Ralph Drollinger

For a nation that is really big on the separation of the church and state, the United States government are having a whale of a time conflating the two.

In the latest frustrating yet unsurprising move by the Trump administration, Vice President Mike Pence and nine other cabinet ministers have decided to back the creation of a bible study group in the Capitol for the first time in one hundred years, with a controversial anti-LGBT clergyman who said gay people threaten “the discontinuation of the species” at the helm.

Ralph Drollinger, a seven-foot tall basketball player-turned-Evangelical pastor, is leading the bible study group that has resumed service in the White House.

The meetings, which takes place for 60 to 90 minutes every Wednesday, include several high-profile members of the Trump administration, including Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

The White House’s favoured pastor believes that “the ultimate outcome” of gay people “the discontinuation of the species since homosexuals cannot procreate.”

“Homosexuality and same-sex ceremonies are illegitimate in God’s eyes. His word is repetitive, perspicuous [clearly expressed], and staid on the subject,” Drollinger wrote in an article expressing his distaste for same-sex marriage.

He also said that endorsing LGBTQ equality is “to head in a direction contrary to God’s desire,” reports the Human Rights Campaign.

63-year-old Drollinger’s influence also stems outside of the White House.

His bible study groups under Capitol Ministries encompass 43 U.S. state capitols and more than 20 legislatures abroad.

But the one interesting factor out of all of these groups is that not a single one is led by a woman. Thanks to Drollinger, not a single female leader can take charge of any of the groups.

“There’s no [Biblical] prohibition of female leadership in commerce, there’s no prohibition of female leadership in the state, and there’s no prohibition of female leadership over children,” says Drollinger.

“But there is a prohibition of female leadership in marriage, and female leadership in the church. And those are clear in scripture… it doesn’t mean, in an egalitarian sense, that a woman is of lesser importance. It’s just that they have different roles.”