Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian
You can’t say that making that assumption is possibly disrespectful to people of faith because what he did wasn’t faithful or religious.
He held up a bible backwards and upside down, didn’t say a prayer, and spouted some broken BS about making things awesome until they stopped taking pictures and then abruptly walked away.
If that’s not disrespectful to people of the episcopal faith, nothing is.
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None of the major news outlets that I checked said he was holding the Bible upside down and backwards. Some said he was holding it awkwardly. I found the backwards upside down assertion in some minor, biased outlets and in the left wing Guardian. I checked the photo of him holding the Bible, and the ribbon used as a page marker was properly hanging down from the bottom if he was holding it right side up, as is the case in books with ribbon markers because they start at the top of the book then go down between the marked pages with the excess portion sticking out at the bottom when the book is closed.
If the Bible was being held upside down, and the ribbon was hanging from the top where it starts (but would be the bottom as he was holding it), the length of the ribbon hanging outside of the book would be as long as the Bible plus the excess needed for page marking. The ribbon in the picture I saw was nowhere near that long, but more like the excess length needed to mark the page and properly hanging from the bottom of the book. That would indicate that the Bible was not being held upside down.
If he held it "backwards" that would merely indicate that the front was facing him, which doesn't sound disrespectful.
Saying that he "spouted" some "broken BS" is your obviously negative characterization. True, the pastor of the church didn't like what Trump did.
Here is what some other Christian leaders said who might possibly think what Pete said was disrespectful:
Robert Jeffress, a Dallas megachurch pastor:
“I thought it was completely appropriate for the president to stand in front of that church, and by holding up the Bible, he was showing us that it teaches that, yes, God hates racism, it’s despicable—but God also hates lawlessness.”
David Brody, a news anchor at the Christian Broadcasting Network:
“I don’t know about you but I’ll take a president with a Bible in his hand in front of a church over far left violent radicals setting a church on fire any day of the week”
Johnnie Moore, the president of the Congress of Christian Leaders:
“I will never forget seeing [Trump] slowly & in-total-command walk … across Lafayette Square to St. John’s Church defying those who aim to derail our national healing by spreading fear, hate & anarchy.”
Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition:
“His presence sent the twin message that our streets and cities do not belong to rioters and domestic terrorists, and that the ultimate answer to what ails our country can be found in the repentance, redemption, and forgiveness of the Christian faith.”
You probably, or might, not like or agree with any of them. But there are Christians who welcome holding up the Bible in a time of trouble, even if it is being held by a sinner. It is the message, not the messenger, that ultimately matters. And they might feel it was disrespectful to call the Bible, the holy message in which they fervently believe, a prop.