How the Trump administration uses the Bible to justify its actions

0:00It's Consider This where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, the power of the Bible. American presidents have long used scripture as a rhetorical resource to frame moments of national crisis or purpose. Tonight I ask for your prayers for all those who grieve. Presidents like George W. Bush, who addressed the country after the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001. And I pray they will be comforted by a power greater than any of us, spoken through the ages in Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. And President Barack Obama, who spoke at an interfaith prayer vigil after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.

0:46Scripture tells us, do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. But the Trump administration in particular has used the Bible in different ways to publicly justify immigration raids and military action abroad. After the invasion of Venezuela, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth quoted from Psalm 144 at a Pentagon prayer service in January. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. Consider this, what the biblical passages mean in their original context. We ask Bible experts to weigh in.

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2:10It's Consider This from NPR. President Trump isn't much of a Bible quoter, but some members of his administration are, and they've used scripture in different ways to frame controversial policies such as immigration enforcement raids and military actions as justified by the good book. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose takes a closer look at some instances in which the Trump administration has used the Bible to justify the president's agenda. The Department of Homeland Security posted a video on social media January 13th that uses the singer Lord's cover of the song everybody wants to rule the world.

2:56DHS posted the video just as massive immigration enforcement actions were taking place in Minnesota. The phrase, blessed are the peacemakers, appears on screen, a passage from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. The quote is followed by night vision footage of a military-style helicopter hovering above. DHS agents in camouflage shoot at doors and storm buildings. Then the phrase, for they shall be called the sons of God, comes on screen.

3:34My first thought was there is a gun called the Peacemaker. It's sort of this idea of peace through strength. Dyron Doherty is a minister in the Evangelical Church of Christ and Dean of Religion and Philosophy at Pepperdine University. It's very common for armies, militaries just throughout history to invoke the name of God, to invoke the name of Jesus Christ. The video's message is clear. Immigration enforcement is war, and the Trump administration's policies are sanctioned by Jesus' own words. The goal is also clear, says Yijan Lin, who teaches New Testament to aspiring ministers at Yale Divinity School.

4:15DHS is causing surprise for a certain reason to make a statement that whatever Homeland Security is doing is to create peace, even if it looks violent. They've mistaken Caesar for Christ. That's Aubrey Hendricks, an elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church who also teaches at Columbia University. To use that song, everybody wants to rule the world. What they're saying is, yes, we are building an empire. An empire they portray as blessed by a particular reading of the Bible, one favored by Donald Trump's white evangelical base. During the second Trump administration, officials have been even more outspoken about favoring Christianity.

4:55Here's Vice President J.D. Vance. We have been, and by the grace of God, we always will be a Christian nation. But Americans overall are divided about whether they want religion and the Bible to help form public policy. According to a recent survey by Pew Research, 51 % say the Bible should have some or a great deal of influence, while 48 % say it should not. Pew also found that three-quarters of Republicans say religion's growing influence in American life is a good thing, double the share of Democrats who say the same.

5:36Another social media post from Homeland Security opens with the phrase, Forgotten Country on screen over video of immigration enforcement actions set to the song Jesus Walks. The text above the post is a quote from the prophet Isaiah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

6:02Among the Trump administration officials most vocal about his conservative evangelical faith is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. During the run-up to the Iran conflict, he was a frequent invoker of scripture. Here is a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Mark. Including at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 5th. He said to them, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, But whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels will save it. Following the reading, Hegseth gave a brief sermon on the text, during which he said this.

6:47The warrior is willing to lay down his life for his unit, his country, and his creator. That warrior finds eternal life. What Hegseth is cleverly doing, right, is calling to arms, right, to be warriors to pick up a sword in a type of glorious martyrdom. Again, Yale's Yi Jian Lin. But he's missing the power dynamic here, which is Jesus is not doing that for the cause of empire or for whoever is in government over him, but actually against. But evangelicals like Dyron Doherty at Pepperdine like the fact that Hegseth speaks this way. Where a politician probably wouldn't have talked like that, let's say, 30 years ago, now they're just openly embracing their religiosity.

7:30They're openly embracing even their theological perspectives. He says this approach is good for evangelicals, to have someone like Hegseth promoting the faith. To compete in this world, we have to defend our faith and we have to be evangelistic. But Yil's Yijan Lin, who was raised in an evangelical immigrant church, is concerned that in a country whose constitution prohibits establishing a religion, some within the Trump administration are privileging the Bible. There are many different sacred texts that could be used, and also just ethics of what do we think as a people and how do we want to operate as a government that doesn't have to subscribe to any one religion at all.

8:09The concern for Columbia's Aubrey Hendricks is not so much that the administration is using the Bible, but how it's using the Bible. We're talking about ideological Christianity versus Christianity of faith. And the ideological Christianity is an ideology that refracts everything in the Bible through the prism of the interest of the one who's interpreting it. Whereas in a Christianity of faith, says Hendricks, the Bible critiques every political position rather than blessing any one agenda. That's NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose. This episode was produced by Sarah Ventry and Karen Zamora, with audio engineering by Peter Elena.

8:51It was edited by Daniel Burke and William Troop. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

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