The Freedom From Religion Foundation denounces the attempted assassination Saturday of a presidential candidate — as all political violence must be abhorred whether it was on Jan. 6, 2021, the attack on Paul Pelosi, or this past weekend.
Many American and world leaders have thoughtfully responded by roundly condemning any violence in the name of politics. And many, including in the media, are calling for a de-escalation of over-the-top political rhetoric in these divisive times. Part of that de-escalation means that it is important to rein in the rhetoric ascribing Donald Trump’s survival to divine providence, with its cultish implication that a “God,” not voters, decides who fills the seat at the Oval Office and weaponizing religion to obtain a political outcome.
Trump himself posted that it was “God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
Other such grandiose claims we have heard:
• House Speaker Mike Johnson: “GOD protected President Trump yesterday.”
• House Majority Leader Steve Scalise: “Yesterday there were miracles, and I think the hand of God was there too.”
•Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: “My text to the President tonight, By the slightest turn of your head in a mere microsecond or the shield of a teleprompter, your life was spared by the Grace of a Merciful and Holy God. I shared with you not long ago, on our flight to Houston, that God has had his hand on you since you first ran for President. That I believe. No man could survive all you have been through without the Grace of God upon you. The Bible verse ‘And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?’ appears in the book of Esther 4:14. Praise God your life was spared ‘For such a time as this.’”
• Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.: “God protected Donald Trump.”
• Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y.: “God saved our Republic last night.”
•Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga.: “God spared Ronald Reagan for a reason. God spared Donald Trump for a reason. God doesn’t miss.” (Except he missed the bullets that killed the unfortunate former firefighter at the Trump rally and wounded two others.)
• Rep. Carlos Antonio Giménez, R-Fla., told Fox News that Trump survived “by the grace of God.”
• Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., told Fox News that “divine intervention” and the “protective hand” of God saved Trump.
• Former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tweeted that it was “divine providence.”
• Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., posted an embarrassing graphic showing the hands of an angel (or is that Jesus?) on Trump at the Pennsylvania rally podium.
• Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told Sean Hannity on Fox News: “God spared Donald Trump.”
Many, of course, responded to the shooting with the inevitable calls for prayer, although knee-jerk “thoughts and prayers” responses to gun violence are thankfully diminishing. But as Politico reports, “Pastors at megachurches across the country on Sunday credited God with sparing the life of former President Donald Trump.” Evangelical pastor Jack Hibbs, who is armpit-deep in theocratic politics, even played footage from Fox News during his sermon and told his congregation of 10,000 yesterday that God from heaven saw that Trump is “Israel’s best friend.” South Carolina pastor Mark Burns, a Trump ally, promised somewhat ominously, “We will not take to the streets to retaliate, but we will operate in the heavenly realms, the spiritual realms.”
Asserts FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor: “We freethinkers must ask those crediting divine providence with Trump’s survival why a supposedly all-powerful, all-seeing deity, if it exists, would have allowed the attack in the first place? A man in the audience died and two innocent bystanders are severely wounded. Are we to infer that too was God’s will?”
What do such tactless sentiments say to the families of those whose loved ones died this weekend in killings around the country, or at Uvalde, or the Pulse nightclub, or in Las Vegas in gun massacres, FFRF asks? Or to the families of any shooting victims? Were such deaths “divine providence”?
The Washington Post predicted, prior to the assassination attempt, that references to “spiritual warfare … a central theme of Christian nationalist movements,” including many biblical references, are predicted to surface at the Republican National Convention. It will be instructive to see whether the divine providence rhetoric may heat up into something messianic. In the meantime, FFRF will be holding its breath with the rest of the nation in hopes violent rhetoric and violence itself will not escalate and that the United States will experience a safe, orderly election honoring democracy and the rule of law.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national state/church watchdog organization that has 40,000 members nationwide. Its purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
