asmPolitics-318 [Offended By National Day of Prayer]

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump declared Sunday a National Day of Prayer. In doing so, he captured in miniature everything wrong with his administration's approach to the mounting crisis. 

Trump refuses to address real problems. He instead prefers to try to rally his base using divisive symbolism. He wants to govern only for his supporters, rather than for all Americans - which means that ultimately, he is not governing for any of us.

The National Day of Prayer is framed as a unifying move. "TODAY IS A NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER, GOD BLESS EVERYONE!" Trump tweeted in all caps on Sunday. We're supposedly all one nation under God together, a single religious community facing the disaster in unity.

The problem is that not everyone is necessarily going to feel included when the president commands the country to pray. As an atheist, I don't feel comforted or welcomed by a call to prayer. And as a Jewish person, I really don't feel comforted by a call to prayer on Sunday. If I was a believer, and/or a congregant, I'd be praying on Friday or Saturday.  

When Trump says we are going to have a day of prayer on Sunday, what I hear is that at best he doesn't know that people like me exist, and at worst he wishes that we didn't. The fact that Trump has questioned the loyalty of Jewish Democrats, and suggested that Jewish people owe loyalty to Israelrather than to the United States, doesn't help matters.

Trump made clear which community he was praying with specifically when he tweeted on Sunday that he was watching a digital broadcast service from the church of white Christian evangelicalpastor Jentezen Franklin.

Tweet by Jentezen Franklin, the evangelical pastor whose online service Trump tweeted he had joined for the National Day of Prayer to counter the novel coronavirus Twitter

It's no surprise Trump chose a white evangelical Church to promote; white evangelicals are among his strongest supporters. Nearly three-quarters of white evangelicals approve of Trump, according to Pew. In comparison, Jewish voters give him only about 25 percent support, while his popularity with the general public has wavered in the low 40s. So the day of prayer gave Trump a chance to show his most loyal supporters that he's still their guy.

When Trump says we are going to have a day of prayer on Sunday, what I hear is that at best he doesn't know that people like me exist, and at worst he wishes that we didn't. The fact that Trump has questioned the loyalty of Jewish Democrats, and suggested that Jewish people owe loyalty to Israelrather than to the United States, doesn't help matters.

Trump made clear which community he was praying with specifically when he tweeted on Sunday that he was watching a digital broadcast service from the church of white Christian evangelicalpastor Jentezen Franklin.