Trump had to sit through a Christmas mass sermon about how words have ‘destructive potential’

On Christmas Eve this Sunday night, President Trump and First Lady Melania attended Christmas mass at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-by-the-Sea in Palm Beach, which also happens to be the church where they were married.

According to various reports, the Trumps arrived after the service had already started, prompting Rev. James Harlan to escort the couple inside while admonishing the audience to put away their cameras and phones so as not to serve as an “intrusion.”

“We’re here to worship,” Harlan told the audience in what sounded like an awkward moment.

Just before the service, Trump was on Twitter belting out his claim that he was responsible for making “Merry Christmas” an acceptable greeting again.

“People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again,” Trump tweeted. “I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

Earlier in the day, Trump fed this line of bullshit during a video conference to troops overseas, reassuring them that the country is saying “merry Christmas, again, very, very proudly.”

During the Christmas service, Rev. Harlan’s sermon touched on a key theme: the power of words. Intended or not, the poignancy of the sermon had to have reverberated throughout the congregation in light of who was sitting in the third row. According to a White House press pool report, Rev. Harlan started out his sermon with a quite from Nelson Mandela:

It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.

“Your words can have as much destructive potential as they do healing,” Rev. Harlan said.

Unfortunately, the President of the United States has chosen the former.

Featured image via YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.