Episcopal leader who criticized Trump Bible photo says POTUS should have knelt and prayed instead

Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, apologized Thursday for appearing with Trump after Attorney General William Barr cleared protesters outside of the White House last month so the president could walk across nearby Lafayette Square and be photographed in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.

Milley called his decision a "mistake" that "created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics."

Trump walked to St. John's on June 1 immediately after giving a press conference in the Rose Garden vowing to restore order in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an African-American, at the hands of Minneapolis police. The church had been damaged by fire the previous night amid a volatile mixture of peaceful protest combined with acts of violence against law enforcement officers protecting the White House and vandalism and arson in the surrounding streets.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington publicly criticized President Trump at the time for holding a Bible in front of the church.

But in a subsequent interview June 4 with Just the News, Curry clarified that if the president had knelt in front of the church and prayed for national unity rather than briefly posing with the Bible silently before walking back to the White House, then he would have supported him.

"I would have this objection whether it's a Republican or a Democratic president, using the church as a backdrop and using the Bible as a prop for a picture," Curry told Just the News. "If the President had gone over to the church and knelt down and said a prayer, and turned around and looked at the cameras ... and said, 'We agree and disagree on a lot of things, and you don't have to agree with me, I'm not asking that. But I do want to ask you, as the American people, to pray with me, I want to ask you to take a moment of silence and everybody pray in your own way. But pray that God will help us to find our way and that God will heal our land ... if the president had done that, he would have had my support." 

Curry called for Americans to "lay down our swords and shields" and cease partisan conflict as Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests, with some turning into violent riots resulting in death and injury to security officials.

"This might be a moment when we will sit down at the table of brother and sisterhood and lay down our swords and shields like the Bible says," Curry said. "You know, how it says in the Bible, in Romans 3, 'All have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God'? Well, I won't make it in terms of sin or falling short of the glory of God. But all have erred, Republican and Democrat. All have failed to serve our communities, all of our communities, to the level that they deserve ... I think this could be a moment, if we will work together and stop fighting each other for partisan purposes."

Curry, an African-American, said that during his teenage years in the 1960s he witnessed police using excessive force during rioting in his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y. Curry said that if the police who had tried to arrest Floyd for allegedly trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill had been more empathetic and viewed Floyd as a child of God, then they would not have used such lethal force.

To view the entire interview with Curry, click the video below:

"I'm not anti-police, but we want them to protect the city — protect and serve," Curry said. "I'm a priest, not a policeman. But I do know this. There is such a thing called 'smart policing.' And that has to do with training ... deploying police and developing community relations plans... In areas where they have actually had police officers in neighborhoods on the streets, walking the beats, riding the bikes they have actually seen reductions in crime. They've actually seen the neighborhoods and the police coming closer together. So there are smart ways to police that actually allow the police to do their jobs, minimizing use of violence, learning how to de-escalate situations that can help the police to do their jobs." 

Curry said while he still believes policy brutality is a problem, he has seen an improvement since his childhood. He also praised recent, bipartisan criminal justice reform and acknowledged Trump's work on the issue. He said voting rights legislation would not have passed without bipartisan support.

"I grew up in Buffalo, New York, and the congressman we loved was [the late Republican Rep.] Jack Kemp," Curry said. "And Jack Kemp was a fiscal conservative, but he had ideas for social policy that could help. I didn't agree with all of them, but I agree with a lot of them. There has been enormous social progress in our country. And there's no question in my mind about that."