Seth Meyers spent about ten minutes Tuesday night talking about Donald Trump‘s faith, his religious illiteracy, his embrace of televangelist Paula White, and his ignorance of church/state separation.

My favorite line: “Trump would hate church. It’s an hour of people talking about someone other than him.”

The saddest thing about this segment is how the writers barely scratched the surface of this topic. There was no mention of Trump’s executive order regarding the Johnson Amendment, or the weekly White House Bible studies (which Trump doesn’t bother attending), or the Religious Right’s influence over his agenda (including, it seems, Trump’s military transgender ban), or the Christian background of Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow, or Pat Robertson‘s interview, or how his Cabinet members seem to think their religious beliefs are more valid that sound science when it comes to policy, or Mike Pence‘s speech to Focus on the Family… I’ll stop there for now.

I’m not blaming the writers. They had a limited amount of time to work with. But this presidency has created no shortage of conflicts between church and state.

President Obama was, at one point, demonized by the Right for attending a church with a controversial pastor. Trump is embraced because he hangs out with the ones who merely use religion as a way to make themselves rich. Obama was demonized for being a Muslim, which he wasn’t, while Trump is embraced for being a Christian, which he isn’t (in any meaningful way). Obama by and large stood for church/state separation (even if he wasn’t perfect on it), while Trump still hasn’t gotten around to reading the damn Constitution.

But none of that matters to the Religious Right. They embrace him because he gives them the access they want. It’s never been about God. It’s always been about power. They have it, which means Trump can get away with anything in their eyes.

(Thanks to Jenny for the link)

