In my last post, I expressed my disagreement with JD Vance's use of ordo amoris, both as a way to justify mass deportations, but also because I felt he wasn't really following the dictates of that theological notion.
This post will focus on the recent creation of The White House Faith Office.
For those of you who missed it, the new president signed an executive order to establish a White House Faith Office. Among other things, it will consult with faith leaders on topics defending religious liberty, the promotion of adoption and foster care programs, help faith based organizations procure government grants, and to root out anti-Christian bias in America which includes the creation of a task force led by the new Attorney General to investigate the targeting of Christians.
He chose Paula White-Cain to lead the office.
So, where to begin. First, this was not the creation of something new, but a renaming of an existing office which was formerly called the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives. Not sure why the new president felt the need to alter the title, other than perhaps his penchant for changing things to suit him, to put his stamp on it.
It is not an uncommon practice for a new boss to want to make changes to an organization or department, I experienced, and engaged in it over the course of my working career, but there is a fine line between changing things for the sake of change, and changing things to actually improve the situation. If this was the only department or federal process that Trump had altered so far, I would give him the benefit of the doubt, but since he has taken a bulldozer to the entire federal bureaucracy, I tend to believe he is endeavoring to put his mark on everything, as a dog does by peeing on every tree in the park.
But I digress.
On the face of it then, no big deal. An office to encourage the myriad range of good works and programs that faith based organizations have created, and to assist them when legal. I say when legal because there is that pesky separation of church and state section in the First Amendment. But again, as long as the office does not try to establish one faith over another as our national creed, the concept is fine.
Unfortunately, the real direction and marching orders for this iteration seems extremely biased towards Christianity. Granted, there was some mention of anti-antisemitism during the announcement of the executive order, but there seemed to be a laser focus in that regards towards various college campuses where some disgraceful conduct occurred in response to the ongoing slaughter of Palestinian women and children by the Israeli government. As I said in a previous post, protesting against this atrocity, peacefully, without intimidation against Jewish students, is also in line with our First Amendment rights, and not anti-Semitic in itself.
Curiously, I didn't read any comments or instruction given to Attorney General Bondi to investigate the comments by Marjorie Taylor Green in regards to Jewish space lasers.
As I have read, and most likely stated before, claiming an anti-Christian bias in a country where Christians outnumber all other religious affiliations by two to one sounds as ridiculous as Trump's latest claim (whispered in his ear by Elon) that white South Africans are being discriminated against by their non-white counterparts. While, at least the white South African population is the minority in that country, the fact that those 7% own upwards of 70% of the wealth in that country, or that 60% of Black South Africans live in poverty compared to 1% of White South Africans, it again sound ludicrous to claim prejudice against those with the better standards of living.
Sort of how ridiculous it is to hear some of the super rich in America claiming oppression.
What is really striking however, is that as far as I could determine, no mention was made about the obvious anti-Muslim attacks and widespread prejudice that exists in our country. Of course, it would be a complete turn around for the new president to admit that when he himself is Islamophobic, see Muslim travel bans, calling their countries sh**hole nations, constant derogatory comments about the few Islamic representatives in our government.
Clearly then, while the Office itself is not the problem, like so many ideas Trump touches, the execution and goals of the directive are the problem.
Will Bondi use this new understanding to sue private businesses who continue to hire people with an eye to diversity, equity and inclusion as an attack on "Christian" values? We know she is targeting such companies, its just a matter of how those attacks are justified, and which of Trump's many unconstitutional executive orders are referred to in any indictment.
And then there is Paula White-Cain. I recommend you google her and not rely on my concerns, but here they are.
First, like Trump, she is on her third marriage. Funny how the sacred institution of marriage is lost of so many of Trump's associates, as well as himself. And, like Trump, she had experience with bankruptcy, he with casinos, she with her first mega-church in Florida. And both have been investigated for business fraud, one actually convicted (has he paid the state of New York what he owes them, by the way), while in her case the Senate Finance Committee found evidence of misusing charitable, tax-exempt funds.
But the really strong connection between the two, as it appears that she is the new president's spiritual advisor, is that she promotes the prosperity gospel. Again, do a quick google on that one, but in essence, it teaches that God blesses his believers with wealth, health and happiness in this life which means that believers can increase their wealth through faith, positive declarations, and charitable giving. And, no surprise, that charitable giving starts by giving to televangelists like Oral Roberts and White-Cain. Again, you might want to google Roberts net worth when he passed to... well I guess it doesn't matter since he was rewarded with God's blessings on Earth.
Prosperity gospel. No surprise that Trump would be attracted to such a philosophy, Jesus's warning in Luke 18:25 that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for a rich man to gain eternal life" notwithstanding.
Finally, while perusing some older posts this morning, I came upon the following one about the 2010 proposal to build a mosque within a few blocks of the site of the horrific attacks on the Twin Towers on 9/11. Curiously, that mosque was built, despite the outrage of some Americans, including Trump who offered $6 million to be an investor so he could block the construction of the mosque. I guess some things never change, white house faith office or not.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2010/08/mosque.html
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