(7-minute read)
There has been something bugging me since the funeral of George H. W. Bush. President Trump and the First Lady did not say the Apostles’ Creed along with everybody else in the service. Why wouldn’t they say it? What would be a theological or personal reason/s for them to not say the creed?
Those not familiar with the faith may not understand why this would be of interest to me, a person of the faith. The Apostles’ Creed below is simply a basic statement of the faith as to what we believe. It isn’t controversial.
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“I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.”
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The funeral was widely covered by media. There are multiple videos that show President Trump as well as the First Lady Melania not saying the creed.
Here’s just one short clip.
The words “catholic church” used in the creed refer to the ‘universal’ church hence the small ‘c’ is used for the word catholic. In the above version the word ‘quick’ is used. Quick = living. In some versions people will say “the living” rather than “the quick”.
As I mentioned above there really is nothing unusual or controversial about the Apostles’ Creed being said during a service. We say it on a regular basis in our Presbyterian church.
The people around them are saying the creed. They are reading from the text that they were provided. That isn’t unusual. I still read from the text in the bulletin. But this isn’t about them. They are of no consequence in regards to my questions.
President Trump has previously mentioned his Presbyterian background so he simply has to know about the creed unless he never went to church and he has stated that he did go to church. Melania Trump is Catholic and would also be familiar with the creed.
Where this gets interesting is that there are indeed Evangelicals claiming that President Trump is chosen by God to be President and is fulfilling the prophesies. At this stage President Trump is the head of what has become the Evangelical Party.
Here is a supporting scripture that they often use:
English Standard Version (ESV), Romans 13:1, Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Here is the scripture that Evangelicals used in regard to President Obama:
ESV, Psalm 109:8, May his days be few; may another take his office!
BTW here’s 109:9, May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow!
So yes indeedy. They wanted him dead. They prayed for him to die. They know their scripture. Kind of at odds with the scripture that they’re using now but there you are. That is the hypocrisy of the Evangelical Party. “The ends justify the means.” Evangelicals 1:16-20
Just as an FYI, the support of Evangelicals came about after President Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen muscled a person into not releasing compromising photographs obtained of Jerry Falwell Jr. Falwell then started getting other Evangelicals on board the Presidential train for Donald Trump. (This is according to Cohen.)
The rest is history. Trump won the election via the Electoral College even though he lost the popular vote. (Pollsters were actually correct in predicting a close win for Hillary Clinton in the one to two percent range. Where they were wrong is in the electoral vote.)
The Evangelical Party is now claiming that President Trump was chosen by God to be President and is fulfilling biblical prophesies. Even President Trump is mocking them for that one. (He looks to the heavens at 1m37s.)
However, it also now being claimed that President Trump is in fact the Antichrist. There are a whole lot of bible verses being used as justification. I’ll provide a couple of scriptures below as examples.
Zechariah 11:15-17
MSG 15-16 God then said, “Dress up like a stupid shepherd. I’m going to install just such a shepherd in this land—a shepherd indifferent to victims, who ignores the lost, abandons the injured, and disdains decent citizens. He’ll only be in it for what he can get out of it, using and abusing any and all.
NRSV For I am now raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, or seek the wandering,[a] or heal the maimed, or nourish the healthy,[b] but devours the flesh of the fat ones, tearing off even their hoofs.
That tearing off hooves things doesn’t sound good at all. Not good at all for those in the rest of the flock.
Here’s a link to a piece that provides the whole President Trump is the Antichrist spiel. It is kind of interesting to read.
Anyway when you throw in the unrepentant repentant sinner that is President Donald Trump who doesn’t believe in asking for forgiveness, has cheated on all of his wives, had a part as himself in not one but two soft porn films, is a venal liar and to top it all off has family that recently sold a property with the “666” address the anti-evangelicals make a better case of him being the Antichrist than the “Chosen One” which President Trump famously mocked at a press conference. (Selling the property would be “the Beast” covering its tracks.) Some verses also refer to the Antichrist as being “the Liar”. President Trump has outstanding qualifications in this regard.
For what it’s worth I don’t believe that President Trump is either the Antichrist or the Chosen One.
The conservative right-wing evangelicals can be counted on to find ways to excuse his actions just as they excused him saying that he never asks for forgiveness of his sins. The interview is here. He’s referring to taking communion when he talks about drinking wine in his comments. (Incidentally the wine is often just grape juice. Also communion has nothing to do with asking for forgiveness of one’s sins. It is about remembering Christ.) Although asking for forgiveness is also fundamental to believing in God. At least for those of the Christian faith.
It is worth mentioning that evangelicals do take righteous exception to the times that President Trump takes the Lord’s name in vain though. Isn’t that something?! Well, after all, they do have their standards.
Personally, I believe that President Trump and the First Lady really didn’t care. It was just asking too much of them to be respectful throughout the funeral service of a fallen President. Not saying the creed was an excellent way of drawing attention to themselves and away from others. Mission accomplished. Trump is about Trump being the center of attention.
I also think that he would be more popular with his base if he simply said that he really doesn’t care about Christianity all that much and the teachings of Jesus any more than they do. They get a kick out of these kinds of statements from the President. It’s him not being politically correct. Yet it’s disrespectful for a person of color to take a knee during the national anthem. They want to wrap the church building in the flag not the doctrine of Jesus.
When God calls upon a person to do something doesn’t it seem that they should change for the better not get worse? We’re coming up on the fourth year with Trump as President and he’s worse not better.
It’s almost poetic that the biggest threat to our Republic and Christianity is coming from Evangelicals and the Republican Party both headed by President Donald Trump.