He Did Not Pray - Trump's photo op

[sun rise]

Trump created a military riot and a lying photo-op to play politics and inflame his base. Trump is a terrorist and a terrorist enabler. He's attacking the media just like dictators do. He's attacking peaceful protesters just like dictators do. He's in effect telling his supporters to do as he does and go to war against American ideals and peaceful protests.

As George Will said: Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers

'He Did Not Pray': Fallout Grows From Trump's Photo-Op At St. John's Church

"He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church," Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington tells NPR's Morning Edition. "He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation."


"He did not pray," the bishop continued.


"He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate ... represent."
...
The president, accompanied by his daughter Ivanka, several Cabinet members and Secret Service agents, walked to St. John's nearly 30 minutes before Washington's just-installed 7 p.m. curfew was to begin – timing that added to the chaos and confusion among demonstrators and that incensed Mayor Muriel Bowser.

"Shameful!" Bowser said via Twitter, saying that after "federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House," the city's police force's job of keeping the peace would be made more difficult.
...
Officers attacked Australian reporter Amelia Brace and also hit cameraman Tim Myers, prompting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to call for an investigation.
...
Brace tells Australia's ABC that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist as officers quickly closed in on them during the rush to clear a path for Trump.

"Despite that as I ran away, clearly stating that we were media, with my cameraman with a camera on his shoulders, I was hit across the back with the baton," she says. "We were then fired upon by the National Guard with those rubber bullets, who are the exact people I had shown my media pass to ... and then we ended up getting tear-gassed."

 

[Revoltingest]

I'd rather he not pray in public.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

I'd rather he not pray in public.

I do like you, and your post doesn't offend me... but I'd still say this is a pretty insensitive post. Remember police got brutal on a group of peaceful protestors for the person you'll likely vote for, if you vote at all, to march up to a church unannounced, take pictures with a Bible, and not say a single prayer.

 

[Revoltingest]

I do like you, and your post doesn't offend me... but I'd still say this is a pretty insensitive post. Remember police got brutal on a group of peaceful protestors for the person you'll likely vote for, if you vote at all, to march up to a church unannounced, take pictures with a Bible, and not say a single prayer.

Sensitivity....I'm lacking there.

I don't care for his politiciking.
But the not praying part.....I prefer that choice to the alternative.
A big deal is being made about this.
I prefer that he keep things secular.
So I criticize the criticism that he didn't pray.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Sensitivity....I'm lacking there.

I don't care for his politiciking.
But the not praying part.....I prefer that choice to the alternative.
A big deal is being made about this.
I prefer that he keep things secular.
So I criticize the criticism that he didn't pray.

Fair enough. There does have to be two sides to every argument, it's only fair.

 

[Revoltingest]

Fair enough. There does have to be two sides to every argument, it's only fair.

I'm a fan of one sided arguments.
But I've lost even those.

 

[Windwalker]

 

[Windwalker]

Sensitivity....I'm lacking there.

I don't care for his politiciking.
But the not praying part.....I prefer that choice to the alternative.
A big deal is being made about this.
I prefer that he keep things secular.
So I criticize the criticism that he didn't pray.

This is what is the real problem for a president to do. "He didn't pray", is just the first words. Here's the rest. And that is what is so vile and sacreligious about the whole affair.

"He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate ... represent."

.......

Every president since James Madison has visited St. John's Church, which opened in 1816 and sits across the park from the White House. Despite that longstanding relationship, Budde says her diocese had no warning of Monday's visit.

"There was no reaching out, no sense that it would require some sort of authorization before using the church as a backdrop in that way," Budde told NPR's Tom Gjelten hours after the incident.

The president had used the Bible, and her church, as a prop, she said.

"I was outraged that he felt that he had the license to do that, and that he would abuse our sacred symbols and our sacred space in that way," the bishop told Gjelten.

​

Presidents need to console America, stand behind us, try to support us. But he is only about himself, and has just slipped his hands up the church's skirt for a feel. "Because you know, when you're famous they let you do that sort of thing." This is a dictator, not a president. He's not even a man. He is sickness.

 

[Revoltingest]

This is what is the real problem for a president to do. "He didn't pray", is just the first words. Here's the rest. And that is what is so vile and sacreligious about the whole affair.

"He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate ... represent."

.......

Every president since James Madison has visited St. John's Church, which opened in 1816 and sits across the park from the White House. Despite that longstanding relationship, Budde says her diocese had no warning of Monday's visit.

"There was no reaching out, no sense that it would require some sort of authorization before using the church as a backdrop in that way," Budde told NPR's Tom Gjelten hours after the incident.

The president had used the Bible, and her church, as a prop, she said.

"I was outraged that he felt that he had the license to do that, and that he would abuse our sacred symbols and our sacred space in that way," the bishop told Gjelten.

​

Presidents need to console America, stand behind us, try to support us. But he is only about himself, and has just slipped his hands up the church's skirt for a feel. "Because you know, when you're famous they let you do that sort of thing." This is a dictator, not a president. He's not even a man. He is sickness.

Many of Trump's actions are criticism-worthy.
But pandering in front of some icon is par for the politician's course.
More cringe-tastic was the semi-violent clearing of the path for him.

 

[Windwalker]

Many of Trump's actions are criticism-worthy.
But pandering in front of some icon is par for the politician's course.
More cringe-tastic was the semi-violent clearing of the path for him.

Not announcing his coming, not caring to console the nation, etc. Everything about it is far uglier than any normal politician feigning religious faith. There is something dangerously insidious about all of this.

