51/49

Years ago, I was in North Carolina visiting Episcopal friends and they invited me to join them hear Bishop John Shelby Spong. I was delighted. I remember two things. One, he was whisked away before I got a chance to thank him and to introduce myself.

Two, he gave a great talk about the hierarchy of the South around race and racism. He said it was very simple. There was a pecking order. On top: Wealthy Whites. Next: Poor Whites. Then: African Americans.

Someone asked where do women fit in all of this? His response was simple. “The wealthy white men get to decide. It fluctuates depending on their needs.” He was then asked, “What about Latinos and Asians?” He responded similarly. “Same as before. The wealthy white men go to decide.”

Thirty years ago I was at a conference on religion, gender, and sexuality. It was the widest ranging panel of folks I can remember being on. I was seated next to the representatives from the Church of God and the Church of Christ. Those interactions are their own stories. But I remember a conservative Presbyterian denomination speaking (there is mote than one Presbyterian denomination) on behalf of his beliefs. The question was about dominion over the earth.

He explained his beliefs this way in that he believed men should rule the world, with input from others. He used his own marriage as an example. “My wife has 49% of the power in our relationship. I have 51%. I always listen to her. She has a lot of sway. Ultimately, I have final say.”

He comes to mind from time to time, given that this was back in 1997, and I’ve wondered if all this still holds for him. He had said this after I had shared that over 50% of our ministers were women.

But the power over piece of his comments at the time were something I interpreted as placation. What “Dominion Over” means can vary, at least in the eyes of those saying it. I suspected the Presbyterian minister who said that 29 years ago was saying that his wife had earned enough trust to get to 49%. I’ve wondered if that percentage has varied over the years. I’ve also wondered if it has varied if he’d ever say that out loud.

But it was Spong’s comment, “The wealthy white men get to decide,” that has helped me understand so much of what’s going on in the world. Especially at the moment.

I was reading about the president’s spiritual advisor, televangelist Paula White-Cain. I recently saw a “laying on off hands” and her commiserating as how to much the president had been put through.

This parroted the president’s sentiments a few years ago when he said that Vladimir Putin had gone through a lot of hell with him. He was talking ostensibly about investigations. What I believe he actually meant was, “We don’t get to do whatever we want.” Though his idea of doing whatever he wants and mine (and I suspect yours) varies widely.

I also heard her talk of the president as being a Christian. I also witnessed an online fight between two conservative Christians about this. One had posted what she believed to the president’s conversion testimony on-line. The other immediately posted, “I don’t believe this for a second.” No one else responded.

I’ve heard the president talk and say he was a Christian. There are those who believe him. And those that don’t.

I’ve also seen two reports he went to Marble Collegiate Church for a while, where Norman Vincent Peale was minister from 1932-1984. You may know him from “The Power of Positive Thinking.” The church though was very conservative as is the denomination of the Reformed Church of America. (Though recently there’s been a split in the denomination as some congregations have become less conservative.).

I remember from my own days growing up in the Southern Baptist church there was a range of theology and belief within the church. The first minister I remember was extremely progressive for 1970. The next minister was more conservative. The members of the church were a range (which when I was a teenager would include a 4-year-old who would become a Backstreet Boy).

I also remember in one of my first years of teaching back in Kentucky talking with someone who when she learned I went to the Unitarian Universalist church responded immediately (and clearly pleased with her response), “That’s what I tell the Jehovah’s Witnesses when they knock on my door and ask.”

There are a couple of things to think about all that. People have always said they are religious as a way cope with someone else’s religious fervor or because it was politically advantageous for them. There’s also the reality that Christianity, like most religious traditions, is hardly a single story but more of a wide range of how that was lived.

I remember learning Nixon was a Quaker, though he is nothing like I would think about Quakers. I’ve met people who describe themselves as liberal Muslims (Zohran Mamdami is public example) and liberal Mormons.

My best friend from elementary school had parents who never went to church but said they were Christian.

So there is clearly a range of what it means to be Christian, or any religious person.

There are also alliances. I was listening to “On Point” on the radio on my way to tennis this week and heard about the church that Pete Hegseth went to, which was definitely conservative, and definitely a “Dominion Over” church, though I expected it was far more than 49%.

I do believe that one of the connections between the president and Hegseth is about a shared belief, that of “dominion over” more so than religion, though the prosperity gospel has definitely spilled over to people thinking that Christianity is about making money.

But it also has made me think about the president’s curious statement when asked about the Strait of Hormuz reopening and the idea of the Iranians collecting a toll of 2 million dollars per ship. This prompted the president to muse aloud that perhaps the US and Iran could split that.

The Iranian leadership is definitely a “Dominion Over” version of Islam.

Could the president who threatened to wipe out an entire civilization pivot quickly into a profit-sharing arrangement with the same government?

Well, if you believe as Bishop Spong said, “The wealthy white men get to decide,” it’s not that hard of a pivot to imagine.

It’s a frame that does help explain why Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi were the first two people to be fired from the Cabinet. (I would not be surprised if Kash Patel is next, and the white men are after him.)

One thing I heard Katherine Stewart (author of Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy Democracy) say in an interview was that one thing she was sure the president didn’t believe in was democracy. She said she believed most Christian Dominionists didn’t. (Even more so when the majority of voters are not white and male)

She also added that this is often the bond between unlikely alliances, though she pointed out that Putin has called Russia a white Christian nation. Hungary is perceived that way as well. Hence, the bromances with the leaders and with Vance being dispatched to Budapest a few days before their elections.

Someone asked this morning, “Why is Vance in Hungary?”

A threat to “Dominion Over” somewhere is a threat to “Dominion Over” everywhere. It’s probably why Netanyahu and Trump do so well. They both like the power over. Would the president prefer to be with a Christian whose liberal or a more conservative Dominion Over type of Muslim or Jew or even Atheist?

Bishop Spong reminds us, “This is about hierarchy. And the wealthy whites get to decide where others fit.”

We’re witnessing that now.

There are kinds of ways to Christian and all kinds of ways to be a Dominionist, whatever your faith is.

If I were to guess, this ceasefire and talks will last until someone has to give up control to someone who doesn’t look like them. The shared “power over” has a relatively short shelf life.

But the Power Over shelf life of one will last until it can’t, and as we’ve seen that can be a surprisingly long time.

Is the president Christian? Perhaps. But I hope the next reporter who asks him that, asks him what kind of Christian he is. Does his faith allow him to respect and, as all the report cards I filled out over the years had to assess on every child said, play well with others?

It’s a shame the report doesn’t come with the box, “Plays well with others as long as he’s on top.”

It’s clear that the president’s fervor, religious or otherwise, is for being on top. And probably way more than 51% of the time.