I was reading in the news yesterday about the way that the current administration is leaning into a lot of “Christianny” things in the White House itself.
Here is the NYTimes article- “Christianity in the White House,” by Ruth Graham. There’s also a video down at the end of it. It’s really quite interesting.
The long and the short of it was that Christian culture is filling the White House. People are praying and singing hymns more openly than has previously been the norm, White House messaging is more overtly religious than is typical, and also that the White House faith office is being given a significant amount of power in terms of being present and able to weigh in on things.
I’m sure to many Christians, this looks like “victory.” “Finally, God at the center of our government.”
The images are powerful even to me, as someone who has not been inside a church building in a long time and who is trying to avoid doing that at least for now so as to protect my heart.
It struck me as profound the way the images of people praying entered my mind: like flavorless fast food, something that is readily absorbed and not judged. It was like neutral/positive, “this is normal,” “this is safe.” As if the fact that Trump had his eyes closed sitting at a table meant I could trust him.
And then I saw all the other people doing the similar Christianny things. I’m sure that many of them have sincere faith; this isn’t about that.
I’m just seeing why the separation of church and state is important from an entirely new angle than I’ve seen it before; and that is that, if someone is raised in a religion, seeing it in your leaders will blind you to what they do. Or, may do that.
I’m…well, I’ve taken a lot of time away from religious things, and even so, just the images made my subconscious think “they’re in charge. They know what they’re doing” and, I’m certain that others could also feel “God is in charge now. God is in the White House. God is going to move through the White House” or other things that are essentially.. “God is with and behind this administration.”
I’m sure that this is perhaps stating the obvious, to many, but to me it really just struck me as something new, to personally experience that even I, a person consistently critical of the Trump administration can get my emotions twisted.
It’s another reason to keep relationships in which there is a difference in power- like the relationship between our government and the people of the US- respectful. Just like it would be inappropriate for a CEO to date their subordinate, due to the power difference that makes free consent impossible, religion creates an intimacy and cultural language of trust, for some, that can be inappropriate for a relationship within which there is a difference in power and as such, make free consent impossible.
I’ve long felt uncomfortable with religion in government, even when I was a very-very committed “conservative Christian” in my youth. I didn’t like that our money said “In God We Trust,” because not everyone believes in God. I stood up to say the Pledge of Allegiance in my 4th grade classroom, but just mouthed the words “under God” because I felt uncomfortable with it being there.
Anyway reading this article and seeing the images of people looking like people I grew up with, triggering all these memories- most clearly, memories of men in suits praying… that I realized this additional reason for not having any religion AT ALL in government.
Because we need to both trust our government and hold it accountable, and that is impossible to do while having our gut-strings pulled by things that, for many people, have many years and hundreds if not thousands of repetitive memories informing their response- a response that says “you can trust them, this is safe, you don’t need to understand the details, just trust and obey, God is in control.“
I have to admit that when Joe Biden was president, I found his references to Christianity comforting. It was comforting to think that the person in charge of our country might be following God, might know something spiritual, might have something in common with me (or with who I used to be), might put me on an equal playing field with him as a “brother” (at least some part of my heart felt this)… and now I see that comforting as it may be, religion is simply too connected with “trust and obey” training to be mixed with something requiring informed consent between parties in which there is a power difference, such as a government and its people. It is blinding, no matter who is in charge, and I should have been more sensitive to it then, too.
