re: St John’s Church - DC

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“I am the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and was not given even a courtesy call, that they would be clearing [the area] with tear gas so they could use one of our churches as a prop."

"Trump’s message is at odds with the values of love and tolerance espoused by the church," Budde said, before describing the president’s visit as an opportunity to use the church, and a Bible, as a “backdrop”. “Let me be clear, the President just used a Bible, the most sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese, without permission, as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus,”

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/02/outrageous-christian-leaders-reject-trump-use-of-church-as-prop-during-george-floyd-protests?CMP=share_btn_tw

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Taking politics out of this which I know can be difficult in 2020. Why would the bishop be so appalled by this? Can someone provide an objective and unbiased opinion on this?

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A lot of people aren’t happy with how the feds pushed back the protesters to allow the president to have a photo op in front of the church. The city had a 7pm curfew and had made it known that it would be strictly enforced. City and Feds were in the same page to let the protesting go till 7 then start breaking it up. At 630 the feds and national guard in Lafayette park went over the barriers to push everyone off of H st. The footage of them clearing the street isn’t great. You see a news cameraman take a pretty good shot from a riot shield and his female reporter gets a nightstick to the back of the head. Before the president walked out to the church no one really understood why the police got so aggressive with the protesters because there wasn’t any rioting at the time and 2 blocks behind them were hundreds of city police.