Religious sideshow in the Rose Garden

Last week President Donald Trump issued his religious guidelines to liberate Americans from what he outrageously claimed were eight years of assault on people of faith.

The order arrived with a thud.

Trump’s performance in the White House Rose Garden reminded me of the classic story of the preacher’s sermon notes. At a particular point in the sermon, the cleric wrote these notes in the margin: “This point is extremely weak. Shout louder.”

Trump is that kind of showman. He blurts out dramatic, expansive promises and threats that more often than not have amounted to little more than harmless words on a piece of White House paper. Conservatives had hoped for much more; with bravado they said, “Well, at least he made a start.” Liberals, who had fretted this order after a far more severe draft had been leaked in February, breathed a sigh of relief.

The order was so short on substance that the litigation-happy American Civil Liberties Union shrugged their shoulders and said they wouldn’t waste their time suing over this harmless pile of words.

You can easily find the entire order online. It won’t take long to read; you can then draw your own conclusions. Here’s my take.

In Section One, the President promises to protect religious freedom of all Americans, using general language that could have been written by any Republican or Democrat who ever lived on Pennsylvania Avenue. The thoughts are noble and non-debatable.

Section Two must have been written by Sean Spicer or a White House lawyer. Trump promises, “to the extent permissible by law” to dissuade the Internal Revenue Service from revoking the non-profit status of churches engaged in political discourse. This sounds bold until one realizes that the IRS has no interest — under any president — of going after churches, synagogues or mosques and has revoked the non-profit status of exactly one church in the past 60 years.

Furthermore, many religious leaders — liberal and conservative — have a deep aversion of getting political in the pulpit. Section Two pleases a few ultra-conservatives like Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell. That’s it.

Section Three seems to promise conservative Christians help in opting out of contraception/family planning in the Affordable Care Act, but merely directs government officials to “consider” drawing up new guidelines “consistent with applicable law.” The Supreme Court has already spoken on this issue.

A few more short sections round out the document with legalese, adding nothing to how Trump might make American religion and faith great again. All in all, this was a huge non-event.

I studied the photos of the signing ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. A scowling Trump sits at a polished wooden desk, a group of smiling holy men and women flanking him and a stiff Vice President Mike Pence standing to the side.

Trump gets the benefit of being seen as a pious protector of American religion and the religious leaders get to stand in the presence of the most powerful man on earth.

President Trump, like former President Ronald Reagan, knows how to keep his conservative base happy. Eventually the religious right discovered that Reagan had bamboozled them, promising much and delivering little. How long will it take present day conservative people of faith to re-learn this bitter lesson?

This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 7:44 AM with the headline "Religious sideshow in the Rose Garden."