Pastor to the Powerful: Scapegoating Refugees and LGBTQ People
Leveraging COVID-19 to shame minorities
Being LGBT in the US can feel more than strange. Sometimes it’s down-the-rabbit-hole bizarre. Pop culture is dominated by progressive people who portray gender and sexual minorities as ordinary. In urban bubbles, we largely are. People don’t bat an eyelash at most same-sex couples or trans folks. But outside big cities and inside conservative politics, vast numbers of Americans scapegoat minorities. Nothing could illustrate this dichotomy better than Ralph Drollinger, the White House pastor who blames COVID-19 on gay people and uses the Bible to justify separating refugee parents from their children.
Scapegoating LGBTQ people is Trump campaign doctrine
It’s no secret that the Donald Trump owes his presidency to conservative Christians. If not for strong Evangelical support in the 2016 elections, Mr. Trump would not be president today. According to many political analysts, without continuing Evangelical support, he probably cannot win the 2020 election.
Worth mentioning is that the White House pastor frames Bible passages to say LGBTQ people and supporters are literally “worthy of death.”
Even in this time of global pandemic, Trump’s lieutenants are pandering to Evangelical leaders who prioritize the scapegoating of LGBTQ people. Conservative Christian leaders and establishment Republicans like E.W. Jackson and Robert Jeffress have been outspoken in their attempts to tie the COVID-19 pandemic to God’s wrath.
Pastor to the powerful blames gays for pandemic
Now Ralph Drollinger, one of the most powerful and influential Christian leaders in the United States, has gone on the record blaming gay people for calling down God’s judgment on the American people in the form of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“Yes, America is experiencing the consequential wrath of God,” he writes, claiming that “a sensation toward homosexuality,” is a key reason.
This is not the time for the Trump administration to eviscerate the rights of LGBT older people.
“Clearly indicative of God’s forsaking wrath is when the abandoned serve the creature rather than the creator,” he goes on. “Indicative of forsaking wrath is a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality,” the product of a “depraved mind” that knows the right way to behave but rejects it.
Worth mentioning is that the White House pastor frames Bible passages to say LGBTQ people and supporters are literally “worthy of death.”
Drollinger is no fringe nut
He has the ear of the most powerful leaders in the Trump administration. The New York Times calls him a “shadow diplomat” who leads a weekly Bible study group for Trump’s cabinet.
Regular attendees include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, HUD Secretary Ben Carson, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and HHS Secretary Alex Azar. Both Azar and Carson play leading roles on the COVID-19 Task Force.
I am not making this up. I am not joking. This is happening.
A Christian leader with at least weekly access to the White House, and whose Bible study summaries President Trump reportedly reads, is providing Biblical instruction to senior members of the US government claiming God hates LGBTQ people so much He’s willing to kill millions of human beings.
Drollinger upholds traditional Evangelical beliefs
The political pastor and former professional basketball star sounds notes straight from the conservative Christian choir. He has called Catholicism “the world’s largest false religion,” preached that women legislators who don’t quit their jobs after having children are sinners, and called homosexuality “depraved” and an “abomination.”
He preaches that social welfare programs are un-Christian. He once wrote, ‘It is safe to say that ‘God is a Capitalist, not a Communist,’ while constructing a Biblical argument he says theologically ‘mandates’ private property.
Drollinger has a history of Biblically justifying Trump policy
When the Trump administration began systematically detaining refugees seeking asylum in the US, the infamous family separation policy saw thousands of children pulled from their parents’ arms, many for months or years.
According to the New York Times, at least hundreds of refugee children have still not been reunited with their parents, despite court orders. Given inadequate record keeping, some will never see their parents again.
While much of the nation protested the inhumanity and immorality of the Trump administration’s policies, Ralph Drollinger stiffened the spine of then Attorney General Jeff Sessions by providing Biblical reasoning for punishing asylum seekers and taking their children from them.
Theological rationale for cruelty
He claims that in the Old Testament there are “three classifications of people in every country.” In his peculiar Biblical interpretation, “foreigners” were considered “illegal,” in ancient Israel, worthy of punishment, and by extension, worthy of family separation in today’s America.
The details are based on bizarre translations of ancient Hebrew words into contemporary English legal terms. Drollinger somehow transforms asylum-seeking refugees into criminals on the same level as thieves and murderers.
“It follows that when someone breaks the law of the land that they should anticipate that one of the consequences of their illegal behavior will be separation from their children. Such is the case with thieves or murderers who are arrested and put in jail.”
His arguments don’t even pass the smell test of rational discourse
Theologians everywhere scoffed. But conservative commentators all over the nation, particularly on Fox News, were soon quoting his ideas. Within days, then Press Secretary Sarah Sanders was paraphrasing Drollinger in her own Biblical justification of family separation.
The justification appealed to the bulk of evangelical Christians in the US, who according to the Washington Post generally oppose immigration and support at least a soft form of white nationalism.
Not even a global pandemic can stop Trump from scapegoating
While the Trump track record on LGBTQ issues has been generally horrible, starting with a ban on transgender military members that that not even the Pentagon favored, some thought an existential health crisis like COVID-19 might call forth the nation’s better angels — at least temporarily.
But the same Evangelicals who have pushed Trump to demonize asylum seekers have been pushing against LGBTQ equality all along, and they aren’t slowing down.
New Trump HHS rules allow taxpayer-funded charities to deny food and shelter to LGBTQ people
Christian charities have been pushing for the rules, and Trump is giving them what they want even in the midst of a global crisis. LGBTQ advocacy groups are filing lawsuits, but Trump lawyers are defending the rules in court filings right now.
Family Equality, SAGE, and True Colors United say the new rules “endanger already vulnerable populations, especially as the country confronts the coronavirus pandemic.”
SAGE CEO Michael Adams says, “This is not the time for the Trump administration to eviscerate the rights of LGBT older people.”
He explains that, “Ensuring that all older people have access to critical aging services and support free from discrimination is vital for the health and well-being of LGBT elders.”
Family Equality CEO Rev. Stan J. Sloan says the notice “runs counter to HHS’ mission — to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans — and instead places the well-being of millions of vulnerable LGBTQ Americans at risk.”
It’s time to emerge from the rabbit hole
Two years ago, I couldn’t have imagined myself writing the words I wrote today. I don’t recognize my country. I’m used to political give and take, gradual progress as administrations bounce back and forth from Democrat to Republican.
But to find the nation in the midst of a global crisis while a preacher mangles Hebrew and warps Christian theology to justify cruelty to national policy makers … that’s the stuff of dystopian fiction.
COVID-19 is not dystopian
We WILL emerge on the other side, and we will, as human beings, return to relative health and prosperity. But as a nation? We must SEE where we are, who we are. We must recognize the slow creep of cruelty that has allowed a man of Drollinger’s ilk to wield power and influence.
Cruelty is not an American value. Biblical justification of cruelty is not a Christian value.
The wolves are at the door, and all Americans of good will must fight, even through the pandemic, to keep them at bay.
James Finn is a long-time HIV/LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Act Up NYC, an essayist occasionally published in queer news outlets, and an “agented” novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].