[Warning for my religious readers and friends: If you are offended by criticism of religion, do not read any further. I am not holding back here.]
Watching Trump’s inaugural ceremony was painful for me. The speech was dark, negative, and without vision. It portrayed an America reminiscent of Mad Max movies. What world does Trump live in? The speech was insulting, degrading and inappropriate. Listening to it, I was embarrassed for my country and my president. You’d think after a year and a half of practice, Trump would have gained some oratory skills by now. But all he did here was present a wooden delivery by reading the teleprompter, and even that he did poorly, with incongruent cadence and unnatural rhythm. I can’t wait for the State of the Union!
And what’s with all the preachers? Paula White is basically a fake minister, but Trump calls her a spiritual advisor:
Her former ministry, the Without Walls International Church, was one of six investigated in the past decade by the Senate Finance Committee over possible financial improprieties. At the time, Ms. White and her husband, Randy, from whom she is now divorced, refused to cooperate with the inquiry, and kept their lavish spending hidden behind tax laws that allowed religious organizations to operate tax-free with little transparency.
I don’t remember how many “prayers” Obama’s inauguration featured, but I remember none of them. If they were there, they didn’t get in the way. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t object to an occasional invocation at public events. Every Toastmasters club has invocations.
But Trump’s entire ceremony was full references to God and Jesus and boring sections of obscure scripture. Especially when the Jewish Rabbi Marvin Hier droned and blared, everyone tuned out. There was nothing really to listen to. Everyone just waited for him to be done so they could get on with it.
What happened to the separation of church and state? It does not make me comfortable at all that our president and vice president look to a fictional fairy in the sky for guidance and protection of the country. If preachers in their churches do that, so be it. Their congregations signed up for it, are paying for it, and getting their entertainment as required and expected. But this is a country, and I didn’t subscribe to this nonsense.
I do not believe for a minute that grab-them-by-the-pussy Trump even believes in God. I think he is making it all up because it is impossible to run for any office in America as an atheist. The only group more reviled in America than atheists are – probably – communists. I didn’t believe Obama was religious either, but at least he lied about his “faith” gracefully. Rumor is out that Zuckerberg is getting himself ready to run for office in the future, and all of a sudden he is no longer an atheist. He has found his Jewish heritage. I call bullshit on both Trump and Zuckerberg.
The sappy invocations, snake-oil prayers and praising of Jesus at a secular event in a nation that is supposed to keep church and state separate was disheartening. It made me sick.
Now we handed Trump the keys to the White House, along with a free ride on Air Force One and access to the nuclear button. I hope, for all of us, that he governs with more thought and sensibility than he speaks at inaugurations.
Or God help us all.
Several Canadians have told me they are boycotting America, so mad at them for foisting this POL on the world. I watched it on a text-crawl screen in a Food Court with an ex-American friend. He figures he will not be allowed into the US now having denounced his citizenship a few years ago.
If I had not been at a show selling yesterday, I would have marched in Ottawa with 7,000 other women.
This may be a lesson progressives around the world needed to fight for the freedoms they have taken for granted.