remember trump holding that Bible ( upside down ) in that photo-op in front of St. John’s Church across from the White House?…of course we do, the infamous clearing of the peaceful protesters by tear gas, clubs, riot shields, smoke canisters, and pepper spray and concussion grenades and police in full riot gear on horseback!…condemned by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, among others…remember trump’s answer to name his favorite Bible verse?…he’s told us his favorite book was the Bible, and his close second favorite book, The Art of Deal…he declined to name his favorite verse in August 2015…”too personal to share specifics”…but he loves the Bible…”I wouldn’t want to get into it because to me that’s very personal. You know, when I talk about the Bible, it’s very personal, so I don’t want to get into verses. The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”…John Heilemann asked him if he was a “Old Testament guy or a New Testament guy”…his answer “Probably equal.”…he was clearly full of baloney…then almost a year later, he decided to name his favorite verse…from CBS News by Rebecca Shabad from April 2016: “Donald Trump names his favorite Bible verse: The Bible verse that really resonates with Donald Trump is “an eye for an eye,” from the Old Testament. ( perfect, huh? )
In a radio interview on WHAM 1180AM, host Bob Lonsberry asked the GOP presidential front-runner if there is a favorite Bible verse or story that has informed his thinking or his character throughout his life.
“Well, I think many. I mean, when we get into the Bible, I think many, so many. And some people, look, an eye for an eye, you can almost say that,” Trump said. “That’s not a particularly nice thing. But you know, if you look at what’s happening to our country, I mean, when you see what’s going on with our country, how people are taking advantage of us, and how they scoff at us and laugh at us. And they laugh at our face, and they’re taking our jobs, they’re taking our money, they’re taking the health of our country. And we have to be very firm and have to be very strong. And we can learn a lot from the Bible, that I can tell you.”
Trump did not mention that the Old Testament’s “Eye for an eye” is later renounced in the New Testament in favor of “turn the other cheek,” in Matthew 5:38: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.”
Throughout his campaign, Trump has suggested that he actively practices religion and even showed off a Bible just a day before the Iowa caucuses earlier this year in an effort to court evangelical voters.”… incidentially, the Bible he showed us at his St. John’s photo-op was carried there by Ivanka…and we later find out the whole fiasco was Ivanka’s idea…from Vanity Fair by Bess Levin: “earlier this year, we noted that while the old saying goes, “behind every great man is a great woman,” the more appropriate adage for the Trump era would be, “behind every presidential fuckup is a first daughter and son-in-law who have no idea what they’re doing but nevertheless think they should be advising the leader of the free world.” Obviously, Donald Trump was (and remains!) extremely capable of destroying the country on his own, but as senior advisers, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner frequently helped things along. From not-a-doctor Kushner playing a key role in the government’s pandemic response—a role that reportedly included telling people early in the pandemic that the virus wasn’t a “health reality”—to Princess Purses reportedly demanding her dad deliver an address to the nation on a moment’s notice, which resulted in him telling millions of people, “The risk [of this virus] is very, very low,” wherever there was a screwup, those two could be found. And now, thanks to a new book from someone very familiar with the matter, we know that Ivanka was responsible for one of the most ridiculous, sacrilegious moments of Trump’s time in office.
According to the Religious News Service, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’s book offers a “detailed account” of the 45th president’s “infamous Bible photo op at St. John’s Church in June 2020,” which, it turns out, was reportedly Ivanka’s idea. For those who need a refresher, in June 2020, at the height of racial-justice protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, Trump, concerned about media coverage of his retreat to a White House bunker, had peaceful protesters tear-gassed so he could make his way to the nearby St. John’s church. There, he held up a Bible and posed for photos while telling reporters, “we have a great country” and vowing he would “make it even greater, and it won’t take long.”
Unlike the Bible, which miraculously didn’t immediately burst into flames, the whole thing completely blew up in the then president’s face. “Tear-gassing peaceful protesters without provocation just so that the president could pose for photos outside a church dishonors every value that faith teaches us,” Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement. “The fascist speech Donald Trump just delivered verged on a declaration of war against American citizens,” Senator Ron Wyden tweeted. “The President used our sacred text as a symbol of division,” episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde of St. John’s wrote. Even some Republicans were critical of the stunt. “We long ago lost sight of normal, but this was a singularly immoral act,” Republican operative Brendan Buck told The Washington Post. “The president used force against American citizens, not to protect property, but to soothe his own insecurities.” A senior White House official told Axios, “I’ve never been more ashamed. I’m really honestly disgusted. I’m sick to my stomach. And they’re all celebrating it. They’re very very proud of themselves.”
One person who presumably was indeed proud of herself? The first daughter.
Ivanka Trump [had] received calls about the fire [that had been set in the basement of the church], according to Meadows. In response, she hatched a plan: She suggested the president “give his address in the Rose Garden as planned, and then lead a group of his closest aides and advisers over to St. John’s Church, where he would deliver a short message to the American people.” Ivanka’s goal, Meadows said, was to signal that “law and order would prevail” and “send a message to people of faith.”
