Secretary of Church and State

It is a little bit jarring, just after noting that AG William Barr blames "militant secularists" for all sorts of nation-decaying moral turpitude, from drug use to experimental jazz, that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has seen fit to grace the official government page for his agency with an advert for his speech on being a Christian Leader. There once was a Secretary of State who delineated a separation of Church and State, but Mike Pompeo does things a little differently.  I guess we could disagree about the results.

As a matter of preference, I think it would be wrong to say that Mike Pompeo's faith would be in anyway disqualifying for his office--obviously, the traditions of the United States should hold that there is no litmus test with regard to religion for higher office. I'd say it is dismaying that he elects to depict things through the lens of his religion without respect to externalities like whatever is actually happening. Being Trump's chump, excusing and covering for apparent abuses of office, and even finding an excuse for what Trump's incompetence is doing to Christians in Syria shows dubious leadership of any sort, whether Christian or otherwise.

As to the profession of his faith, if he does so in his personal time, this is no concern of mine--but broadcasting his Christian leadership on his official agency website seems to be both a timely advertisement of his faith (and refuge!) and a thing that does not belong there, as if privileging the special nature of leadership and Christian thought (and shading the leadership that might be posed by persons of other faiths, or no faith at all).

A person in his office should know better, but it is perhaps true that knowing better and doing better are separate things in Trump World.