The Bible as Mirror: Donald J. Trump

Last updated on: February 10, 2017 at 6:04 pm by John C Holbert

The Bible as Mirror: Donald J. Trump 2017-02-10T18:04:47-05:00 John C Holbert

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I have decided as of today that I would use characters from the Bible as a mirror for the actions and behaviors of our new president of the USA, Donald Trump, in a series of articles I am calling “The Bible as Mirror.” Last week I used the weird story of Elisha and the bears as a way of thinking about just how thin-skinned our new leader is. In the same way that Elisha allowed a few young children to goad him into a terrible curse and murderous action 1280px-Brown_bear_in_the_Skopje_Zoo_(1) s as a result of the curse, so I suggested that Trump continually allows negative comments about him to unhinge him in such ways as to bring forth, if not curses and bears, then verbal attacks of unseemly quality. This week has provided even more egregious examples. After his travel ban was imposed on potential immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries for 90 days, along with an unending ban on any immigrant from Syria, a federal judge struck the order down and lifted the ban. Earlier this week a three-judge panel reiterated its rejection of the ban.

Trump’s response to the first judge’s action was to dub him a “so-called judge” (appointed by George W. Bush, it should be noted). In response to that questioning of the ruling of a long-seated senior federal judge, Trump’s own nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy, Neil Gorsuch, called Trump’s tactless comment “disheartening” and nothing less than a threat to an independent judiciary, implying a possible constitutional crisis in the making. Trump’s response? To blame someone else, of course. The senator who reported Gorsuch’s comment in this case. And though the quote has been corroborated by several others who heard it, Trump has refused to believe that his own nominee would dare question anything he has done or might do. And at the end of the day, it is usually some member or members of the media who feel the wrath of the president, purveyors as they are, he never fails to say, of “fake news.” To top off the week, when the ubiquitous Kelly Ann Conway, close associate and spokesperson of the Trump administration, was again asked what the media should do with those statements from the president which are obvious lies, she replied, “Well, why don’t you support him whenever he tells the truth?” And so it has come to this. Full disclosure: I did not vote for the man. Indeed, I would have been hard pressed to vote for him if his opponent had been Attila the Hun. Still, I think it fair to say that we have an infantile, narcissistic blowhard on our hands for the next four years, and we have to think as rationally and as clearly as we can if we are to survive all this foolishness.

Why exactly did I think of Noah, that famous boat builder and sailor, as I witnessed these shenanigans from our nation’s capital? It certainly was not that quip from the story where we are told that “Noah found favor in the eyes of YHWH” (Gen. 6:8). The implication there appears to be that YHWH found something in Noah worthy of call. Well, I leave that one for you to puzzle out with respect to the new president. I thought, on the contrary, of that nasty little story at the end of the Noah saga, Gen. 9:20-27. This tiny tale has caused no end of evil in the world, since Noah’s “curse of Ham” was turned by some enterprising racist nincompoops into a universal curse on all “dark-skinned peoples,” employing a ridiculous and thoroughly false characterization of the nations said to have descended from Ham in Gen.10:6 to plead that all “darkies,” i.e. African slaves, were thus cursed to be slaves forever. Even that appalling nonsense, still alive in some racist enclaves even in 2017, is not what led me to Noah. Rather it was Noah’s problem with drink that reminded me of the president we now unfortunately are saddled with.

Remember the story. Noah is “ a man of the soil,” in short a farmer, and more specifically the owner of a vine Plate_3_of_22_for_the_Macklin_Bible_after_Loutherbourg._Bowyer_Bible._Sacrifice_of_Noah yard. After an especially fine crop of grapes, Noah samples his produce overmuch and falls down drunk and stark naked to boot. Nakedness means vulnerability, of course, and Noah, alone in his tent after his revelry, has passed out. The patriarch, hero of the flood escapade, has been reduced to a nude sot. Completely unaware, his son, Ham, wanders into his father’s tent, sees his disgusting father’s painful and unguarded foolishness, and rushes from the tent in horror, warning his two brothers outside what they are about to see if they go into the tent. The two brothers take great care, averting their eyes by shielding them from sight of the naked man by use of a blanket tossed over their shoulders and walking backward into the tent. Pointedly, we are told, “They did not see their father’s nakedness” (Gen. 9:23).

But now comes the Trumpian bit: “When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his younger son had done to him, he said, ‘Cursed be Canaan; lowest of slaves he shall be to his brothers” (Gen. 9:24-25). Just as many alcoholics do, as we have now learned, Noah blames someone else for his own actions. “He knew what his youngest son had done to him.” And what had he done? He only accidentally saw his father’s naked vulnerability, but that was enough for the pathetic father to blame him for what the father alone had done. Hence, he curses his son with a terrible curse, demeaning him as slave forever.

I do not imply by this that Trump has a drinking problem. In fact, I think he is abstemious when it comes to beverage alcohol. But he is just as surely a “dry drunk,” hung over on blaming others for his own actions. Hence, his string of blameworthy people and agencies, from media to Democrats to fake fact purveyors of all stripes. Such a man never takes credit for his own mistakes; in short he never makes mistakes, never admits mistakes, but is ever on the lookout for the real “perpetrators” when things do not go as they were supposed to go. Trump is Noah writ large.

It will not do to sweep all this under the threadbare rug of “God uses all sorts of folk to perform the divine will.” That, of course, is a true and deeply biblical notion. God does regularly use all manner of people, some we would hardly give a second look. But that old biblical idea should never be employed to hide the very real monstrosities that certain humans can do, and Mr. Trump has already, within the first three weeks of his term, done monstrously again and again.

So far, the new president has been seen to be Elisha, thin-skinned and easily provoked, and Noah, anxious to blame others for his own obvious failures. What other Bible characters may mirror the wild antics of Donald Trump? Stay tuned; I know there will be more to ponder. The mirror has not ended its work just yet. Donald_Trump's_hair_from_behind,_2007

Uncategorized

Previous Post

February 10, 2017

How to be Happy?

Next Post

February 14, 2017 It All Sounds So Religious!

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz