Photo above – President Donald Trump holds a Bible as he stands outside St. John’s Episcopal Church, across from the White House, in Washington, D.C., on June 1, 2020.
Leaders from The Episcopal Church have condemned the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to clear clergy and protesters from the area around St. John’s Episcopal Church, across the street from the White House, so President Donald Trump could use it as an unauthorized photo op on June 1.
Trump “used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in a statement.
“I am outraged. The president did not pray when he came to St. John’s, nor … did he acknowledge the agony of our country right now,” the Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of Washington, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I just can’t believe what my eyes have seen.”
Minutes before the photo op, Trump had spoken at the White House, urging mayors and governors to use the military to “dominate the streets” and end the widespread protests over systemic racism and police brutality. As he spoke, police and the National Guard pushed hundreds of peaceful protesters and journalists out of Lafayette Square – between the White House and St. John’s – by firing rubber bullets and tear gas at them, The Washington Post reported.
At least one Episcopal priest was among those tear-gassed. At least 20 priests and a group of lay people were at the church earlier in the day “to serve as a ‘peaceful presence in support of protesters,’” handing out water, snacks, and hand sanitizer. The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, rector of a different St. John’s Episcopal Church (in Washington’s Georgetown neighbourhood), was packing up when she was tear-gassed by police.
“I was suddenly coughing from the tear gas,” she told Religion News Service. “We heard those explosions and people would drop to the ground because you weren’t sure what it was.”
Trump then walked across the square to the church, which sustained minor damage in a fire the previous night, and posed for cameras holding a Bible before returning to the White House. He did not go inside, read from the Bible or meet with any clergy. Trump does not regularly attend services at St. John’s, or any other church.
The Rt. Rev. Mariann Budde, bishop of Washington, said she was not asked or even notified that the area around the church would be tear-gassed and used as a photo op.
“I am outraged,” she told The Washington Post. “Everything [Trump] has said and done is to inflame violence. We need moral leadership, and he’s done everything to divide us.”
The incident also has drawn condemnation from Christian leaders beyond The Episcopal Church.
“The president used federal troops to clear a path through peaceful protesters in order to stand before an Episcopal church make a statement and hold up a bible,” Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said on Twitter. “Not only was this manipulative it was desecration.”
Reaction from some Roman Catholic leaders was particularly sharp in light of Trump’s scheduled visit on June 2 to the John Paul II National Shrine in Washington.
“As Trump visits the St. John Paul II National Shrine today, I hope someone proclaims today’s Gospel (Mark 12:13-17) where Herodians and Pharisees are called out for their hypocrisy,” Catholic Bishop John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, said on Twitter.
Sister Simone Campbell, executive director of the Catholic advocacy group NETWORK, accused Trump of “using the Catholic faith in another photo op to defend his appalling refusal to address racism and police violence in the United States.”
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