Monday, June 01, 2020

Trump had protesters tear-gassed so he could use the Bible as a prop. What say you, evangelicals?

Remember these photos because they are important. They are the personification of how right-wing evangelical leaders have publicly debased themselves for Trump.




On Monday afternoon, Trump finally addressed the nation after the protests and riots which followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minnesota police. Did Trump console the nation? Did he offer words of comfort and leadership which are sorely needed after we've seen yet another example of black men becoming moving targets?

Of course not. This is Donald Trump. What he did was posture in the Rose Garden about "dominance" and "law and order"  and threaten to deploy troops in cities across the nation. He did this, mind you, as police fired tear gas  at unarmed protesters outside the White House.

And to top it off, the police also tear gassed protesters so that they could clear the area as Trump walked across Lafeytte Park and hold up a Bible in front a church while pictures were being taken. He's no doubt sending a message to his evangelical supporters.




Just like Jesus would, huh.

What Trump did today was the desperate act of a fool who knows he is losing an election. Watch how the right is going to push the "Trump took decisive action to stop the burning and looting" narrative.

I don't count on Trump's evangelical supporters to call him out for this egregious hypocrisy on his part. During the protests, evangelical leaders such as Franklin Graham and Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council remarked that America is in a crisis beyond that of racism and political brutality and thus the country needs to pray. They conveniently said nothing about Trump's lack of leadership

We do need to pray, though. We should pray that a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites stop wrapping themselves up in Bible verses and wishes for conservative judges. and own up to how they have harmed the nation by backing this fool.

Right-wing evangelical leaders built this beast with embarrassing praise every time Trump gave them what they wanted and mind boggling explanations whenever he acted in ways which were supposedly against their publicly trumpeted religious beliefs.

But now he has transformed the Bible - the very object that they claim to hold so dear as a symbol of truth - into a sad prop of corruption and a symbol of his personal toxicity.  What are these evangelicals going to say about it? What are they going to do about it? Anything?

I doubt they will say anything remotely resembling criticism,  but rest assured that the nation is watching. We're taking notes and we aren't happy.

1 comment:

Frank said...

To paraphrase a comment I read on another blog: When this fool holds up a bible, an angel vomits.