It’s no secret that the great majority of religious right figures who rallied to Donald Trump rank among some of the most extreme elements in that movement. For instance, his spiritual adviser, Paula White, offered a staggeringly blasphemous invocation in which she prayed for this country to be “a true hope for mankind.” Frank Amedia, a pastor in Ohio who helped organize an ad hoc team to cover Trump in prayer, claims that he knows Trump really was wiretapped because God told him. Well, add another one to the list. Several Cabinet members are taking part in a Bible study led by a pastor whose theology is extreme even by religious right standards.
That pastor is Ralph Drollinger of Capitol Ministries. Drollinger was a star center at UCLA, where he played on John Wooden’s last national champion. Since 1997, he has led Capitol Ministries, whose stated goal is to “make disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena throughout the world.” He discussed the method behind his organization with CBN in 2016.
As laudable as Drollinger’s efforts may seem on paper, the way he’s going about it is anything but. Fusion’s Brendan O’Connor did a little digging into Drollinger’s background, and discovered that Drollinger has a long history of extremist statements. In 2004, he came under fire for declaring that Catholicism was a false religion and accused female elected officials of sinning by staying in office when they had children.
Four years later, he claimed that unnamed Jewish, Catholic, and liberal Protestant lawmakers “reject the God of Scripture.” By 2009, the controversy over his theology and his leadership style caused the leaders of 16 Capitol Ministries state chapters to break away and form a new group, Capitol Commission. His longtime church home, Grace Community Church in the San Fernando Valley–a longtime bastion of old-school fundamentalism in Southern California–disavowed him.
Drollinger hasn’t slowed down, however. He holds a Bible study for Cabinet members every Wednesday morning. Among the regular sponsors are Rick Perry, Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Tom Price, Scott Pruitt, and Vice President Mike Pence. It’s an extension of Bible studies he has held on Capitol Hill since 2010.
So what kind of theology does Drollinger teach? Well, among other things, he teaches that government has no business helping the poor because God never intended for government to have that role. Following up on this, he contends that social welfare programs are based on “the bad theology of theological liberalism.” He also argues that the environmental movement is a religion, and openly scoffs at the notion of climate change.
In a September 2015 interview with KKLA in Los Angeles, Drollinger made no bones about wanting more elected officials in office who share his vision. He sees Capitol Ministries as a “factory” to get more people like Michele Bachmann in office. Drollinger noted that Bachmann, a member of the Capitol Ministries board, never took much time to decide how to vote during her eight years in Congress because “she sees the world through a scriptural lens.” He openly stated that this nation needs “more men and women like her in office.”
As an evangelical Christian myself, this sends a chill down my spine. We should want our leaders to think through the issues, not simply vote like automatons. Apparently Drollinger forgets that God gave us minds for a reason–to use them.
Listening to that interview, it’s no wonder Drollinger was effectively drummed out of his church. You would think that if a guy who was so extreme that a strongly fundamentalist church would want nothing to do with him, he be the last person that would crop up as a spiritual adviser to members of Trump’s Cabinet. But then again, we’re talking about an administration where a press secretary can keep his job after planting a fake news story, and where a counterterrorism adviser can keep his job after calling a private citizen at home to berate him. In other words, the bar isn’t that high to begin with.
(featured image courtesy Capitol Ministries)
