days after African-American George Floyd was murdered at the hands of several police officers in Minnesota. We witnessed in the media the peaceful protests and the riots, and then Donald Trump “triumphantly” raising a Bible in front of a church close to the White House (which someone suggested should be renamed the President’s Residence because of the racial overtones of the existing name).

Jun 14, 2020

By Anil Netto
A lot of things have happened since Pentecost Sunday, days after African-American George Floyd was murdered at the hands of several police officers in Minnesota. We witnessed in the media the peaceful protests and the riots, and then Donald Trump “triumphantly” raising a Bible in front of a church close to the White House (which someone suggested should be renamed the President’s Residence because of the racial overtones of the existing name).

Minutes before Trump raised the Bible, police in riot gear fired chemical irritants, smoke grenades and flash grenades at a group of protesters, both lay and clergy, at Lafayette Square to clear a path for the President to reach St John’s church, the so-called “church of the presidents”. (The church even has a “president’s pew” at No 54!)

Trump blatantly used the Bible, with the church as a backdrop, to send a silent political message to his conservative base.

The reaction to Trump’s usurping of Christian religious symbols to make such a political statement was swift.

The mayor of Washington renamed 16th Street, in front of the White House, “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.

Mariann Budde, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said, “This was a charade that in some way was meant to bolster a message that does nothing to calm the soul or to reassure the nation that we can recover from this moment – which is what we need from this president.”

She said Trump was not a regular visitor to the church. “Jesus was very clear that God is far less interested in the show of our prayers than God is in the ethical way that we live our lives and how we treat our fellow human beings created in God’s image.”

She lamented that Trump didn’t go to the  church to pray or to express remorse or consolation or to share grief or to provide hope to the thousands of people gathered at the square.

Religious commentator Sr Karen M Donahue RSM recalled the words of the Prophet Jeremiah:

“Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message there,” God tells the prophet. “Reform your ways and your deeds so that I may dwell with you in this place.” You can enter, the prophet relays, only “if each of you deals justly with your neighbour; if you no longer oppress the alien, the orphan and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place” (Jeremiah 7: 1-10).

Donahue said these words came to mind as photos of Trump raising the Bible in front of the church flashed across the world.

“What was the President trying to convey? It certainly was not a call to reform our ways, to deal justly with our neighbour, or welcome the alien, the widow and the orphan.” She said the President’s response to the murder of Floyd and the protests deserves condemnation from the followers of Jesus.

Trump, she said, had urged state governors to “dominate,” arrest and imprison demonstrators for “ten years.” He had also scolded the governors, calling them “jerks” for not using greater force against protesters.

“There was not one word from the President about racism or its long legacy of oppression and exclusion,” Donahue noted.

There were other reasons Trump’s church photo-op was shameful as well, she observed. “For one thing, the President stood in front of a church sign that said ‘All Are Welcome’. The hypocrisy is almost too much to bear.” This, after all, was a president who had treated migrants and asylum seekers shoddily.

Meanwhile, the protests over the murder of George Floyd spread around the world as political leaders shifted uncomfortably in their seats over racism and discrimination in their own countries.

Malaysia was no exception, though there have been no protests here, apart from solidarity expressed over social media. But then, only recently we witnessed hate speech, xenophobia and racism targeted at migrant workers and refugees in Malaysia.

We also saw how the authorities treated migrant workers and refugees amid the pandemic, rounding many of them up and sending them away to immigration depots where, of course, COVID-19 clusters emerged, as civil society groups had warned.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), for its part, expressed its solidarity with the people of the US during this difficult period. It noted that this was an opportune time to remind Malaysians that ingrained racism, subtle forms of racial discrimination and related intolerance occurs in Malaysia as well.

“Racism, xenophobia and intolerance elicit ha tred and distrust, thereby precluding any attempts to understand the circumstances of those at the receiving end or efforts to create an empathetic, harmonious society,” Suhakam said in a statement.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set out in the declaration without distinction.

“Rather than debate whether racism exists in Malaysia, perhaps it is time to move beyond the surface of unity and dive deep to undo decades of systematic racial discrimination.

The commission called for everyone to stand up against racial prejudice and intolerant attitudes, “as racism is morally wrong, in principle. The ability to look beyond religion, race, descent or place of birth is what we need to cultivate in a multiracial society such as in Malaysia.”

One person who would have agreed on this rights-based approach to “justice for all” would have been the lawyer-turned-priest Fr OC Lim, SJ who sadly passed away on June 5 after a long illness.

Although I never had the privilege of actually meeting him in person, I couldn’t help hearing about his passion for justice from afar through CAN News, which published anecdotes of his courageous homilies and how they pricked the conscience of members of the elite, his solidarity with the persecuted, including victims of detention without trial.

All this because of his commitment to Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the best way to honour his memory and to join in solidarity with victims of injustice and racism would be to recommit to the cause of justice, compassion, love and peace – the hallmarks of the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.

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