Let me just shout a quick “Amen!” in response to the sentiments offered on Twitter by my colleague Bobby Ross Jr.
Here’s the quote: “Too. Much. News.”
For the past three decades or so, Tuesday has been the work day when I try to hide away and write my “On Religion” column, which I ship to the Universal syndicate on Wednesday morning (this week: black preachers, Old Testament prophets and centuries of pain).
Nevertheless, during the past day or so I have been following the Trumpian Bible battles on Twitter. I saw, of course, quite a few people — including conservative Christians — addressing President Donald Trump’s Bible-aloft photo op. I wondered, frankly, whether we would hear from many of those people in the mainstream press coverage that would follow. Uh. That would be “no.”
So raise your hands if you were surprised that the Episcopal Church leadership in Washington, D.C., was outraged? Their comments were essential, of course, because the story unfolded in front of the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House (site of a fire a day earlier). So you knew religious progressives would get lots of hot ink, as in the Washington Post piece that opened with the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington:
“I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop,” Budde said.
She excoriated the president for standing in front of the church — its windows boarded up with plywood — holding up a Bible, which Budde said “declares that God is love.”
“Everything he has said and done is to inflame violence,” Budde of the president. “We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.”
Let’s keep reading. Raise your hand if you are surprised that predictable evangelicals said predictable things — which is also a valid part of the story:
Johnnie Moore, a spokesman for several of Trump’s evangelical religious advisers, tweeted favorably about the incident as well.
“I will never forget seeing @POTUS @realDonaldTrump slowly & in-total-command walk from the @WhiteHouse across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church defying those who aim to derail our national healing by spreading fear, hate & anarchy,” he wrote. “After just saying, ‘I will keep you safe.’ ”
The Post continued, with talent from both the political and religion desks, with another story: “Trump’s naked use of religion as a political tool draws rebukes from some faith leaders.”
Raise your hands if you were surprised this report’s use of “religious freedom” inside scare quotes, since this is, apparently, a term created by Trump — as opposed to generations of First Amendment defenders. However, this piece did include some interesting thoughts from Raymond Arroyo, lead anchor and managing editor of EWTN, who also does commentary work for Fox News. He was discussing Trump’s controversial (#DUH) visit to the St. Pope John Paul National Shrine.
“I wish the White House would’ve used this opportunity to invoke his wisdom. The dignity of the human person was John Paul’s specialty,” he said.
Arroyo said politicians make gestures to the faith community all the time, noting that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden visited a church Tuesday.
“I see a lot of sniping over Bibles being carried and people daring to go to shrines,” he said. “We’ve got to stop politicizing faith. It is certainly a factor, but it should not be a new battlefield. It’s a meeting ground.”
Interesting, and a bit off the usual path.
Now, raise your hand if you saw this next bit coming. I will confess that I didn’t.
Now, as you would expect, there were also conservatives — politicians, that is — quoted in various places because they questioned the wisdom of Trump’s Bible tactics. Click here for a nice Axios.com round-up of quotes and URLs.
I was not surprised to see the following from a religious conservative, U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska:
“There is no right to riot, no right to destroy others’ property, and no right to throw rocks at police. But there is a fundamental — a Constitutional — right to protest, and I’m against clearing out a peaceful protest for a photo op that treats the Word of God as a political prop,” Sasse said. “Every public servant in America should be lowering the temperature and that means saying two basic truths over and over: (1) police injustice — like the evil murder of George Floyd — is repugnant and merits peaceful protest aimed at change; (2) riots are abhorrent acts of violence that hurt the innocent. Say both things loudly and repeatedly, as Americans work to end the violence and injustice.”
Now back to religion news. Try to find a surprising sentence in this Religion News Service piece: “Ahead of Trump Bible photo op, police forcibly expel priest from St. John’s church near White House.”
Do the same thing with this Atlantic essay by McKay Coppins: “The Christians Who Loved Trump’s Stunt.” And we are back to the mantras of the religious left in this Emma Green piece: “Trump Does Not Speak for These Christians.”
The key, for me, was whether anyone would pick up on the divisions inside conservative Christianity — between the locked-in, predictable Trump supporters and those who were reluctant supporters due to a lack of other major political options (or simply sat out the 2016 election). Did Trump actually damage his base and reluctant support from others?
As always, once could predict things like this (sorry for the screenshot, since I could not get the Twitter code to embed):
Totally predictable. But there were conservatives of all stripes who were unnerved by Trump’s attempt to create an icon for his campaign. Check out this collection of images from The Daily Mail: “Trump holds a Bible like he's never touched a book before': Hilarious memes poke fun at the president for his controversial photo in front of St. John's church.”
But for something with substance, try this laser beam from the leader of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.
Yes, I know that there are Trumpian conservatives who would say that these statements from Stetzer are predictable. But would ordinary news consumers believe that, when clicking into reports on national news websites?
The same may be true here:
Or how about this commentary, from one of America’s most articulate Catholic conservatives, who is based at Princeton University?
This tweet made people on both sides of the debate hot under the collar. Does anyone remember the context of this photo of the Clintons leaving church?
Here is one more. One one level, this comment — by one of America’s top conservative Christian scribes — is not aimed directly at Trump. However, stop and think about the setting and the context of his famous act by one of the Kennedys.
I could go on an on. Journalists and historians will — for years to come — be dissecting the “who, what, when, where and how” of this symbolic moment.
For massive, mostly secular overviews, of the larger drama, readers can turn to these elite features.
From Post there was this: “ ‘This can’t be happening’: An oral history of 48 surreal, violent, biblical minutes in Washington.”
The New York Times used an army of reporters and video specialists to produce — complete with in-print F-bomb — this ambitious collage: “How Trump’s Idea for a Photo Op Led to Havoc in a Park.” And see also: “Protesters Dispersed With Tear Gas So Trump Could Pose at Church.”
Ah, but was it clouds of “tear gas” or “pepper spray” that drifted through many of these dramatic scenes?
Yes, Bobby: “Too. Much. News.”
One final comment: Was this GetReligion post totally predictable?
I hope so, in that — once again — I have been trying to make a case that religion news is often about what is new. In this case I am referring to commentary and information from religious voices (there are so, so many more) who are hard to jam into our culture’s oh-so-predictable pro-Trump and anti-Trump choirs.