Bob Sheak, Feb 12, 2025
Erica L. Green, a White House correspondent, covering President Trump and his administration, reports on Trump’s task force to “prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism” (https://nytimes.com/2025/02/07/trump-anti-christian-bias.html).
Green writes: “President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday aimed at eradicating ‘anti-Christian bias’ in the federal government by having agencies review policies and practices that he says have tried to squelch religious activities and activism.” Trump “announced the order at the National Prayer Breakfast,” where he “appointed his new attorney general, Pam Bondi, to lead a task force at the Justice Department to spearhead the effort.” Green continues: “Mr. Trump said the task force would ‘fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society’ and ‘move heaven and earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide.’”
Trump criticized former President Biden for supporting the convictions of anti-abortion demonstrators for blocking access to abortion clinics. In doing that, he implicitly identifies one extreme right-wing Christianity as being under threat. He refers to “conservative Christians as being the unfair targets to government actions.”
Critics of the order have a concern that Trump’s order is mistaken to single out a particular version of Christianity, involving right-wing, evangelical religious practices and beliefs. This runs counter to the First Amendment and decades of laws and Supreme Court decisions, which do call for the general separation of church and state. Green quotes Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. who is concerned that Trump’s order ‘will misuse religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination and the subversion of our civil rights laws,’ because it seems to privileges one type of Christianity.
Green adds, “If Trump really cared about religious freedom and ending religious persecution, he’d be addressing antisemitism in his inner circle, anti-Muslim bigotry, hate crimes against people of color and other religious minorities,” not attempting to create a state religion.”
A presidential commission and new faith office in the White House
“Mr. Trump said,” Green reports, “he would also convene a new presidential commission on religious liberty, which he called ‘a very big deal.’ He also plans to create a new faith office in the White House led by the Rev. Paula White, a televangelist and longtime faith adviser to Mr. Trump whose populist interpretation of the Gospel has proved divisive among Christians.”
The alleged principal culprits
Mr. Trump accused the Justice Department, the I.R.S. and F.B.I. of being key perpetrators of religious persecution, in line with long-running claims by conservatives that the Biden administration had used those agencies to carry out an agenda biased against conservative Christians.
Congressional Republicans have complained particularly about a 2023 memo issued by the F.B.I.’s Richmond office that said far-right extremists might be attracted to Catholic churches or groups. That led to a contentious hearing with the F.B.I. director.
F.B.I. officials withdrew the memo, and an internal investigation found no evidence of “malicious intent” behind it.
Nandita Bose and Doina Chiacu also report on Trump’s concerns about Trump’s claim of anti-Christian bias and how it is initially focused on the federal government (https://reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-he-will-sign-order-targeting-anti-christian-bias02025-02-06).
They write:
“U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would create a White House faith office and direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to lead a task force on eradicating what he called anti-Christian bias within the federal government.” He delivered this message at two prayer breakfasts. First, “Trump delivered remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast at the U.S. Capitol and used his speech to call for ‘unity’, telling lawmakers his relationship with religion has ‘changed’ after a pair of failed assassination attempts last year.
“At a second prayer breakfast in Washington, Trump struck a more partisan tone, took a victory lap for getting ‘rid of woke over the last two weeks’ and announced steps to protect Christians from what he said was religious discrimination.”
“The mission of this task force,” as reported by Bose and Chiacu,‘will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI and other agencies,’ Trump said.”
Bose and Chiacu point out, “The president did not cite specific examples of anti-Christian bias during his remarks but has previously claimed that the Biden administration used the federal government to target Christians specifically.”
There are concerns that Trump’s order violates “the separation of church and state, with the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment limiting government endorsement of religion.”
Trump as conservative religious leader
Bose and Chiacu continue. “Trump, who has become the de facto figurehead of conservative American Christianity, has repeatedly invoked a religious anointing since he survived an assassination attempt last year. ‘Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,’ Trump has told supporters at events around the country.” Thus, “White evangelical Christian voters, who make up a critical piece of the Republican base, have supported Trump in the last three elections. He has embraced the conservative Christian world view and policies that speak to the bloc’s anxiety about changing gender norms and family patterns.
A White House Faith office
The president also on Thursday announced he will create a White House Faith Office, led by Rev. Paula White, who has served as a religious adviser to him for many years.
