Apparently, not reciting the Apostles’ Creed is now the cool thing for WorldNetDaily’s Trump acolytes to do since the president refused to do so during George H.W. Bush’s funeral. Columnist Michael Brown served up a dismissive “ask me if I care” regarding Trump’s non-recitation; now WND editor Joseph Farah is similarly weighing in.
Farah’s Dec. 13 column outlined what he thinks are the problems with the creed, which has been around in one for or another for, oh, a couple thousand years:
- The Gospel of John opens stating that Jesus is the maker all things, including heaven and earth. The creed says the Father. Since they are One, it may not be a contradiction. But, just saying …
- Did Jesus actually descend into hell? Where do we find this in Scripture? We don’t – so many modern versions of the creed have changed the affirmation to “descended to the dead.” But is this unchallengeable on the basis of Scripture? There are certainly other interpretations of 1 Peter 3:18-20 than the idea that Jesus “descended into hell” or “descended to the dead.” Should this be a doctrine all believers must accept?
- How about the holy Catholic Church? That has fallen out of many versions over the years, sometimes just dropping the capital C in Catholic to a lower case.
- The Communion of Saints raises questions of clarity. For Catholics, this suggests prayers to and with the dead are acceptable. But this contradicts strong biblical prohibitions against necromancy.
Farah then huffed:
I’m not suggesting to you that these were matters being considered by Trump during Bush’s memorial service. Maybe he didn’t have his reading glasses on. Should anyone publicly read a liturgical document simply for the purposes of public show? Did any of these investigators think about asking the president or a member of his communications team why he didn’t recite the creed? Would a lip synch have made them happy?
Well, Farah has been pretty happy so far with Trump’s religious lip-syncing given that Trump has displayed zero evidence he believes any of the stuff he’s spouting to suck up to evangelicals like Farah.
I’m with Michael Brown on the whole sordid issue. It doesn’t bother me one bit that President Trump didn’t recite the Apostles’ Creed. Nor would it bother me if any other Christian or non-Christian, evangelical or non-evangelical, president or non-president, recited it.
Would it matter to any of Trump’s critics if any other human being on the planet demurred from reading it? You and I both know the answer. So, what are we really talking about here?
We’re talking about how evangelicals sold out moral standards they would have applied (and did apply) to Democratic presidents because they have a Republican president who sucks up to them. What are you talking about, Joe?