Magdy Mostafa
In contrast to former US presidents, Democrats or even Republicans, the current President Donald Trump is not known to be attending a particular church in Washington DC or New York City in which he grew up, and there is no indication that he is involved in any Christian religious practice regularly, so he rarely attends a prayer, but Trump He considers himself a member of the Presbyterian Church. Then it was noteworthy that he was visiting Monday evening, "St. John's" Church near the White House, who will patronize his feet amid tight security of the Presidential Security.
Trump stood in front of the church to take pictures, raising a copy of the Bible at the door of the church, saying, "We have a great state" before returning to the presidential compound amid his tight guarding that cleared him of the peaceful masses of demonstrators who gathered in front of the White House condemning the racism that manifested in a crime An African-American citizen, George Floyd, died last week after a policeman perched on his neck for nine minutes in Minneapolis.
The motives behind this visit are political, he wanted to send a message to the internal public opinion that things will return to normal, and he also wanted to reinforce his position on the left "Antiva", which opposes fascist and Nazi ideas and the extreme right that accuses him of being behind the protests and then demanded that they be classified as a terrorist group.
Trump also wanted to express his anger after the violence - which marred some protests - sided aside from that historic church, but the visit was not welcome to those in charge of it who were ignored by the president. Bishop Marian Edgar Bodey, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, said she was "angry" after Trump visited her church without prior notice to exchange "a message hostile to the teachings of Jesus." "Do I confess the pain of our country now ?!" she angrily asked.
Not far from the previous position, Michael Curry, Archbishop of St. John's Church, criticized Trump's use of the historic church to take pictures. He tweeted, saying, "He used an ecclesiastical building and the Holy Gospel for partisan political purposes ... He committed this in a time of pain and profound harm in our country, and his act did not help us."
The ecclesiastical position on Floyd’s killing expressed by the United States Bishops ’Conference immediately after the crime, and issued a strongly worded statement saying,“ We are broken, disgusted, and angry, to see another video of an African American who dies before our eyes. ”The bishops condemned the repetition of similar crimes during the past weeks, stressing that "Intolerance in the United States is not a matter of the past or a purely political issue. Rather, it is a real and present danger that must be addressed not through indifference or social media, but rather through total openness and love."
But the voice of these did not find an echo with Trump, who prefers another kind of priests, who adopt another language that always praises him, but rather considers him an envoy of providence, such as saying, “When you say no to President Trump, as if you say no to the Lord,” as the priest Paula White said, the most prominent The object of evangelistic television evangelization in the United States, which is Trump's spiritual advisor, who appointed her at the head of the "White House Initiative for Faith and Opportunities," despite the controversy raised by this appointment regarding his conflict with the principle of separating religion from the state.
Instead of Trump setting up a religious advisory council that includes various beliefs, he chooses to create an evangelical advisory council of 30 members who do not have one member from Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, or other religions.
Evangelicals
Trump has always surrounded himself with a narrow group of evangelical clerics who praise his support for Israel, his socially conservative stances, and his judicial appointments as they see a campaign against Christian values in the country led by left-wing courts. A report published in the British newspaper "The Independent" suggests that most of Trump's current relations with evangelical priests only developed when he considered running for president.
That relationship developed despite Trump not being religious and famous for him that he does not know any verse of the Bible, nor does he enjoy the moral or religious values that conservative Christians defend, and his personality contradicts many Christian values, he married three times, had nightclubs, and his name was associated with scandals Accusations of sexual harassment and abuse, and allegations and judicial cases filing him that he has extramarital relationships, and that he is accused of sexual harassment and abuse, have been received.
Trump sought to win over the evangelists by appointing White as his spiritual adviser, and she became the first woman in the history of the United States to pray during the inauguration of an American president when Trump was sworn in in 2017, White says, "Trump has a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, he is a deep thinker." As she says in one of her sermons on the Internet, "When I step into the White House, the Lord sets foot on the White House, and I have the full right and authority to declare the White House a Holy Land, because I was standing there, and every place I stand in is a holy place."
Such statements made her a special place with Trump and then chose her to head a team of 35 evangelical priests who gives advice to the Republican president who won the votes of most evangelicals (81%) in the presidential elections that took place in 2016, which is more than what was obtained by the former Republican George Bush Jr., who was known for his religious and conservative behavior.
According to estimates by the American "Axios" website, evangelicals constitute about 25% of American voters, and their number is estimated at 64 million. Evangelicals include Protestant Christian denominations that distinguished from traditional Protestants by a number of beliefs, most notably their belief in the concept of "second birth" or the birth of the soul.
Evangelists also believe in the return of the Jews to Palestine and their establishment of a state there, and set their sights on supporting Israel and undermining any movement within Arab and Islamic societies that might represent a threat to it in one way or another, and then delegations visited them, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, during the past two years.
In 2016, Trump promised them in his election campaigns that he would recognize occupied Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfer his country's embassy to it, and he fulfilled his pledge to the Evangelists, leading some to say that Trump, "the non-religious, is the Trojan horse of the Christian right" who wants to control American policy.
The Pope
saw the start of Trump's first election campaign in 2016 and at the height of his right-wing statements, the Pope of the Vatican Francesco - after his visit to Mexico in February of the same year - said that Trump was "not a Christian" as he called for the deportation of immigrants and pledged to build a wall between with Mexico, Considering that "the person who thinks about building fences, anywhere, and not building bridges, is not a Christian, this is not from the Bible," calling on the United States to solve the humanitarian crisis on its southern borders.
These statements were then described by Trump as "shameful," and he said, "Any leader, especially a religious leader, must not question the religion and faith of another man." However, the Pope did not hesitate to congratulate Trump after he took office and addressed words urging him to "broaden his view of human values." After more than a year and a half, Trump returned the visit and met the Pope of the Vatican for the first time in May 2017.
It was noticeable during the visit that Trump pondered the Pope in a way that sparked the wrath of the latter, as he knocked his finger at the hands of the "greatest ink" while they were standing to take memorial photos at the papal headquarters, so the latter responded by striking his hands in a remarkable way that reflected his dissatisfaction. The lenses of the photographers recorded it, as well as Francesco frowned on his meeting with the billionaire president, compared to his facial expressions during previous meetings with other presidents such as Barack Obama, where there was a difference in the image no less than the difference between Trump and Obama in estimating religious values.