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-- 2010 --
October 1: In Christianity and Islam, as in
all religions [and all other beliefs], how followers choose to practice their
beliefs is based on their interpretation and acceptance of Holy Scripture [or
general belief system]. Many passages in all forms of religious texts are
outdated and are considered criminal if carried out in today's time, but are
still discussed as part of the faith.
In the Bible, dire warnings are
dotted throughout the Old Testament for those who worship other gods or several
gods at once. Deuteronomy 17 tells believers who come upon such a person to
"bring that man or woman to the gates of the city ... and stone them with stones
until they die."
August 2: Trump Wants to Make Churches the
New Super PACs ... His promise to repeal the 1954 Johnson Amendment isn’t about
free speech—it’s about cash.
Why have some religious conservatives decided to support Donald Trump for United
States president? Leaders have named their reasons: He’s promised to
appoint pro-life Supreme Court justices; he’s
allegedly good at business. But they have also consistently cited something
else, perhaps more unexpected: the tax code.
Trump has promised to repeal the so-called Johnson Amendment, a 1954 provision
that prohibits tax-exempt organizations from participating in political
activities. Proposed by then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson and later revised by
Congress, it keeps churches and other non-profits from lobbying for specific
causes, campaigning on behalf of politicians, and supporting or opposing
candidates for office.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/08/how-trump-is-trying-to-put-more-money-in-politics/493823/ -- 2017 --
Back to top February 1: Evangelical Jerry Falwell Jr. to
head Trump education task force
February 2: President Trump is a religious
fanatic who will destroy us ... Donald Trump has been destroying every
institution in Washington, but he blew his first chance to stick a drainpipe in
that town’s ultimate swamp: its twisted, sick, self-righteous relationship with
religion.
Trump might be the least God-fearing president to occupy the White House in
centuries. That's a great thing for America.
I’m not saying Trump is a closeted atheist, but he’s no evangelical. As a
self-proclaimed Protestant, or Presbyterian, or something he describes as “a
wonderful religion,” Trump nominally attends the nondenominational Marble
Collegiate Church in New York City. Marble Collegiate was the one-time pulpit
for the self-help evangelist Norman Vincent Peale, author of the mega
best-seller The Power of Positive Thinking, an amalgam of pop psychology
and cherry-picked scripture (without the guilt and sin), who presided over
Trump’s wedding to Ivana. In other words, at most this is Christianity Lite, or
Cafeteria Christianity, where one orders only the most appealing items on the
menu.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/04/donald-trump-religion-215033
August 23: For years, the presidential
conference calls were a nonpartisan holiday tradition: President Barack Obama
would speak by phone with hundreds of rabbis in advance of Rosh Hashana and Yom
Kippur, in what participants described as a meeting of minds, largely free of
raw politics.
President Trump on Friday told conservative Christians that he would defend
religious organizations, promising a return to traditional American values while
again fanning the flames of controversy
over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.
October 14: "I pledged that, in a Trump
administration, our nation's religious heritage would be cherished, protected,
and defended like you have never seen before," President Donald Trump said on
Friday at the Values Voter Summit in Washington. "That's what's happening. ...
We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/14/politics/donald-trump-religious-conservatives-appeals/index.html
October 19: "We become the heirs of Martin
Luther King Jr. by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin but by
the content of their character," [former president G.W.] Bush said toward the
end of his speech. "This means people of every race, ethnicity and religion can
be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any
form is blasphemy against the American creed. It means the very identity of our
nation depends on the passing of civic ideals to the next generation."
http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/19/politics/bush-speech-trump-bigotry/index.html
November 14: Donald Trump is like a cult
leader, says religious studies scholar
Donald Trump is a famously
paradoxical figure: A nonpolitician who vaulted directly into the nation’s
highest political office. A billionaire who seeks to speak for the working
class. A media personality at war with the media.
One paradox, however, has been largely overlooked: Trump does not seem
personally to be a very religious man, yet his presidential rhetoric is more
religious than that of most presidents—even most modern conservative presidents.
... The word “piety” does not leap to mind when one thinks about Trump’s leading
character traits.
https://amgreatness.com/2017/11/14/president-trumps-religious-rhetoric/
December 5: Pence Says ‘President Trump Is a
Believer.’ Really? ... From the perspective of the Constitution, with its
prohibition of religious tests for public office, it shouldn’t matter whether
Donald J. Trump believes in Jesus Christ, the Babylonian deity Baal, or himself
alone. But it seems to matter a great deal to his conservative evangelical fans
that this conspicuously heathenish man is in fact washed in the Blood of the
Lamb. The extremely prominent evangelical minister Franklin Graham went wild
with delight when Trump wished us all a Merry Christmas during the annual
Christmas-tree lighting at the White House:
Graham on Twitter: Never in my lifetime have we had a
@POTUS
willing to take such a strong outspoken stand for the Christian faith like
@realDonaldTrump.
We need to get behind him with our prayers.