 

[David1967]

I did hear that he was rushed to the hospital with burns on his hand after touching the bible.

 

[Windwalker]

I did hear that he was rushed to the hospital with burns on his hand after touching the bible.

Someone needs to photoshop that image with a lightning strike coming down from God.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Someone needs to photoshop that image with a lightning strike coming down from God.

Don't forget Putin standing in the background to play the Bible's antagonist.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Trump created a military riot and a lying photo-op to play politics and inflame his base. Trump is a terrorist and a terrorist enabler. He's attacking the media just like dictators do. He's attacking peaceful protesters just like dictators do. He's in effect telling his supporters to do as he does and go to war against American ideals and peaceful protests.

As George Will said: Trump must be removed. So must his congressional enablers

'He Did Not Pray': Fallout Grows From Trump's Photo-Op At St. John's Church

"He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church," Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington tells NPR's Morning Edition. "He held up his Bible after speaking [an] inflammatory militarized approach to the wounds of our nation."


"He did not pray," the bishop continued.


"He did not offer a word of balm or condolence to those who are grieving. He did not seek to unify the country, but rather he used our symbols and our sacred space as a way to reinforce a message that is antithetical to everything that the person of Jesus, whom we follow, and the gospel texts that we strive to emulate ... represent."
...
The president, accompanied by his daughter Ivanka, several Cabinet members and Secret Service agents, walked to St. John's nearly 30 minutes before Washington's just-installed 7 p.m. curfew was to begin – timing that added to the chaos and confusion among demonstrators and that incensed Mayor Muriel Bowser.

"Shameful!" Bowser said via Twitter, saying that after "federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House," the city's police force's job of keeping the peace would be made more difficult.
...
Officers attacked Australian reporter Amelia Brace and also hit cameraman Tim Myers, prompting Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to call for an investigation.
...
Brace tells Australia's ABC that she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist as officers quickly closed in on them during the rush to clear a path for Trump.

"Despite that as I ran away, clearly stating that we were media, with my cameraman with a camera on his shoulders, I was hit across the back with the baton," she says. "We were then fired upon by the National Guard with those rubber bullets, who are the exact people I had shown my media pass to ... and then we ended up getting tear-gassed."

I'm sure the Southern Baptist Convention loves him.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I'd rather he not pray in public.

Well, certainly not when there are innocent people around who could be hurt by the most-assured lightning bolt that would result.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I'm sure the Southern Baptist Convention loves him.

Quite possibly. But I'll bet dollars to donuts that the Episcopalians really aren't members of his base.

 

[Harel13]

Trump created a military riot and a lying photo-op to play politics and inflame his base. Trump is a terrorist and a terrorist enabler. He's attacking the media just like dictators do. He's attacking peaceful protesters just like dictators do. He's in effect telling his supporters to do as he does and go to war against American ideals and peaceful protests.

"He used violent means to ask to be escorted across the park into the courtyard of the church,"

Just wanted to point out that Park Police have a different version of the story:
https://twitter.com/AugensteinWTOP/status/1267791336146636800

"First on WTOP: U.S. Park Police is explaining its decision-making in clearing Lafayette Square, at least 20 minutes before DC's 7p curfew, on night 4 of protests. A source says tear gas was never used -- instead smoke cannisters were deployed, which don't have an uncomfortable irritant in them. And, the source says Park Police didn't know President Trump would be walking across the park several minutes later. Park Police say the reason the crowd was disbursed with smoke cannisters is that at that moment, officers were being pelted with water bottles. Another factor was that protesters had climbed on top of the structure at the north end of Lafayette Square that had been burned the day before. [...] But, my Park Police source says the agency made its decision to use smoke cannisters at that moment because of what was being thrown at officers, not because President Trump planned to make an unannounced walk to the church. Park Police will be releasing a statement later today. We will keep asking questions. In theory it's possible another agency used tear gas, in addition to Park Police using smoke cannisters, but my source was on the scene, got a dose of smoke, but didn't feel the irritants of tear gas. Clearly, the phrase "tear gas" has been used widely in the reporting. [...]"​

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Just wanted to point out that Park Police have a different version of the story:
https://twitter.com/AugensteinWTOP/status/1267791336146636800

"First on WTOP: U.S. Park Police is explaining its decision-making in clearing Lafayette Square, at least 20 minutes before DC's 7p curfew, on night 4 of protests. A source says tear gas was never used -- instead smoke cannisters were deployed, which don't have an uncomfortable irritant in them. And, the source says Park Police didn't know President Trump would be walking across the park several minutes later. Park Police say the reason the crowd was disbursed with smoke cannisters is that at that moment, officers were being pelted with water bottles. Another factor was that protesters had climbed on top of the structure at the north end of Lafayette Square that had been burned the day before. [...] But, my Park Police source says the agency made its decision to use smoke cannisters at that moment because of what was being thrown at officers, not because President Trump planned to make an unannounced walk to the church. Park Police will be releasing a statement later today. We will keep asking questions. In theory it's possible another agency used tear gas, in addition to Park Police using smoke cannisters, but my source was on the scene, got a dose of smoke, but didn't feel the irritants of tear gas. Clearly, the phrase "tear gas" has been used widely in the reporting. [...]"​

I think I'll believe the many Twitter commenters to that post saying otherwise. Some watched the thing live.

 

[Harel13]

Some watched the thing live.

Do you mean, were actually on the scene when it happened?

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Do you mean, were actually on the scene when it happened?

I'm not sure about that. But some seem to be claiming what appears that they watched it on TV live. I'd have to pour through the comments again and try to decipher.