Trump established a similar office at the White House during his first term and regularly consulted with a tight group of evangelical advisers.
Trump additionally said he would create a new commission on religious liberty, and criticized the Biden administration for the “persecution” of believers.
“If we don’t have religious liberty, then we don’t have a free country,” he said.
In 2023, the National Prayer Breakfast split into two events, the one on Capitol Hill attended by lawmakers and a separate private event for thousands at a hotel ballroom after some lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the private religious group following questions over how it was run and funded.”
What kind of Christianity?
Jacques Berlinerblau, professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University and author of numerous books about the subject of secularism, delves into the dangerous intent of Trump’s prayer breakfast remarks in an article published on Feb. 7, 2025, arguing how it conflicts with the US Constitutional provision regarding the separation of state and religion (https://msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-national-prayer-breakfast-christian-task-force-rcna191020).
“At 8:15 a.m. Thursday, President Donald Trump spoke at the Congressional Prayer Breakfast. A few hours later he spoke again at the National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton. Berlinerblau cautions that “America’s non-conservative Christians, non-Christians and nonbelievers should take heed, as should all of those who believe that some form of secular governance is necessary for the well-being of any liberal democracy.”
Trump said “that he was appointing Attorney General Pam Bondi to head a task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias’ within the federal government. Specifically, the president said:
“The mission of this task force will be to immediately halt all forms of anti-Christian targeting and discrimination within the federal government, including at the DOJ, which was absolutely terrible, the IRS, the FBI … and other agencies. In addition, the task force will work to fully prosecute anti-Christian violence and vandalism in our society and to move heaven and Earth to defend the rights of Christians and religious believers nationwide. You never had that before, but this is a very powerful document I’m signing.”
But, Berlinerblau reminds us, as noted earlier, the word “Christian” refers in Trump’s language “to what we might call MAGA Christians, or the types of Christians who voted for him (i.e., evangelicals, Pentecostals, conservative Mormons and traditionalist Catholics). He is not referring to Christians who did not vote for him, such as liberal Catholics, mainline Protestants, members of various African American churches and so forth.”
Trump’s dual breakfasts help us grasp how far we have moved from JFK’s ringing “I Believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.”
The Christian Right’s opposition to secularism
Berlinerblau offers this summary. “From the late 1970s forward, the Christian right has waged a masterly judicial campaign to dismantle a form of political secularism known as “separationism.” The wall of separation between church and state was burned down to the ground decades ago. This is evident in a string of Supreme Court decisions that have completely upended the separationist status quo that was set in place during the Warren and Burger courts and peaked in the Kennedy era (see, for example, Justice William Rehnquist’s dissents in Wallace v. Jaffree, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District; and Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissents in South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Gavin Newsom, The American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Shurtleff v. City of Boston).
Trump’s dual breakfasts help us grasp how far we have moved from JFK’s ringing “I Believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.” Compare that with this president’s revival tent proclamation: “Let’s bring religion back. … Let’s bring God back to our lives.”
“The question is no longer how secularists can rebuild the wall of separation. It no longer exists. The new question is: What kinds of innovative judicial approaches and cultural activism can be advanced to stave off the imminent establishment of a certain form of Christianity in the American government?”
The Bishop calls for unity
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C., offered the following homily at a national prayer service held Tuesday, Jan. 21 at Washington National Cathedral. Trump was in attendance and was unhappy with what she said. Budde has served as Bishop of Washington since 2011.
Her message “drew international attention as she asked President Donald Trump to show mercy to those who may be impacted by his administration’s policies. Trump later demanded an apology.” Here are excerpts from her sermon. (https://northjersey.com/story/opinion/2025/01/29/trump-bishop-budde-sermon-transcript/78002821007).
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell — and great was its fall!” Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
— Matthew 7:24-29
Budde calls for “unity” amidst diversity
“Joined by many across the country, we have gathered this morning to pray for unity as a nation — not for agreement, political or otherwise, but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division, a unity that serves the common good.
“Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not a victory of one over another. It is not weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity is not partisan.
“Rather, unity is a way of being with one another that encompasses and respects differences, that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect; that enables us, in our communities and in the halls of power, to genuinely care for one another even when we disagree. Those across our country who dedicate their lives, or who volunteer, to help others in times of natural disaster, often at great risk to themselves, never ask those they are helping for whom they voted in the past election or what positions they hold on a particular issue. We are at our best when we follow their example.
