Trump's 'Christian Coronation' criticized by secular America
Human rights organizations alarmed by White Nationalist movement looking to turn U.S. into a theocracy
“Prayer is the perfect posture to put something over on others.”
That quote is something Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor used in a post one day after the “Christian Coronation” that was the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States, paraphrasing her mother, principal founder of FFRF Anne Nicol Gaylor.
“Franklin Graham’s invocation sounded more like ordaining Trump into sainthood than a prayer,” Gaylor wrote in her post.
Graham didn't even pretend to do anything other than crown a Christian king atop an incoming theocracy. He even quoted Daniel 2:21, saying the biblical deity “removes kings and raises up kings.”
“What a sad day for a nation predicated on getting rid of kings and likewise founded upon the constitutional principle separating religion from government,” Gaylor said.
Those rightly looking to separate church from state on both sides of the border were mortified by what took place at the inauguration, as well as leading up to it and since.
“This is what Christian Nationalism looks like,” that from American Atheists president Nick Fish posted.
While Trump invoked the divine during his swearing-in ceremony, many have pointed out that he forgot or refused to place his hand on the bible.
Was that like crossing your fingers while making a promise? Or, as Gaylor posited in jest: “Perhaps to avoid spontaneous combustion in the nation’s Capitol.”
And a second irony: as those in the rotunda, including opposition leaders, all obediently, and probably reflexively, bowed their heads as Graham began to pray, a glowering Trump kept his head up and eyes open.
Here in British Columbia, the BC Humanist Association (BCHA) gathered some of those comments and shared in the commitment to confirm the rights of the LGBTQ community from threats posed by by White Christian Nationalism under the Trump administration. Threats he addressed during the inauguration.
Several secular and humanist organizations co-signed a statement to address those threats, which says, in part: "As organizations committed to protecting the separation of government and religion, as well as universal human and civil rights threatened by the White Christian Nationalist ideology, the undersigned organizations reaffirm our commitment to forcefully advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, create inclusive and welcoming communities, represent the interests of our diverse constituents, and act in accordance with our values....
“These unworkable, ill-conceived, and plainly discriminatory laws and policies are about one thing: forcing a regressive, largely religious view of gender norms onto the American people. They are 'solutions' in search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist.”
Graham suggested that his god anointed Trump as president, as if religion had anything to do with it and democracy was a farc.
“Look what God has done. We praise him and give him glory, as Donald Trump takes the oath of office again. We come to say thank you, O Lord our God.”
The evening before the inauguration at a a rally in Washington, D.C., were more prayers and more suggestions that Trump is divinely anointed, placed into the White House by the Christian god.
One young woman's prayer revised the Lord’s Prayer to reference Trump, something one might think Christians would think was sacrilegious.
The Lord's Prayer Trump editioon: “God we thank you, we thank you that your will always prevails. Thank you, God, that it’s your will. Your kingdom come, Lord. Your will be done, O Lord, on earth as it is in heaven. In America as it is in heaven. In the life of President Donald Trump as it is in heaven.”
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Paul J. Henderson
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