While it may be par for the course for most U.S. Presidents to face an indictment or two, more than that number does make you wonder at the wisdom of the electorate; what superlative qualifications did it see in such a person in the first place, that he was elected to the highest office in the land?
The Times reports and I quote that “He (Trump) has now been charged in four separate criminal cases related to his business and political activities, bringing his total criminal charges to date to 91. The cases are expected to play out over the coming months, setting up a long string of legal battles that will overlap with next year’s presidential primaries as Trump runs for President again in 2024.
In New York, Trump faces 34 felony counts over allegations that he falsified business records to conceal hush-money payments to a porn star. He’s also facing 40 felony counts in Florida for allegedly hoarding classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them, and four counts in Washington related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Most recently, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga. charged Trump with 13 felony counts in connection to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election result in that state”. Unquote.
As I write this, comes the news that E Jean Carroll, the writer and former advice columnist, was awarded a whopping $83.3m by a New York City jury on Friday in her defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump; the case involved rape. Trump denied the allegation, as usual.
Yet the overarching image ardent Republicans would want to cherish in their minds is the glorious picture of Trump posing for a battery of White House photographers with the Holy Bible in hand (upside down?) in front of a church, all the protesters in the area had been shooed away by the capital’s cops.
I know this narrative will not be music to evangelical ears, and I am not about to enter into an acrimonious debate on the subject. All I will say is, it well exemplifies my theme this week.
Image versus Reality
Here in India, there was hardly a newspaper that didn’t carry a dramaturgy of an image of the PM prostrating before an idol crafted by a Karnataka sculptor or of his taking a dip in Saryu river ……………his reported misdeeds of commission and omission all scrubbed clean.
The Bible (KJV)says the “whited sepulchres appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness“. Matt.23:27
Yet many a time we are not too worried about the inner reality, are we? What sells is the image. I remember a couple of lines from American Dream in the long running play Miss Saigon:
“Perfume can cover a stench,
that’s what I learned from the French.”
So, we erect a cross on the tomb, inscribe a suitable verse from the Bible about the death of a saint, strew it with flowers and hold a memorial marked by glowing tributes for the deceased- whatever the person’s reputation while he / she lived.
To be honest, I must mention here that I once saw a grave in Delhi that boldly carried the words “I hate you”. I can only imagine the kind of person the deceased was to engender such venom!
Talking about sanctimoniousness in Matthew 23: 23-26, Jesus doesn’t mince words:
“23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24 Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.”
Listen to Joey and Rory as they sing about a clean soul