“As I watched President Trump listening to his daughter, I could tell he loved the idea,” Meadows writes. Meadows also writes that Trump’s aides scrambled to find a Bible for the president to use on June 1, pulling ones from their offices and stacking them on a desk outside the Oval Office. Trump, he says, ultimately chose one of the Bibles less because of its appearance and more for “the way it felt in his hands.”
The former congressman writes that Ivanka kept the Bible in her purse until the group arrived at St. John’s. They had expected to enter the church, inspect the damage and possibly say a prayer, but opted for an outside photo shoot upon realizing the sanctuary was boarded up.”
then we have Don jr….from The Intelligencer by Ed Kilgore, December 27, 2021: “Donald Trump Jr. Rejects Christianity’s ‘Turn the Other Cheek’ Teaching: In this season usually characterized by widespread longing for peace, kindness, charity, and reconciliation, Donald Trump Jr. has faithfully reflected his own family tradition of disrespecting such wussy sentiments, as former George W. Bush adviser Peter Wehner reports in The Atlantic:
Trump spoke at a Turning Point USA gathering on December 19. He displayed seething, nearly pathological resentments; playground insults (he led the crowd in “Let’s Go, Brandon” chants); tough guy/average Joe shtick; and a pulsating sense of aggrieved victimhood and persecution, all of it coming from the elitist, extravagantly rich son of a former president.
But there was one short section of Trump’s speech that I thought was particularly revealing. Relatively early in the speech, he said, “If we get together, they cannot cancel us all. Okay? They won’t. And this will be contrary to a lot of our beliefs because — I’d love not to have to participate in cancel culture. I’d love that it didn’t exist. But as long as it does, folks, we better be playing the same game. Okay? We’ve been playing T-ball for half a century while they’re playing hardball and cheating. Right? We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference — I understand the mentality — but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”
Junior’s rejection of one of the central teachings of Christianity (albeit one that Christians have never been very good at following) is reminiscent of his father’s citation of “an eye for an eye” as his very favorite Bible adage. Indeed, it was by way of repudiating the 45th president’s motto that Jesus articulated the very teaching Trump the Younger dislikes (Matthew 5:38–42):
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
That “hasn’t worked” for conservatives, so it’s disposable, along with other “soft” Christian teachings like forgiveness (which Trump Sr. once said he didn’t need), equality, the nobility of those suffering from poverty or disabilities, and a holy fear of self-righteousness. We have grown accustomed to the irony of conservative Christians all but idolizing a politician who is the most heathenish public figure of our generation, inordinately proud of his power over women in particular and supposedly lesser beings generally and incapable of confessing a single sin or weakness or defeat. But it’s still a bit jarring to hear this chip off the old block openly calling for an ethic of hatred, resentment, and vengeance against his imagined persecutors.
There is, of course, an ancient tradition in right-wing politics and culture of loudly proclaiming fidelity to Christianity while strategically ignoring its less convenient tenets. The authoritarian tradition of the 20th century, which so many of us fear the MAGA movement emulates, was conspicuous for promoting an extremely un-Christ-like worship of violence and repression in the name of defending “traditional Christian culture.” Adolf Hitler spoke of valuing “positive Christianity,” by which he meant the few teachings of Jesus Christ that did not directly contradict his gospel of racism, nationalism, and total war as a biological necessity. The Trumps aren’t typically articulate enough to promulgate a similar revision of the faith and may not personally subscribe to the crude racism and nationalism they relentlessly and cynically exploit. But it’s clear they appeal to a sort of cafeteria Christianity in which conservatives are encouraged to downplay or simply forget about the Jesus who condemned blood-and-soil loyalties on behalf of a universal ethic of love.
Mock it all you want, and I will, but this distorted Christianity has “worked” pretty well for Donald Trump Sr. and Jr. It has “gotten them” the White House for four years, dominion over of one of America’s two major political parties, and saddest of all, the especially devoted support of so many conservative followers of the Prince of Peace, who are willing to dismiss the savior’s teachings as T-ball and pursue an eye for an eye in order to smite their many enemies. So long as this thirst for holy violence and sanctified score-settling persists, the Trumps and their successors will always have a political base.”
that’s unfortunate, to say the least…”So long as this thirst for holy violence and sanctified score-settling persists, the Trumps and their successors will always have a political base.”…the apples don’t fall far from the tree…
John Madden dies…Harry Reid dies..and my check-up went well…blood pressure good…had to go across the street to Abington Hospital to have blood drawn…having fasted…there used to be a lab on the first floor of the doctors’ office, it closed for no reason, my doctor said…going over to the Hospital took 45 minutes…I spent the better part of the afternoon with this doctor appointment…you gotta do what you gotta do…found 3 shiny pennies and a nickel on my travels…
Art Salazar 