@Franklin_Graham
Trump’s alignment with Christianity, in anything other than an entirely
instrumental manner, was not something conservative evangelicals were
particularly confident about when he was running for president. Indeed, one very
common
rationalization for supporting this amoral narcissist (whose “attitude
toward women is that of a Bronze Age warlord,”
said Southern Baptist leader Russell Moore) was that God often uses wicked
men to achieve His inscrutable purposes.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/12/pence-says-president-trump-is-a-believer-really.html
December 6: We Told The Trump Administration
That Religion Is No Excuse To Roll Back Birth Control Access
Most American women use or have used birth control, and most would likely tell
you how important it is to them. There’s the obvious benefits: contraception
lets women decide when and whether to start or grow their family, and protects
their health by treating common medical conditions. But contraception also
contributes to women’s equality by allowing them to pursue education and
careers, and even increases the chance they will make more money. These are just
a few of the reasons that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) ensures that women have
seamless access to no-cost contraception.
December 8:What religion is
Donald Trump? Here’s why people are asking if the president is Jewish ...
Trump’s true religious beliefs have been a source of mystery and
speculation for some time
Donald Trump says he is Christian. More specifically he is Presbyterian, which
is a form of Protestantism which traces its roots back to Scotland.
The US president inherited his religion from his British mum, who was born on
the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides before moving to New York in 1930 at the
age of 18.
His father’s ancestors were Lutheran – another form of Protestantism originating
in Germany.
His family attended First Presbyterian Church in Queens, New York, before
joining Manhattan’s Marble Collegiate Church in the 1970s.
December 24: Nationalism, often expressed in
religious terms, is a key organizing principle in President Trump’s foreign
policy.
One of the great paradoxes of Donald Trump is that, for a president who is among
the least overtly pious in recent memory, he often presents the world through a
religious lens. It's in his towering rhetoric about the looming
“beachhead of intolerance” in the U.S., terrorists who
“do not worship God, they worship death,” and America as
“a nation of true believers.” It was evident in Trump’s first international
trip as president, a spin through Jerusalem, Riyadh, and Rome framed explicitly
as
a world tour of Abrahamic religions. Religion has been at the center of Vice
President Pence’s portfolio, with visits to the evangelist Franklin Graham’s
summit on international religious freedom and
the annual meeting of Christians United for Israel. And religious groups
were instrumental in one of the year’s biggest foreign-policy moves: Trump’s
decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and relocate the
American embassy there.
But it’s still not clear what kind of strategy and tangible policies will result
from Trump’s worldview, and even the religious groups he intends to benefit may
end up worse off as a result.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/12/religion-trump/548780/ -- 2018 --
Back to top January 16: Former Bergen County Prosecutor
Gurbir Grewal became the nation's first Sikh state attorney general after
the state Senate approved his nomination with a vote of 29-0. He was later sworn
into office at a private ceremony.
Grewal, 44, is a first-generation New Jersey resident, born to Indian immigrant
parents in Jersey City and raised in Hudson and Bergen counties.
"I never imagined that my life's journey could bring me here today," Grewa. said
during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on
Tuesday.
January 16: Pelosi, ACLU Criticize Trump as
He Proclaims Religious Freedom Day
President Trump proclaimed January 16th as Religious Freedom Day, the
White House announced Tuesday. The day was chosen because it is the anniversary
of the 1786 passage of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, a bill penned
by former President Thomas Jefferson that served as inspiration for the First
Amendment.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/laurettabrown/2018/01/16/trump-proclaims-religious-freedom-day-n2435358
January 17:Trump creating civil
rights unit to shield health workers with moral, religious objections
January 19: First year of Trump-Pence brings
bountiful blessings, religious conservatives say
It’s not just leaders of the Christian conservative community who think Trump
has been delivering on his promises to them — from judicial appointments to
policy changes, and from personnel appointments to access to the White House.
Those opposed to some of the moves agree the group’s list of wins is lengthy.
January 19: Donald Trump and the battering
of civil religion
Donald Trump’s inaugural one year ago anticipated his first year as president
and explains his corrosive effects on the American tradition of civil religion.
Americans place our sacred trust in the principles, purposes and aspirations of
this civil religion. Unlike in previous inaugurals, though, Trump failed to
affirm even basic commitments to freedom, democracy and human dignity —
ideals that many Americans hold as universal, self-evident, even God-given.
He deviated from past presidents of both parties (including Andrew Jackson and
Richard Nixon) whose inaugurals established standards by which their
administrations could be guided and judged. Dissolving the moral and religious
principles that form the fabric of our national identity, this president has
made it harder to place our trust in him or the actions he has taken.
https://www.religionnews.com/2018/01/19/donald-trump-and-the-battering-of-civil-religion/
January 31: Booker: Trump used religion in
State of the Union address to divide
Sen.
Cory Booker (D-N.J.) ripped
President Trump's invocation of religion in his first State of the
Union address on Tuesday, saying Trump used it to divide the nation.
