By Daniel J. Morrissey Special to The Kansas City Star
Posing like the British monarch as Defender of the Faith, President Donald Trump signed an executive order during his first weeks in office establishing a White House Faith Office. Among other things, it empowers Trump’s Domestic Policy Council to consult with religious communities to “better align them with the American values.”
And soon thereafter, the president signed another executive order establishing a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” Trump’s religious zealotry has also led him to endorse a bill in the Missouri legislature that would offer teaching the Bible in public high schools.
But one wonders what that might entail. As Thomas Geoghegan has argued effectively in Commonweal Magazine, in reality, Trump has liberated his followers “from the Bible, or from biblical morality, which is evidently too great a burden.” Among other things, we now need not care about welcoming the stranger.
Trump’s contempt for such compassionate norms from Scripture were on full display in his response to a sermon he attended given by the Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Edgar Budde immediately before his inauguration. The bishop said that the three necessary elements for national unity are dignity, honesty and humility. And then at the end of her remarks, she called on Trump to “have mercy” on those in America, particularly immigrants and members of the LGBTQ community who are currently afraid.
In response, the president-elect posted on Truth Social among other things that Budde was a “so called Bishop.” “She is not very good at her job!” “She and her church owe the public an apology.” Perhaps the Bible that Trump would like high school students in Missouri public schools to study omits the beatitude, “Blessed are the Merciful.”
Vance disparages Catholics’ motives
The attacks by Trump and his associates on American religious leaders who are trying to carry out biblical mandates have continued during his presidency. In his first interview after taking office, Vice President JD Vance questioned whether America’s Catholic officials took funds to help immigrants because they were “worried about their bottom line.” Since Vance himself is a recent convert to Catholicism, those were strange comments about the leaders of his new faith, disparaging their motives for helping others.
Along the same lines, Vance has also said without evidence the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was taking millions of dollars in government aid to “resettle illegal immigrants.” But in fact, the bishops received the money only to help legally approved immigrants, and one leading cardinal called Vance’s statement “scurrilous” and “very nasty.”
Shortly after that, Vance also made a statement about the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas, who in Vance’s opinion believed that any concern for those outside our families and communities, apparently those on the margins of society, should be sharply limited.
That drew a quick rebuke from Pope Francis, saying that a true understanding of Aquinas’ views is found in a “love that builds a fraternity open to all, without exception.” The pope cited the biblical parable of the good Samaritan, who took care of a wounded stranger. In the same vein, Bishop James Johnston of Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph has recently written his Catholic constituents that they must have “unwavering dedication to upholding the dignity of every human person, regardless of their immigration status.” The Vincentian Fathers taught me the same thing in high school: The love advocated in the Gospels must be expansive and not rooted in self-interest.
Musk: Lutherans ‘money laundering’
Along with cutting federal programs that aid the needy, Trump’s surrogate Elon Musk has also shown disdain for religious groups that render such benevolent assistance. For instance, Musk has accused Lutheran agencies that receive government grants for housing or food assistance of “money laundering.” Along the same lines, because of Musk’s freezing of federal grants, the CEO of Catholic Charities in Kansas City-St. Joseph has said she must use other resources for her outreach to the poor that may last only 90 days.
Even more troubling for the needy nationwide, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have just announced they must end partnerships with the federal government for migrant children and refugee outreach because of Trump administration funding cuts.
Musk has also recently stated that “the fundamental weakness of western civilization is empathy.” How can you square that with the teaching of Aquinas (whom Vance likes to quote) that the purpose of political organizations is to promote the common good, much less with the bedrock principle of all great religions that we should love our neighbors as ourselves?
And at last report, a number of faith groups including Jewish, Baptist, Quaker and Sikh organizations that provide humanitarian assistance are suing the Trump administration from stopping their funding. Other legal actions by religious communities seek to prohibit Trump’s immigration police from raiding their houses of worship to make arrests. Perhaps these actions of the Trump administration will fully test what remains of the true strength of our civilization — at least that which is rooted in our compassionate religious heritage.
Daniel J. Morrissey is a professor and former dean at Gonzaga University Law School in Spokane, Washington.
