George Washington Talks To Jesus- American History Invented By The American Taliban

Because Kenneth Copeland was there to translate

I'd been at the mercy of a prick on a power trip, the kind of buttoned-up bantam rooster who gets off on control and then, when you resist him, tells you that you've got issues with control.

• Norah Vincent, Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin

Anyone who’s been a regular reader knows of my undying antipathy for Kenneth Copeland, who’s to Christianity what Josef Mengele was to surgery. Copeland’s brand of Christianity is based on a version of the Bible with which few are familiar. Worse, he has a distressing tendency to invent history as he stumbles through a sermon, as if history exists merely to support his narrative, whatever that happens to be at any particular moment.

You might find yourself wondering what George Washington said to Jesus. That wouldn’t be an unreasonable question, except they weren’t contemporaries. Of course, Kenneth Copeland has never been one to let truth or reality get in the way of a perfectly good story.

The Christian nationalist program “FlashPoint” held a two-day “Truth and Freedom” event at Faith Life Church in New Albany, Ohio, last week. Airing on televangelist Kenneth Copeland’s Victory Channel network, FlashPoint was launched in support of former President Donald Trump’s reelection in 2020 and has been dedicated to spreading lies about the election, disinformation, and conspiracy theories ever since.

It what seems to be becoming a theme at these live FlashPoint events, Copeland delivered a sermon filled with false Christian nationalist talking points, baselessly claiming that “the first act of Congress was to enter covenant with the Almighty God.”

“[George] Washington invoked his [inaugural] oath and covenant unto the Lord and sealed it with ‘so help me God,'” Copeland claimed. “He bowed his knee to the ground in reverence and kissed the Bible. Afterward Washington called the senators and newly elected officials to join him, and they walked arm in arm down the streets of New York City [to St. Paul’s] Chapel. There they bowed together, prayed, and dedicated this land—our beloved America—to God.”

“The day that George Washington was inaugurated, this was the day covenant was invoked,” Copeland asserted. “America belonged to God Almighty.”

Copeland then included Washington among the pantheon of Judeo-Christian patriarchs who made a covenant with God.

DID that happen? Who knows? When Copeland’s on a roll, it doesn’t matter.

“Now it’s God, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob—who became Israel—Jesus, and George [Washington],” Copeland declared. “This nation, particularly to Christian people, should be completely, totally based on what George Washington said to Jesus. The first act of Congress—number one!—the first act of Congress was to enter covenant with the Almighty God based on the book of Genesis.”

Of course, that Congress never actually entered into a “covenant with the Almighty God based on the book of Genesis” wasn’t about to stop Kenneth Copeland. He was on a roll; he had his narrative and damned if he wasn’t going to stick to it.

Never mind that the separation of Church and State was a thing then and remains a thing today. Despite Copeland’s effort to claim American governance for his flavor of God, that’s not quite how it works.

To put it mildly, he’s making shit up as he goes.

Contrary to Copeland’s assertion, Congress never made any such covenant with God; not in its official capacity as a legislative body, nor during the “divine service” that followed Washington’s inauguration, which was presided over by Rev. Samuel Provoost, chaplain of the U.S. Senate, who merely read from The Book of Common Prayer.

The Founding Fathers were quite wary of making the same mistakes England had made in allowing the commingling of governance and religion. They were determined to maintain an impenetrable wall that would allow Church and State to each have their place in the new country’s life. Each would have its place, but the Founding Fathers had no intention of allowing one to interfere with the other.

Many in the GOP are now listening to the siren call of American Taliban tyrants like Kenneth Copeland, who believes Church and State should be one. They’ll claim that the phrase “separation of Church and State” doesn’t appear anywhere in the Constitution…and they’re correct. However, there’s sufficient precedent to establish the intent of the Founding Fathers, including but no limited to:

• The 1st Amendments Establishment Clause

• The 1790 Treaty of Tripoli states that the US Government is in no way based on the Christian religion

• Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which he expressed his beliefs about federalism and the Establishment Clause

While it is true that George Washington in his inaugural remarks expressed gratitude and devotion to the “Almighty Being” and “Great Author of every public and private good,” he did not mention Jesus or Christianity. Whatever Washington may or may not have “said to Jesus” in a personal moment of silent prayer—it seems unlikely that Copeland knows—it did not create a national covenant with God, something the authors of the Constitution under which Washington was elected could have done had they so desired. Instead, they chose to enshrine religious freedom, prohibit the establishment of a national religion, and forbid any religious test for serving in public office.

The Founding Fathers, George Washington included, firmly believed in the separation of Church and State. They had the recent example of a corrupt and venal English government to help show them what could happen when governance and religion became inextricably intertwined.

Kenneth Copeland is unlikely to know what Washington may or may not have “said to Jesus” during moments of prayer. And even if he did, it should have no impact on the direction of American governance.

Religious freedom is a cherished right guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution- but religious faith has no place or role in our system of governance except in a private and personal sense. In the same vein, government should have no place in religious expression (don’t get me started on the issue of tax-exempt churches).

I firmly believe that the most significant reason America has survived intact for 247 years is that it has maintained the wall separating Church from State. Each entity continues to do what it does without interference from the other. And so Right-wing American Taliban zealots like Kenneth Copeland are free to stay on their side of the wall and make all the noise they want. Any threat they may pose remains minimal as long as that wall remains intact.

Copeland and his ilk may be mental and moral reprobates, but they can only do so much harm on their side of the wall. I sincerely hope it will remain that way.