“This is an awful man”

Two of my fellow bloggers — Daughter Number Three and Dreamers Rise — have shared it, and I’ll share it too. It’s from Robert Hendrickson, rector at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Tucson, Arizona, and it’s about the man posing on television yesterday, holding a Bible and standing in front of an Episcopal church. This statement appeared in the form of two tweets:

This is an awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read, in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand, against fellow Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, to protect power he gained via accepting foreign interference[,] exploiting fear and anger he loves to stoke, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity. This is not partisan. It is simply about recognizing the moral vacuum that is now pretending to lead.

I’ll add a statement from Marian Budde, Episocopal bishop for the diocese of Washington, D.C. This statement appeared in the form of five tweets: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5:

Tonight [the] President just used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for. To do so, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard.

The President did not come to pray; he did not lament the death of George Floyd or acknowledge the collective agony of people of color in our nation. He did not attempt to heal or bring calm to our troubled land.

The Bible teaches us to love God and our neighbor; that all people are beloved children of God; that we are to do justice and love kindness. The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division.

We are followers of Jesus. In no way do we support the President’s incendiary response to a wounded, grieving nation. We stand with those seeking justice for the death of George Floyd through the sacred act of peaceful protest.