BBC News
By Harry Farley
image copyrightGetty Images
Christian supporters of President Donald Trump were among the thousands who descended on Washington DC last week. Their presence highlights a divide in American Christianity.
Before the march on the US Capitol began last Wednesday, some knelt to pray.
Thousands had come to the seat of power for a Save America rally organised to challenge the election result. Mr Trump addressed the crowd near the White House, calling on them to march on Congress where politicians were gathered to certify President-elect Joe Biden s win.
The crowd was littered with religious imagery. Jesus 2020 campaign flags flapped in the wind alongside Trump banners and the stars and stripes of the US flag.
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Images of the mob that attacked the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6 show a dizzying array of political and religious symbols among the crowd. There were flags, logos, sweatshirts and tattoos. Philip Gorski is a professor of sociology and religious studies at Yale University and author of
American Babylon: Christianity and Democracy Before and After Trump. He spoke recently with Connecticut Public Radio’s Diane Orson.
Diane Orson: As you watched the scene unfold at the Capitol there were a multitude of religious images. What jumped out at you and why?
Philip Gorski: Well, I guess the thing that really struck me was that at first glance it really seemed like apples and oranges. You had somebody put up a gallows. Somebody else put up a cross. You had somebody wearing a Camp Auschwitz sweatshirt and somebody else waving a “Jesus Saves” flag.
Plenty of his critics see Trump's malevolence and declare he's a bad Christian, or not even Christian at all. But that approach is an ahistorical, disingenuous and indefensible cop-out