“God,” goes the old saying, “moves in mysterious ways.” Far too mysterious for a Godless wastrel like me, I have to admit, but railing against God is not what this particular blog is about. Frankly, I’ve done lots of irreligious stuff since this blog began and I have no wish, at least not today, to head off down that road. No. I just wonder how my God-fearing friends feel about the way their God is presented by the fascists of America.
Donald Trump, all round rapist, racist and convicted felon that he is, was, according to religious nutcase Franklin Graham, saved from the assassin’s bullet by God himself. Said Graham: “When Donald Trump’s enemies thought he was down and out, you and you alone saved his life and raised him up with strength and power by your mighty hand.” Taking his lead, Trump himself added: “I was saved by God to make America great again.” Let’s hear it for God, then. But why did he prioritise Trump over others?
Trump’s inauguration was held on 20th January 2025, or Martin Luther King Day as it is known in the USA. With the brassiest of brass necks, Trump referred to King in his ugly, vindictive speech but strangely to address the question many of us were thinking: if God guided the assassin’s bullet to safety, how come he didn’t bother to save Martin Luther King? While we’re on the subject, where was God while California burned? Why didn’t he stopped the numerous school shootings? And in September 2024, why wasn’t he stopping those hurricanes that wrought havoc in Florida and elsewhere? Was he really that busy looking out for Donald Trump to the exclusion of all else?
I would imagine having faith in God means accepting that he doesn’t have a great deal of influence in just about anything. He gives us life, the faithful would say, and he just leaves us to get on with it and when it’s all over, he either admits us into heaven or sends us to hell. God, I would suggest, is a good guy. Therefore, it seems very odd to me that he would sit up there in the clouds and do absolutely fuck all while terrible things like the Southport murders are taking place, but when Donald Trump is in the sights of a gunman he leaps into action, rather like Superman, who is of course faster than a speeding bullet. In my best Christopher Hitchens voice, I say NON-SENSE.
The religious folk I know are also some of the kindest, decent and caring people I have ever met. They preach love, they help others as a matter of course. The ones I know are not rapists, racists, bigots, lying, pussy-grabbing misogynists, taking from the poor and giving to the rich. As a lily-livered, dripping wet left of centre liberal, I like to think I have a similar moral code to the religious good guys, if that’s the right expression.
I am not an expert on religious scripture, although I am aware that the God of the Old Testament was a serial wrong’ un. Evolutionary biologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins describes Him as follows:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Hang on, though. Maybe that’s it, then. America’s far right loves this version of God, and not the kinder, gentler God we learn about in school. Maybe also Donald Trump has based himself on this God. It would make perfect sense, although I do wonder how my own religious friends would feel about being compared in their religion to the one Trump and co seem to believe in.
You would like to think that in some way those whose beliefs are based on traditional religious values, like loving thy neighbour rather than having him deported to Mexico or wherever, might just stand up and say, “Well, the God Trump talks about is in no way the one I worship. Let’s kick Trump and his God out of our churches.” They won’t though, because in modern-day America, it’s this weird and brutal interpretation of the so-called holy scriptures that prevails.
I fear that the likes of Franklin Graham and his followers really believe that Trump was saved by an invisible God type goalkeeper, diving full length to divert the assassin’s bullet just past the post, although I suspect Trump himself knows better.
If it comes down to good and evil – as I guess it must do at some stage with the devout – then how can anyone call Trump good, a decent God-fearing citizen? He’s pure evil, an actual fascist, surrounded by fascists, at least one of whom does Nazi salutes. If God really does exist and he really did save Trump, then please send me to hell. On the day when commemorations are taking place to mark 80 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, it’s surely worth noting where fascism takes us?
