Oh ye of little Faith Office

Trump gives a televangelist a desk in the White House

All Predictions Wrong continues to look at what’s actually in President Trump’s executive orders.

Housekeeping note: nothing next Friday, am traveling for a family event. Back to normal on February 28.

Among his flurry of actions, Donald Trump just created a White House Faith Office.

This does not necessarily violate Constitutional separation of church and state. That principle forbids government from imposing any specific religion. General endorsement of faith, or of the existence of a Creator (“in God we trust”), may be okay.

But the track record of putting the word “faith” near the Resolute Desk is not good. In 2001, George W. Bush created a White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, placing in charge a gentle and deeply pious academic named John J. DiIulio Jr. Later, DiIulio resigned and called the entire project ill-considered.

A White House Faith Office – could Trump think of a worse idea? I mean a worse idea for religion, which has always been diminished by involvement with government.

Broadly across the world, government-backed religions become stale and corrupt. Humanity’s search for God is better off done privately.

The new Faith Office’s primary role seems to be to help religious organizations get some of the very federal spending Trump has sworn to slash:

“The executive branch wants faith-based entities, community organizations and houses of worship, to the fullest extent permitted by law, to compete on a level playing field for grants, contracts, programs and other federal funding opportunities.”

This sounds like the same basic idea that failed under George W. Bush. Like old soldiers, bad Washington policies never die, they just fade back in.

Trump with Paula White last week. Photo courtesy Bloomberg News.

To head the new office Trump choose the televangelist Paula White. You can watch her here. Her most recent Sunday service was mainly a pitch for viewers to send her money in return for “incredible gifts” – not gifts of the spirit, the kind that come in boxes.

White’s selection was denounced by a motley crew of secularists and Christians. She was called a “heretic” by Jon Root, who runs a popular Christian YouTube channel. Trump has been back in office less than a month and already accusations of heresy are flying around. Why not cast spells too? The singer Clairo has called for “witchcraft” to be deployed against Trump. Every time you think the state of national discourse has hit rock bottom – it gets worse.

We cannot know what is in the hearts of Trump, Paula White, Jon Root or Clairo. We can know, from her own statements, that White is an Elmer Gantry type, using Christianity as a hustle. She’s certainly not alone. This same applies to other megachurch pastors such as Joel Osteen.