“Unity at times, is sacrificial, in the way that love is sacrificial, a giving of ourselves for the sake of another. Jesus of Nazareth, in his Sermon on the Mount, exhorts us to love not only our neighbors, but to love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us; to be merciful, as our God is merciful, and to forgive others, as God forgives us. Jesus went out of his way to welcome those whom his society deemed as outcasts.”
….
“Given this, is true unity among us even possible? And why should we care about it?
“I am a person of faith, and with God’s help I believe that unity in this country is possible—not perfectly, for we are imperfect people and an imperfect union — but sufficient enough to keep us believing in and working to realize the ideals of the United States of America — ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence, with its assertion of innate human equality and dignity.”
“The first foundation for unity is honoring the inherent dignity of every human being, which is, as all faiths represented here affirm, the birthright of all people as children of the One God. In public discourse, honoring each other’s dignity means refusing to mock, discount, or demonize those with whom we differ, choosing instead to respectfully debate across our differences, and whenever possible, to seek common ground. If common ground is not possible, dignity demands that we remain true to our convictions without contempt for those who hold convictions of their own.
“A second foundation for unity is honesty in both private conversation and public discourse. If we aren’t willing to be honest, there is no use in praying for unity, because our actions work against the prayers themselves. We might, for a time, experience a false sense of unity among some, but not the sturdier, broader unity that we need to address the challenges we face.”
“A third foundation for unity is humility, which we all need, because we are all fallible human beings. We make mistakes. We say and do things that we regret. We have our blind spots and biases, and we are perhaps the most dangerous to ourselves and others when we are persuaded, without a doubt, that we are absolutely right and someone else is absolutely wrong. Because then we are just a few steps away from labeling ourselves as the good people, versus the bad people.
“The truth is that we are all people, capable of both good and bad. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn astuely observed that “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties , but right through every human heart and through all human hearts.” The more we realize this, the more room we have within ourselves for humility, and openness to one another across our differences, because in fact, we are more like one another than we realize, and we need each other.”
“Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you. As you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are transgender children in both Republican and Democratic families who fear for their lives.
“And the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shift in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes, and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches, mosques and synagogues, gurdwara, and temples.
“Have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. Help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were once strangers in this land.
“May God grant us all the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, speak the truth in love, and walk humbly with one another and our God, for the good of all the people of this nation and the world.”
Jim Wallis maintains that Trump’s views are not reflected in Jesus’ example.
Wallis is Georgetown University’s inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice and the director of its new Center on Faith and Justice. He served on President Obama’s first White House Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is the author of many books.
In his book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming the True Faith, and Refounding Democracy (publ. 2024), Wallis criticizes the false religion that is embodied in Christian Nationalism, the religion of the MAGA movement, and, as we have seen, publicly espoused by Trump. What’s at stake? Wallis answers:
“The importance of the faith factor in this battle for the soul of the nation cannot be underestimated. When religion is in fact being used to support the rise of totalitarian rule, as it has been also been in past history, true faith must rise over bad religion. That bad and dangerous religion is now put forward as white Christian nationalism [in the U.S.] and it is the single greatest threat to democracy today” (p. 234).
Wallis issues a call for action, writing:
“This book is a call to action, a manifesto for a moment of crisis and opportunity. There is much ahead that we cannot either predict or control. We will face great challenges and many dangers and with sighs of deep discouragement and encouragement all along the way. Our optimism will go up and down, but hope must remain our choice. The path to fulfilling the promise of democracy must be walked by all of us now. And through the actions of believers and nonbelievers alike, I believe that God, and we, can save America” (p. 240).
Concluding thoughts
As Wallis says, we must hold onto “hope” that the opposition to Trump will grow as Trump, his partner Elon Musk, the Republican Party dominated by Trumpism, and their support by the rich and powerful support an economy based on the failed trickle-down myth, misbegotten tariffs, tirades blaming immigrants for the society’s problems, and a desire to replace government with private and corporate power.
Amidst all that, they marshal propaganda forces to legitimate their un-democratic policies with Christian Nationalism, the adherents of which represent the largest segment of MAGA. Their chances of getting what they want is not written in the winds. When – not if – their policies cause serious problems for people, the religious ruse may not be sufficient for them to hold onto power.
Vital issues - challenging pol and econ power 