In a career defined by them, Donald Trump pulled his most surreal reality television stunt ever Monday evening, threatening the world’s greatest democracy from within its most powerful position and exploiting the religion embraced by so many in Kosciusko County.
But ask yourself: Do you care?
For too many, the answer is no. The answer, in fact, may be resounding support. You go, Mr. President!
It’s why I worry about tomorrow, next year, a decade from now. It’s why I worry about the lives of my children and the country they will grow to see. Will it be a democracy? Is it a democracy right now?
Donald Trump, by ordering military police to forcefully remove a crowd of peaceful protesters from a Washington D.C. street, only to minutes later cross that street to hold a bizarre, cynical photo op before St. John’s Episcopal Church while awkwardly displaying a brown Bible, showed you his unvarnished truth.
His willingness to forcefully disperse peaceful protesters practicing their Constitutional rights shows his contempt for our founding documents.
His willingness to exploit the Bible for political gain – an image that will undoubtedly be used in campaign advertisements – shows his cynicism for Christianity and his belief that we are naïve enough to see this charade as earnest belief and promotion of Jesus Christ’s ideals.
The objective truth is that Donald Trump is the furthest thing from the preachings of Jesus Christ. The savior embraced all; the president divides. The savior loved; the president hates. The savior was selfless; the president selfish.
It’s why the Rev. Mariann Budde, the bishop who oversees St. John’s church, called into CNN moments after the photo op, in near tears, saying no White House officials informed her “they would be clearing” peaceful protesters “with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop.”
Donald Trump is a fraud, a huckster, an ignoramus, a manipulator.
Don’t fall for it. His actions are in direct contradiction to the ideals of this country and the preachings of the Bible that defines so many local lives.
Somehow, this man is on the verge of ending our democracy. That may sound alarmist. It is not. I expect to see what he did Monday night done in Russia, in Syria, in North Korea. Not in our nation’s capital.
We can recover. We can heal. But only if we reject Donald Trump.
