I went through a mild-versioned “born again” phase in my late thirties because I needed assurance God would not desert me even though I was giving up on a marriage of 15 years.
The best thing I ever did during that time was join a women’s Bible study group which not only deepened my understanding of God but also showed me how enjoyable — and productive — it is to study as a group. Of any book, the Bible has been parsed in inestimable ways.
What I learned from those experiences and others since, is that to speak authoritatively about the Bible takes years and years of study. That’s not to say that my thoughts aren’t valid, but I will always consider myself a student.
For me this includes an attitude of humility by recognizing I have no clue as to God’s true powers and what he thinks, or whether he thinks, of me.
And I consider it terribly brazen for anyone to assume they have some influence over God.
SO WHEN I saw the photo Monday night of President Donald Trump holding up a Bible, upside-down, as if it somehow justified his strong-armed tactics against peaceful demonstrators, it struck me as particularly impertinent.
By his own admission, Mr. Trump is relaxed in his faith, which in no way minimizes his ability to do his job.
But it does make for an incongruous picture such as that in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
Many saw the exercise as a photo op that exploited the holy book for partisan political purposes.
Equally telling was that before the photo shoot police and National Guard troops were ordered to fire rubber bullets, flash grenades and tear gas at the crowd of non-violent protesters to clear the president’s path to cross the street.
Under any other president, revoking citizens’ rights to peacefully assemble would be considered a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
“They turned holy ground into a battleground,” said The Rev. Gini Gerbasi, a Georgetown priest who was in the crowd.
Then, in a perfectly choreographed scene, Mr. Trump strode across a now-pristine street to St. John’s, where he stood holding up a Bible for us all to see.
The president didn’t open the Bible, nor did he make any statement.
With hundreds of thousands of Americans protesting racial discrimination and feeling the raw pain of injustice from the recent murder of George Floyd, it was an opportune moment to quote Scripture.
Heck, the first chapter of Genesis would have done the job: “So God created man in his own image.”
