By Roland Lee Hughes
I see reports that our president will be hosting a reading of the Bible beginning today, April 21st.
And I see the passage chosen for him specifically: 2 Chronicles 7:14.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin.”
A call for humility. Assigned to this man. At this moment.
Days after posting an AI generated image of himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick — then claiming he thought it depicted him as a doctor. With angels above and glowing hands.
Days after his Defense Secretary led a prayer at the Pentagon and recited what turned out to be a paraphrase of a speech from Pulp Fiction rather than actual scripture.
And amid an ongoing and documented pattern of religious memes flowing from official government accounts — the White House, and other federal agencies, on Facebook and across social media platforms. The Constitution has a provision about this. It wasn’t written by people without faith, or by men who denied Divine order. It was written by people who understood exactly what happens when faith and governmental power occupy the same chair.
The separation of church and state wasn’t born from a distrust of God. It was born from a distrust of men who use God.
There is obvious stretching of our laws when elected officials use public resources for religious discourse. And if one president can use the Oval Office to read the Bible, another could use it to read the Quran, or whatever the Scientologists read. The principle isn’t about the book. It’s about the chair it’s being read from.
Now. Why the Old Testament? Why this passage specifically?
Every man has a conscience, even if it’s silent to him. Shame operates out of the conscience.
And when shame triggers, the instinct is to hide it. To hide embarrassment. To dress up flaws as something better. Something righteous. Something ordained.
My life has been littered with shameful deeds and a shamed heart. Until I was capable of owning my shame — accepting it, revealing it, integrating it. Shame ran my life in the background. By instinct, not by awareness. The subconscious doesn’t ask permission. It just operates.
Accountability is required to build self trust. Self trust integrates shame into signal — into meaning. Without it, shame doesn’t disappear. It finds another direction. It buries itself underneath.
A person who lives under shame, who is not humble, who lives by grandiosity and legacy, who requires the performance of righteousness rather than its practice — They end up releasing their misery onto others.
It’s all they know.
It’s all they feel.
Compensation is the mechanism behind the shame. We try to repair and fix — the results more than the behavior. We dress our best, force a smile, and attach ourselves to identity. Hero, Good, Strong, Religious, Patriot, but most of all, we call ourselves “Right.” But when we find ourselves alone, without anyone to rely on or impress, do we really feel the way we present ourselves?
Or do we compensate?
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