The ‘nasty’ bishop is not alone – and Trump should brace for more episcopal fireworks
The very people the new president thought he could rely on look like they can’t be counted on to rally to his cause after all, writes Catherine Pepinster
When America celebrated the inauguration of its first president, George Washington, on 30 April 1789, it must have seemed as if the new nation was closing the door on the old ways of its former country. Britain’s King George III was swapped for another George, the democratically elected leader of the newly independent country.
But Washington and all those presidents after him, including the 47th, Donald Trump, are not just politicians: they are heads of state. And just as our monarchs – our heads of state – are surrounded by prayer during their coronations, so are presidents. Brits tend to forget this, when they watch, bemused, as they see the political leader of a nation which has separation of Church and state enshrined in its constitution swear the oath of office on a bible, and have their inauguration, as Trump did, bookended by prayer services.
For Americans, having Church and state separate, means not having an established church, as the Church of England is here, with the monarch being its Supreme Governor. But it remains a godly place, the ideal being one nation, under God, as their pledge of allegiance puts it.
But now, it most definitely is not one nation, united – and the churches are part of the division already apparent in the new Trump era. That was evident in the comments made by the Bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, at the interfaith prayer service held after Trump’s inauguration when she called him out over his antipathy towards transgender and gay people, and illegal immigrants. It looks like the president and turbulent bishops are going to spend the next four years in combat.
Budde’s urging of Trump to think of the fear he was inspiring among migrants painted a picture of the role played by millions of them across America: “the people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labour in our poultry farms and meat-packing plants … they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals”. Rather, Budde added, they “pay taxes and are good neighbours”.
Trump might have decided to twist away from her as she spoke and rubbish her on his social media platform, Truth Social, as “nasty” but Budde’s own church is backing her. Unfazed by the most powerful man on the planet, Sean Rowe, the presiding bishop of Budde’s denomination, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, publicly backed her intervention, saying: “As more immigration enforcement policy changes are announced, our churchwide ministries will continue to provide practical pathways to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
This may well have caught Trump and his team out. For years, while pollsters have been predicting that the Democrats will benefit from the growth of those with no religious affiliation in the United States, the Trump team seems to have been astute enough to realise that, with two-thirds of Americans still identifying as Christians, according to the most recent census of American religion by the Public Religion Research Institute, winning the churchgoing vote was vital.
Back in October, Trump cast himself as the protector of Christians at a North Carolina meeting of faith leaders, while that same month he wooed swing state Catholics by appearing at New York’s annual Al Smith gala for Catholic Charities, where his host was Cardinal Dolan. His efforts appeared to work for a poll soon after for the National Catholic Reporter showed Trump leading his Democratic rival Kamala Harris – who did not attend the dinner, although she was invited – by 50 per cent to her 45 per cent.
For many American Catholics and certainly Catholic bishops, an electoral sticking point was abortion and Trump’s record on termination won him support. Evangelicals, too, approved of Trump on this.
But the culture wars are proving more complicated. Despite that approval, many Christians, like Bishop Budde, are disturbed by Trump’s attacks on illegal immigrants. Catholic Charities – the body behind October’s New York gala – has, for example, been a prominent provider of support for undocumented migrants.
Watch out, in particular, for episcopal fireworks in Washington, when the new Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington arrives in March. Pope Francis – always vocal on the needs of migrants and refugees – has appointed Cardinal Robert McElroy from San Diego to the post. A known critic of Trump, McElroy has called plans for the deportation of undocumented immigrants “incompatible with Catholic doctrine”.
America’s lack of a welfare state means that religious organisations remain vital in providing support to those struggling and they in turn have millions of supporters, in a nation where it’s far more the norm than it is in the UK to make philanthropic, tax-efficient donations.
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was one of the hymns sung at Trump’s inauguration. The very people Trump thought might be on his side look like they can’t be counted on to rally to his cause after all.
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