from the Baphomet-reporting-for-duty dept
Trump — maybe greater than different presidents — usually feels compelled to current his non secular bona fides. In fact, he naturally has none. However as often as evangelical figureheads proclaim him to be (their) God’s private decide for POTUS, even Donald Trump often feels obligated to present one thing again to a neighborhood that has given him a lot and requested for actually nothing in return.
The evangelical crowd cheers Trump on as he sides with Israel’s genocide, one thing that turns into a bit more conflicted when entities like “Jews for Jesus” combine white evangelical traits with a far older faith that typically tends to reject the supposed existence of Jesus Christ.
Whereas evangelicals do wish to throw themselves on the cross regularly, it’s not self-sacrifice. It’s self-service. Christians in America do like to portray themselves as persecuted, as if the mere existence menace of demise steel human equality or a swear phrase inside listening to distance is the precise equal of being thrown to the lions like they had been again within the good outdated days. (They mostly weren’t, not even then.)
Trump is considered one of them, a minimum of by way of changing self-pity to an fool’s interpretation of selflessness. And he undoubtedly desires these votes. Conveniently, most evangelical Christians completely adore periodic ceremonial occasions, together with these overseen by the identical authorities they swear to Gawd could be persecuting them each time their most popular candidate loses an election and/or some minority scores a free lunch at college.
All in all, Christians have it fairly good in america. Most individuals deal with them as mildly annoying at worst. And most People (regardless of loads of proof on the contrary) take into account self-proclaimed Christians to be good neighbors, non-molesters of kids, and potential sources of unsolicited marital recommendation.
And, as a result of nobody wanted this greater than Trump — a Christian hero regardless of his lengthy historical past of sexual harassment, sexual assault, a number of marriages, sexualization of his personal youngsters, cheater at golf, and the proverbial wealthy man who, because the Bible says, would discover it exceedingly troublesome to enter the Kingdom of Heaven — Trump has delivered. We’re getting more religious “freedom” added to our alleged “separation of church and state”, whether or not we wished it or not.
The Trump administration launched steerage on Monday reminding federal businesses that non secular expression within the office is protected by the Structure and the Civil Rights Act — steerage that protects workers and supervisors searching for to recruit fellow federal staff to their faith.
Such expressions are protected so long as they don’t cross into harassment, the steerage says. Sporting non secular symbols and staging them in workplace cubicles can be protected, the steerage says, as are internet hosting prayer teams in empty workplaces and posting about non secular occasions on workplace bulletin boards.
An agnostic (within the political and non secular sense of the phrase) reaffirmation of non secular rights is to be counseled. This ain’t that, although. Whereas it could be taken to imply that each different worker can throw down on a rug as much as 5 instances a day whereas going through Mecca with out interference from their federal employers, I can completely assure you this solely means anybody mildly criticizing somebody for hassling their fellow workers day by day about their weekly Bible examine might be protected by this new steerage.
The steerage doesn’t appear so as to add a lot to what already exists by way of safety of non secular expression within the office. However what it does add undoubtedly crosses the road. Listed as examples of protected expression by federal workers are these (and solely these) examples:
A park ranger main a tour by a nationwide park could be part of her tour group in prayer.
A physician at a Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital could pray over his affected person for her restoration.
Whereas it does appear bizarre {that a} park ranger wouldn’t simply dangle again a bit and look forward to the tour to complete praying (relatively than becoming a member of them and giving them an implicit governmental blessing of their non secular expression), it’s goddamn horrifying that this “affirmation” of non secular protections provides medical professionals (maybe due for a scare quote…) permission to hope to their most popular god in hopes of securing a affected person’s restoration. Hopefully, that is one thing a VA physician may do in addition to offering precise, science-based therapy, relatively than in lieu of something stronger than some empty phrases hurled within the common route of an influence whose innate “higherness” has but to be scientifically demonstrated.
That’s the unhealthy information. The excellent news anybody of any faith can do a bunch of non secular stuff at work with out violating this steerage. Positive, there’s some obscure stuff stated about crossing the road into harassment, however the authorities bears the burden of proving this. And the truth that it’s the federal government loosening the reins on non secular restrictions, that battle is extra uphill than it ever was.
So… you realize what to do, authorities drones? Choose actually any faith (for those who don’t have already got a desire) and litter cubicles, break rooms, and coworkers’ minds with its attendant detritus. I foresee an enormous uptake in non-mainstream religions by authorities staff, who at the moment are free to ask fellow staff in the event that they’ve heard the excellent news about Devil or maybe drape a holocaust cloak throughout their cubicle wall to tell others they’re not solely adherents to the facility of fireplace, however presumably prepared to bodily wield it if want be.
Perhaps you possibly can simply ask the names and sexes of fellow coworkers’ firstborn youngsters as a result of, in accordance with your faith, Paimon will at all times want a prepared (and even unwilling) male host. These of you uncomfortable with small discuss may wish to observe Santeria throughout allotted break instances and/or unfold salt across the entirety of the company campus to assist restrict demon summoning-related chaos. If nothing else, a pithy ode to the larger of all evils is maybe all that’s wanted to brighten up a uninteresting workplace:
Let’s simply hope this Godsucker-pleasing efficiency leads to a melting pot of each faith Trump has by no means thought-about actual, a lot much less realized really exists. Christianity is — at finest — operating neck-and-neck with Islam. Solely a white man with a shit tan would have pushed this factor by with out pondering it by. However that’s Trump for you: a man who shoots first and fires individuals who ask questions later.
Filed Beneath: 1st amendment, church and state, constitution, religious freedom, trump administration
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