Prayer, as the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor used to say, is the perfect posture to put something over on others.
There was exiting President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama (looking like he was tasting something he didn’t like), and Democratic opposition leaders, all dutifully bowing their heads and closing their eyes . . . to Trump’s symbolic Christian coronation. When called to pray, most attending members of Congress (95 percent of whom identify as religious) toed the line obediently and reflexively. Ironically, a glowering Trump largely kept his head up and eyes open.
Thus, deference to religion still holds power over politics today and squelches dissent. In short, today’s inauguration theme was that Trump has been divinely ordained to be president.
Franklin Graham’s invocation sounded more like ordaining Trump into sainthood than a prayer: “Look what God has done. We praise him and give him glory, as Donald Trump takes the oath of office again. We come to say thank you, O Lord our God.” Graham then proclaimed, “You and you alone saved his life. We pray for President Trump.”
Trump echoed the sentiment in his inaugural speech, asserting, “My life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.” He then stated that his and his administration’s mission is to “give the people back their faith,” framing his presidency as not just an electoral mandate but a divine mission.
Ironically, while Trump invoked the divine, he forgot (or declined?) to place his hand on the bible during his swearing-in. Perhaps to avoid spontaneous combustion in the nation’s Capitol.
Then the Naval Academy Glee Club marched in, belting out the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” with its paeon to “His terrible swift sword” and celebration of “Christ [who] was born across the sea.”
Timothy Dolan, Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, also gave an invocation. And four (count ‘em, four) male clergypersons gave the benedictions: Rabbi Ari Berman, Imam Husham Al Husainy, Pastor Lorenzo Sewell and Rev. Father Frank Mann. By the final prayers, I’m glad to report that the audience got restive, with many more heads up and eyes open.
Prayer that treated Trump as though divinely anointed also took place the evening before the Inauguration at a rally at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. Included was a prayer by two young women, one of whom even sacrilegiously revised the Lord’s Prayer to reference Trump: “God we thank you, we thank you that your will always prevails. Thank you, God, that it’s your will. Your kingdom come, Lord. Your will be done, O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. In America as it is in heaven. In the life of President Donald Trump as it is in heaven.”Graham wasn’t even shy about coronating Trump. In his invocation, he quoted Daniel 2:21, saying the biblical deity “removes kings and raises up kings.” What a sad day for a nation predicated on getting rid of kings and likewise founded upon the constitutional principle separating religion from government.
Disclaimer: The views in this column are of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
3 Responses
What a sad day for our country. I can’t remember a worse day and I am 80 yrs. old.
yep, quite the thing to watch these christian cultists support their anti-christ
It doesn’t surprise me that he didn’t even respect the people who voted for him and turned right around and bit the hand that feeds him at the first opportunity. (By choosing not to pray but watching to see who would be disloyal.) I think they must’ve suspected that this would happen, but they’ll get what they want out of him, so they’re mollified. So, this symbiosis between him and their primitive religion of bloodlust, brutality, and misogyny is satisfied in its barbarity by its very resemblance to what its own adherents would term, “A deal with the Devil”. The question is, which one is “the Devil”?