Enough of presidents who speak the language of Christianity while leaving out Christ
by David Robertson, Christian Today:
The media world (especially in the West) has been transfixed by the transfer of power from President Trump to President Biden with the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ being replaced by ‘Build Back Better’.
The speeches Trump gave as he left office, and Biden as he entered it, make for interesting comparisons. Whilst the former went largely unnoticed, the latter was praised as though it were the 21st Century Sermon on the Mount.
“All Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated. Now more than ever, we must unify around our shared values and rise above the partisan rancour and forge our common destiny.”
That reads like a Biden ‘unifying’ statement, but it actually came from Trump In fact, as I read the two speeches, I had a revelation – just how similar both Trump and Biden were in the substance (such as it was) of their speeches. In the words of The Who in “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
What struck me in particular was the prominent role that religion, especially Christianity, played in both. Except it’s not really Christianity. It’s much more civic religion. In Trump’s case you could argue it was a kind of civic ‘Christian’ American nationalism; with Biden, it is a civic ‘Christian’ American progressivism.
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