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How Trump Is Doubling Down on His ‘God Complex’: Columnist
President Donald Trump is “doubling down on his God complex,” The Guardian‘s Emma Brockes writes in an opinion piece, questioning why evangelical Christians are onboard.
Brockes points to the president’s Oval Office recording of a Bible passage this week, part of an America Reads the Bible event that urges people to repent of their “wicked ways.” She wonders if America’s evangelical Christians, “who overwhelmingly support Trump, have a red line and if so, can they find it with both hands?”
Trump, she writes, is “treating us to a section of the Old Testament as part of a week-long, continuous public reading of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.” She wonders about “separation of church and state,” before noting that Trump is the same president who has, variously, been found by courts to have falsified business records, as part of a hush-money payment scheme to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, and sexually abused and defamed E Jean Carroll.”
Reading from Scripture, Trump on Tuesday said: “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, and will heal their land.”
READ MORE: ‘Vile Racist’: Trump Promotes Unhinged Anti-Birthright Citizenship Screed
Brockes appears to mock Trump, saying, “what I love about the choice is that it comes hard on the heels of his other, recent engagement with Christianity in a way that looks to me a lot like doubling down.”
“It’s very him, isn’t it?” she notes. “Ten days after sharing an AI-generated image in which Trump appeared as a Jesus-like figure healing the sick, here he is delivering a Bible passage that involves taking on a first-person delivery of God’s word.”
Trump’s approval among Catholics has taken a beating, she suggests, noting his approval rating with them is underwater.
Evangelicals, by comparison, “are much more solidly and implacably pro-Trump, not least because he put through their agenda to restrict abortion rights by delivering a rightwing majority to the supreme court. They also appear to be more politically organized in the US.”
Brockes asks if the mission of America Reads the Bible would be better served “by the country not starting an unnecessary war, deporting American citizens or cancelling foreign aid to cause the deaths of an estimated 600,000 people worldwide.”
“On the other hand,” she observes, “if a convicted felon reading a passage from the Bible makes you feel closer to God, then all one can say is good luck to you.”
READ MORE: Trump: ‘Extraordinarily Brilliant’ — Yet Stumped by Virginia’s ‘Rigged’ Referendum
Image via Reuters
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