Pray in secret
Here is a passage worth reading slowly, especially less than four weeks before an election.
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. 8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
— Matthew 6:5–8 (KJV)
That passage is not about whether to pray. It is about who the prayer is for. If the audience is the point, the audience is the reward. And in Washington, the audience pays on schedule.
The street corner, now with a press pool
On June 1, 2020, President Donald Trump walked from the White House to St. John’s Church and held up a Bible for the cameras. Minutes earlier, protesters had been forcibly cleared from Lafayette Square. An Interior Department inspector general later found the park was cleared to put up fencing, not for the photo op. The photo op happened anyway.
The bishop who oversees the church, Mariann Budde, summed it up for NPR: “He did not pray.”
President Trump walks from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church on June 1, 2020. Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead, public domain.
Four years later, during Holy Week, he was urging supporters to buy the “God Bless the USA Bible” for $59.99, per AP. His pitch: “Let’s Make America Pray Again.” Jesus said the hypocrites have their reward. He never mentioned a retail price.
Republican Jesus, as seen on our TikTok @hypocrisydemocracy2026. Credit: Hypocrisy Democracy.
Both costumes, same street corner
Democrats, before you say amen.
In 2012, Democrats left the word “God” out of their platform. After a morning of Republican attacks, they put it back on the convention floor, per ABC News. Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa called the voice vote three times. On the third try, he ruled that the ayes had it, and loud boos erupted across the arena. God was restored to the platform by a vote nobody could clearly hear.
In December 2019, asked whether she hated the president, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “I pray for the president all the time,” per CBS News. Trump said he didn’t believe her.
Two months later, at the National Prayer Breakfast, the day after his Senate acquittal, Trump held up “ACQUITTED” headlines and, with Pelosi on the same stage, said: “Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when you know that is not so,” per AP via PBS. Pelosi called his remarks “so completely inappropriate, especially at a prayer breakfast.”
The 2020 National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton, Feb. 6, 2020. Trump spoke from a stage he shared with congressional leaders, including Speaker Pelosi. Credit: Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen, public domain.
Nobody here can see into anyone’s heart. That is the whole point of verse 6. A prayer announced at a press conference and argued over at a breakfast has already opened the door the verse told you to shut.
Thoughts and prayers, posted by 9 a.m.
You know the rest of the genre: the “thoughts and prayers” post (the King James would call it vain repetitions), the Bible held at just the right angle, the faith ad in the swing district. Neither party skips it. (We have written before about how much of Washington is Made for Television.)
None of this is a knock on prayer. It is a knock on the press release. Verse 8 has a line every office on Capitol Hill could tape above the camera: “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”
So do the voters. Skip the photo op and do the job.
If you pray, try it the way the verse says: enter into thy closet, shut thy door, skip the audience. If you vote, watch what they do when the cameras are off.
Receipts
- Bible Gateway, Matthew 6:5–8 (KJV). The passage as quoted, from the King James Version (public domain).
- NPR, June 2, 2020. The forced clearing of protesters, and Bishop Budde’s “He did not pray.”
- U.S. Department of the Interior Office of Inspector General, June 2021. The Park Police cleared the park to install fencing; the clearing ended at 6:50 p.m. and Trump walked to the church at 7:01 p.m.
- AP, March 26, 2024. The $59.99 “God Bless the USA Bible,” promoted during Holy Week.
- ABC News, September 5, 2012. The three voice votes, the boos, and the platform’s restored “God-given” language.
- CBS News, December 5, 2019. Pelosi’s “I pray for the president all the time” and Trump’s reply.
- AP via PBS, February 6, 2020. Trump’s prayer-breakfast remarks, the “ACQUITTED” headlines, and Pelosi’s response.
- Hypocrisy Democracy, Made for Television. Our earlier piece on politics staged for the cameras.
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Originally published on Substack.