Why does the White House study the Bible and arrange collective prayers

For the first time in at least 100, US Cabinet members attend a Bible study group. What exactly are ministers studying? What does Donald Trump think about this endeavor? And why women can not lead a similar group?

Photo: facebook.com/WhiteHouse

Every Wednesday, many of the most influential US politicians gather in one of the conference rooms in Washington to learn more about God, writes Air force.

Where exactly this conference room is located is unknown, as the secret service does not allow disclosing such information. However, the names of those who participate in these biblical discussions are known.

Among them are Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of Justice Jeff Sessions and many others.

In total, the 10 cabinet ministers call themselves sponsors of this circle. They do not necessarily participate in the Bible discussion every week, because, after all, they are very busy people. But they come there when time permits.

It takes an hour and a half to discuss the Bible, and group members can contact the teacher at any other time if they have questions about Scripture.

And who heads this most influential Bible study group in the US?

Meet Ralph Drollinger, a six-foot-tall former professional basketball player turned pastor. Drollinger, 63, calls himself “just an athlete with bad knees.”

Drollinger grew up in La Mesa, a suburb of San Diego in California. As a child, he rarely went to church—about a dozen times, he said—and he wasn’t particularly interested in the Bible.

“I always promised myself that sooner or later I would read it,” he says. “But every time I opened it, it didn’t tell me anything.”

But in the last year of school, after a basketball game, the cheerleaders invited him to their Bible study group. He came, and since then his life has changed.

“It was the first time I really heard the words of Scripture,” he says. “When I came home, I read the entire Gospel of Matthew and opened my heart to Jesus.”

In 1972, Drollinger entered the University of California at Los Angeles, receiving a sports scholarship. He began to go to church. This parish paid a lot of attention to Bible study, and, as Drollinger says, he eventually fell in love with the Scriptures.

After university, he could become a professional basketball player: the NBA invited him three times. But every time he refused.

“I was so passionate about being a pastor that everything else seemed much less important,” he says.

"Athletes in Action"

Instead, he began playing for the Christian team Athletes in Action (Athletes in action). They played basketball all over the world, around 35 countries, and preached the Gospel in halftime.

“It was wonderful for me,” he says. “Because I didn’t like basketball that much, but I loved preaching.”

Drollinger eventually joined the Dallas Mavericks in 1980, but only because he wanted to attend seminary in Dallas. He played only six times for the Dallas Mavericks and left the team after his first season.

After he retired from professional basketball, he worked as a pastor for athletes, and in 1996 he entered politics.

His road to work at the White House began due to a lack of faith among Christians in California.

In 1996, his wife, Daniel, headed the agitation and propaganda committee, whose goal was to promote Christian politicians.

“But she was disappointed,” he says. “The committee helped elect politicians, but as soon as they came to the capital of California, they lost their Christian beliefs.”

The couple took into their own hands the already existing parish in Sacramento, changed its name, and began offering weekly Bible study classes, moral support and the opportunity to communicate with the pastor alone.

This initiative proved extremely popular, and Drollingers began to expand. Today, their church has opened its parishes in the 43 state capitals of the United States, and in more than 20 parliaments abroad.

Each parish of the Capitol Pastor Church has its own local pastor, but they are all men. Why are there no women among them?

“The Bible does not prohibit women's leadership in commerce, nor does it prohibit women's leadership in public affairs, nor does it prohibit women's leadership in matters of children,” Drollinger says. “But there is a ban on women’s leadership in marriage and women’s leadership in the church. This is clearly stated in Scripture... This does not mean, from an equality standpoint, that women are less important. They just have a different role.”

In 2010, the Capitol Shepherd parish appeared in Washington. There was already a parish in the American capital that worked with politicians. This is the "Brotherhood" parish (The fellowship), which organizes the National Prayer Breakfast, but Drollinger believes that from a biblical point of view, they are crazy.

