A Few More #TrumpBible Verses

Among whom was Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the mother of James & John. Three classy ladies. TREMENDOUS class. #TrumpBible

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-seven years old, but even young she was nothing to look at, so you can just imagine. #TrumpBible

Francis and Trump: Populist Leaders Preaching Divergent Messages

Seen from Europe, Mr. Trump is an amplified version of angry populists like Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader in France, playing to fears about migrants, Islam and economic stagnation.

.. “It expresses a resentment and hatred towards the ‘foreigner’ born of fear and economic insecurity,” Mr. Franco added. “Trump becomes the metaphor of an egotistical and racist Christianity, which for the pope represents an unacceptable oxymoron.”

.. “Francis’ walls are between the north and south of the world, and that’s why they bother him,” Mr. Vian said in a telephone interview. “His reactions are moral, not political.”

.. While populists like Mr. Trump and Ms. Le Pen partly blame foreigners for inequities, Francis points to structural inequities deriving from the global capitalist order. His speeches about the excesses of capitalism, often sprinkled with Old Testament fury, divide the world between exploiters and the exploited.

“God will hold the slave drivers of our day accountable,” Francis said in a speech to workers and business owners in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, as he called for greater Christian ethics in business. “The flow of capital cannot decide the flow and life of people.”

.. More than anyone, Mr. Trump symbolizes the excesses of capitalism

.. His economic critique is also a moral one, as he laments a “throwaway culture” in which poor people and migrants are collateral damage. By contrast, Mr. Trump likes to divvy people up as winners and losers.

.. God sent a messenger, Jonah, to warn people and the local king that they must change how they treat one another or the city would be destroyed. The king listened, and Ninevah was saved.

David’s Secret Weapon

The real message of the battle with Goliath is not that the underdog wins, but that things are not always as they are seen.

.. Yet Saul, whose very selection has been a concession to an insecure populace, proves more attentive to the people who demanded a king than to divine commands.

.. David, by contrast, is accustomed to being underestimated—by his father, by his brothers, by Samuel, and by the king—and perhaps for that reason is able to see beyond appearances. And now he also knows that God has chosen him. Rather than being intimidated into submission by Goliath, he coolly analyzes the giant’s defenses, ascertains his weaknesses, and, presenting himself as a harmless shepherd boy, turns Goliath’s misperception to his advantage.

.. This tension between appearance and reality lies at the heart of the entire story. Here are the words with which Samuel had earlier introduced Saul to the people: “See ye whom the Lord has chosen, that there is none like him among all the people” (10:24). Saul looks fit to be a king, just as Goliath looks like a mighty warrior. But for Saul, as for Goliath, what you see is what you get, and all you get. Indeed, the verb see is used again and again throughout the narrative to highlight a superseded worldview.

..  Nor does David pray to God for help before the duel.