"I have this belief that before you tell me about your religion,
first show it to me in how you treat other people. Here’s a guy that used
religion tonight to divide," Booker told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
Booker also ripped the president's reference to patriotism in the address,
saying it did more to divide than unify.
“Here’s a guy that used patriotism — whenever somebody pulls out patriotism,
uses it in a way to condemn people for their patriotic acts, how they choose to
show their patriotism, this is a divisive way to go about it," he said.
February 8: The complicated history of ‘In
God We Trust’ and other examples Trump gives of American religion
At his first address to the breakfast last year, Trump made a policy promise —
he said he would “totally destroy” the Johnson Amendment that bans churches from
endorsing political candidates, a promise he has partially fulfilled by
executive order but Congress failed to carry out through legislation.
He joked, too, about praying for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s TV ratings.
This year, Trump struck a different tone. His theme was the heroism of everyday
Americans, including military and police, teachers, even a 9-year-old with a
serious illness. Trump repeatedly emphasized evidence that that American spirit
is based in religion.
May 15: State Department hits China for
shutting down church service
"We are deeply concerned by the Chinese government’s reported harassment of the
Early Rain Covenant Church, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province after they planned to
hold a memorial service on May 12, for the victims of the 2008 Wenchuan
earthquake," the department's spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
June 15: The Donald Trump Administration’s
attack on families at the country’s southern border came to a new low yesterday,
when
Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempted to use the Bible to defend his
cruel zero-tolerance policy that has ripped more than
1,300 children out of the loving arms of their parents.
Sessions
cited Romans 13 and said we are called by the Bible to “obey the laws of the
government.” During the White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah
Sanders defended Sessions by saying, “It is very Biblical to enforce the law.”
But while Romans 13 calls Christians to be subject to governing authorities, it
makes it clear that these authorities also have a great debt of responsibility
to honor what is right: “Do you want to be free from fear of the one in
authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.” And what is right?
The passage goes on to tell us the ultimate truth: “The commandments… are summed
up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a
neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
June 19: When Attorney General Jeff Sessions
used the Bible last week to justify the horrendous and vile practice of
separating children from their parents at the border, he signaled a new low in
contemporary American politics of using religious doctrine to justify doing harm
to children. Actually, this isn’t a new low. The Bible has long been used as the
foundational holy text of white supremacist doctrine in this country. Slave
masters preached a Christianity to black enslaved people that included
Scriptures like “servants, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your
masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who
are harsh” (1 Peter 2:18).
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a21602198/jeff-sessions-bible-family-separation-policy/
August 1: President Donald Trump was lauded
by inner-city pastors, including one who said he may go down as the “most
pro-black president” in recent history, during a White House roundtable on
Wednesday that was focused on efforts to reform the prison system.
Trump told the group, which included pastors and bishops from across the
country, that his administration has been making progress on efforts to make it
easier for prisoners to re-enter society and find work.
September 7: In the battle for control of
Congress, President Donald Trump's weapon of choice is fear.
At a rally for Republican Senate nominee Matt Rosendale in Billings, Montana, on
Thursday night, the president warned his faithful that Democrats would raise
their taxes, take their guns, block his wall, abolish the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement agency, open U.S. borders, end Social Security and cut
Medicare.
He's also warned supporters this summer that the outcome in November could spell
trouble for freedom of speech and religion and the First Amendment — and that if
the GOP loses, violence could follow.
November 7: Ilhan Omar: Reaction to first
Somali-American elected to Congress
Ms Omar, who fled civil war in Somalia as a child and spent four years in a
refugee camp in Kenya, won Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District in the
mid-term elections.
U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone in Philadelphia imposed a nationwide
injunction Monday which has wider effect than a similar ruling issued Sunday by
a federal judge in California.
The policy was set to go into effect nationwide Monday. But U.S. District Judge
Haywood Gilliam Jr. blocked the Trump administration's bid to greatly expand the
number of employers that could claim the exemption from the health care law.
He put the rule on hold for 13 states and the District of Columbia, which
challenged the rule in court.
In her ruling, Judge Beetlestone said states would be harmed by the Trump
administration's policy because women who lost contraceptive coverage would seek
state-funded services.
The Affordable Care Act requires most companies to offer employees health
insurance that covers FDA-approvedbirth control at no cost.
But Trump has long promised employers that he would "vigorously"
protect their rights to religious freedom. So the Trump administration developed
rules to make it easier for more employers to opt out of the ACA requirement.
https://www.npr.org/2019/01/14/685037779/judge-blocks-trump-birth-control-policy-in-13-states-and-d-c
May 22:
Last Monday, 10 days ahead of the E.U. elections, that hard line received
a pre-election boost, when President Donald Trump welcomed Orban to the White
House. Trump
told him in the Oval Office that “you have been great with respect to
Christian communities, you have really put up a block up” against non-Christian
immigrants.
http://time.com/5590134/hungary-foreign-minister-interview/ -- 2020 --
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