He compares this approach to Christianity to cotton candy - something big, sweet and ephemeral. He, in his words, offers a “high-protein diet” and teaches the Word of God - book by book, verse by verse. Drollinger says it can take a year to study one book of the Bible.

“If you don't have a spiritual coach who leads you in the path of God's word, and leads you in the path of godliness and not in the footsteps of your sinful being, then you cannot become like Christ,” he explains.

Bible and Ministerial Posts

In the Brotherhood, he said, they believe that lawmakers can study the Bible on their own, with each other.

“I say no, this is a fundamental mistake,” says the shepherd. —The letter to the Romans said: “How can they hear without a preacher?”

Bible study for members of the House of Representatives began in 2010, now there are already 50 participants in this circle.

When four of them were elected to the Senate, they asked for permission to arrange a class for senators, who began working in 2015. In March last year, a group began to work for members of the cabinet.

“Trump started nominating all the kids who were studying the Bible in our study groups for ministerial positions,” says Drollinger.

“Unlike our secular media, we have seen that applicants for ministerial portfolios have something in common, namely faith in Christ,” Drollinger says. “That’s why Jeff Sessions, Tom Price (former Secretary of Health) and others have proposed that Cabinet members start studying the Bible.”

Over the past hundred years, this is the first group of current ministers studying the Bible. Something similar happened during the years in which George W. Bush was in power, but then the Scriptures were studied by less senior officials.

Photo: facebook.com/WhiteHouse

President Trump is not in the Drollinger Group, but he is a Christian and receives eight-page printouts from the Drollinger about the group’s work.

“Trump is responding to my Bible study posts,” Drollinger claims. “Come on, Ralph, move on, I liked this study,” the president writes to me. Something like".

Interpretation of the Bible

Drollinger's weekly Bible study is not private or secret: anyone can read it.

About same-sex marriage, for example, he writes: “Homosexuality and same-sex marriage are illegal in the eyes of God.”

Regarding capitalism: “The right to private property, also known as free enterprise or capitalism, is a government-run economic system supported by Scripture. Scripture does not support communism."

Regarding debt, Drollinger writes: “When an individual, family, or government borrows money to cover expenses in excess of income, it is an indicator of poor management, it is stupidity.”

So, if politicians follow the Bible, is it necessary, for example, to kill homosexuals? No, replies Drollinger, not all civil laws from the Old Testament should be applied.

“I think that was true for ancient Israel, but not for the church as a whole,” Drollinger explains, adding that he doesn’t think it’s possible to literally apply everything in the Old Testament to life.

The pastor compares himself to a waiter in a restaurant. He does not give his own lessons, but serves the Word of God, as written in the Bible.

“If God is the chef, then I'm just a waiter, and I hope these guys enjoy the treat. On the way out of the kitchen, I don't season the dish. My job is simply to serve,” he says.

And if people do not like the message or, in the words of the pastor, the dish?

“Then you need to talk to the boss himself, that is, to the Lord,” the preacher suggests.

Church and State

Drollinger believes what the Bible says about the separation of church and state: “We need to draw a line between the two. Unfortunately, many of our religious leaders do not distinguish between these two institutions.”

In January, after one of the authors New York Times He called Drollinger and his followers Christian nationalists, the pastor wrote a large letter in response. What are his objections?

“These characteristics mean that I am secretly meeting with members of the cabinet to overthrow the government,” Drollinger replies.

But do not the cabinet ministers interpret the biblical teaching in favor of merging church and state?

“I believe in their institutional separation, but not in the separation of spheres of influence,” says the pastor.

“It doesn’t matter what field we’re talking about—family, commerce, education—they all need the application of the word of God to work properly,” Drollinger counters.

“As soon as I unite church and state institutionally, I slide into a theocracy,” he claims.

Drollinger never gives his charges advice on how to vote or what policy to follow. But he hopes that this becomes obvious to them in the process of studying the Bible.

Do students disappoint him?

"Oh yeah. I am very disappointed when I see the immaturity of actions and decisions,” he admits.

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