Trump — King or Queen? A Biblical DoubleQuote
[ by Charles Cameron — a gender-bender for our times, and a caution against messianic projections on all too fallible humans }
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Either way, Donald Trump:
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To be frank, I don’t think Trump is either one — but Biblical excuses made by or on behalf of those Evangelicals who favor Trump‘s policies, and particularly his choices for the bench, are worth considering on their own merits.
King David notoriously slept with Bathsheba after sending his friend, her husband, off to die on the front lines, and yet G*d seems to have favored and used him. Similarly, Cyrus wasn’t even one of the Chosen People, yet he seems to have been one of the people chosen.
An aside — while I’m not sure if he originated the idea, it’s interesting that David Koresh, the leader of the Branch Davidians, named himself “Koresh” — “Cyrus” in Hebrew — and gave himself the title “sinful Messiah” because he felt both convinced / convicted of his sinfulness and called to a salvific, nay messianic, purpose. Esther? She was Jewish herself and beautiful, and protected the Jews from a holocaust back in the day.
David exemplifies the leader with a shady, nay adulterous and murderous, past.
Cyrus is the unbeliever in a G*d who uses him for his own purposes. And Esther is a ruler who preserves the Jewish people in a time of trouble.
Each analogy in turn has its merits — yet as regular readers here know, while I’m an enthusiast for thinking via analogies, I’m also concerned to bring critical appraisal to them. I have to admit I don’t see a Cyrus, David, or Esther here, and tend to think the long history of messianic projections by enthusiastic crowds, and messianic pretenders who came and went, should be a caution for us.
Trump looks to me like a man, is all. I wouldn’t trust him, and I don’t even trust myself.
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Sources:
CBN (2016), Chaos Candidate: Is Trump a Modern-Day King Cyrus? WaPo (2019), Holy Moses. Mike Pompeo thinks Trump is Queen Esther
September 3rd, 2019 at 6:24 pm
reminds me of the time at CMS where someone gave a talk on how the Antichrist and 666 are placeholders for the evil-du-jour, always ready to adjust. (eg Ronald Wilson Reagan six letters in each name = 666). And when he was done the first question was, “so who is the antichrist?”
September 4th, 2019 at 4:24 am
Yes indeed, Richard.
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My first contact with Stephen O’Leary came when I wrote to ECCHIST-L saying I was writing a book on that topic, and he replied that his own Apocalyptic Rhetoric book covered similar ground. He then introduced me to you, and the pair of you to the Center for Millennial Studies — and history…
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Not only do I keenly miss the CMS events — I also believe Millennial Studies is as lively and relevant a field today as it was before the turn of the millennium CE.