Gary Younge - Who Are We?

On 1 June 2020 the battle lines of the American state were drawn up around the perimeter of the White House: agents from the US Marshals, the Secret Service, the National Guard, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They were armed with tear-gas pepper balls, rubber bullets, riot shields and batons.

It was a few days after anti-racist rebellions swept through the United States like a bush fire following the killing of George Floyd by a policeman in Minneapolis. There had been burning and looting in Washington DC on previous nights, but all was peaceful in the capital on that afternoon as law enforcement agencies ventured out and started to confront protesters, shooting pepper balls and stingball grenades containing rubber pellets into the crowd as they charged.

Back at the White House, President Trump had just finished delivering a speech in which he called on governors to dominate the streets or he would deploy the military to quickly solve the problem. With his speech delivered and the immediate surroundings now cleared, he walked the short distance to the St Johns Episcopal Church, clutching the Bible. In front of an invited media, he stood before the church for around six minutes, saying little and holding up the Bible as sirens wailed around him.

Is that your Bible? a reporter asked.

Its a Bible, he replied.

Some religious figures were livid. Let me be clear, the Right Revd Mariann Budde, the episcopal bishop of Washington, told the Washington Post. The president just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.

Others who considered themselves religious were delighted. He came out there with that Bible, said former US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps earliest and most vocal supporters, who remained loyal to the president even after he had been fired and humiliated by him. And so all the episcopal bishops said: Ohhh! Horrible! You know? But this was a defender of the faith. Sessions continued impersonating the episcopalians to The New York Times in a mocking tone: Ohhh, his hearts not right. He shouldnt have held that Bible up Oh, thats malarkey. Just a bunch of socialist leftists.

The rationale for Trumps photo opportunity was not difficult to fathom. As his response to COVID-19 was unravelling and his rhetoric towards the Black Lives Matter protests became increasingly divisive, he was starting to lose support within his most loyal base: white evangelicals.

Eighty per cent of white evangelicals had voted for him in 2016; a few months earlier, roughly the same percentage still approved of the job he was doing. But in the weeks prior to his short walk he had been shedding support and his approval ratings among that group had fallen to 62 per cent. Given his behaviour, personal history and political record, even this seems high. True, he says the Bible is his favourite book of all time, but he cant name a favourite verse, and when he was once asked whether he prefers the Old Testament or the New Testament, he paused: Probably equal. He has cursed at the National Prayer Breakfast and, on a campaign stop, tried to put money in the Communion plate. He insists he has never asked God for forgiveness.

If he did, it would be a big ask. His administration has separated undocumented children from their parents and put them in cages; he has used funds from his charitable foundation to buy a portrait of himself; and boasted about grabbing women by the genitals. When asked whether he considers himself ideal company he once told a reporter, You really want to know what I consider ideal company? A total piece of ass. There is credible evidence that he had an affair with a Playboy model a few months after his third wife gave birth to his fifth son, and then cheated on them both with a porn actor.

All of which makes the rationale for white evangelists supporting Trump baffling. Race plays no small part. His appeal to racism and nativism apparently supersedes religious attachment. White Protestants (evangelical or not) and white Catholics approve of Trump and at the time of the photo opportunity said they would vote for him again; black Protestants and Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly disapproved and wouldnt vote for him.

But white evangelicals, it is argued, are not looking for someone to reflect their religiosity but to defend it. He appoints the judges they like: his vice-president, Mike Pence, is a Christian fundamentalist who once said he does not eat alone with a woman or attend an event where alcohol is being served unless his wife is present.