Slugs and Mire

 I couldn't bring myself to watch any of the Charlie Kirk memorial service last night—but it seems, from the reporting, that Trump hasn't lost his shock-comedian's instinct for grotesque bathos. 

It sounds like Erika Kirk—Charlie's widow—to her credit—actually tried to deliver a message that was generous and big-hearted—indeed, noble. She said that she forgave her husband's killer. She said that she tried to return love for hate, instead of more hate. 

In short, she was actually trying to live up to the Gospel message: bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you, etc. 

In response to this, Donald Trump got up on stage and delivered the verbal equivalent of a wet fart. He said: "I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them," before turning to Charlie Kirk's widow to offer a disingenuous apology: "I am sorry, Erika." 

At least he was being honest for a change. He was telling us—in the sense the Maya Angelou quote intends—"who he is." 

After all, Trump has spent this entire past weekend berating his attorney general online for so far failing to secure criminal indictments against his political opponents. He really does hate people simply for disagreeing with him, and fully intends to persecute them as much as he is able. 

No sign of the Gospel ethic from him. 

The glimpse into Trump's inner world and psychic state that these comments—both his admission that he "hates" his political opponents, and that he wants his attorney general to find any pretext to put them in jail—is typically rancid. One recoils at the prospect. 

In his malodorous brain what slugs and mire—to borrow a line from a poem by Isaac Rosenberg—which pictures a tyrant deity on the model of some sort of cosmic Jabba the Hutt. 

But Trump's frank rejection of the Gospel and disavowal of the Christian ethic was at least refreshingly candid—compared to the nonstop barrage of steaming hypocrisy coming from the lips of the pseudo-pious members of his administration: Hegseth, Rubio, and Vance. 

Each one of these men made a point of touting their Evangelical credentials at the event. And one right-wing podcast host at the service apparently applauded Trump for undertaking that "godly mission of wielding the sword against evil."

I don't know what he had in mind exactly. But I know that Trump—just days before this memorial service—approved the extrajudicial killing at sea of three more people on a third boat departing Venezuela. That brings the total number of people he has murdered in recent weeks up to 17—by my count. 

This administration wants to stigmatize and scapegoat an entire community of innocent people—trans people—by tarring them all with the crime of one young man. 

They want to accuse the Left of being—in the words of Elon Musk—the "party of murder." 

They want to howl for the death of a 22 year old boy on the theory of an "eye for an eye."

They want to wrap themselves in the mantle of holiness and piety—as if God and Jesus were self-evidently on their side—

As if the Gospel did not address itself word-for-word to the principle of "an eye for an eye," so that Jesus could expressly disavow it. 

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you [...]. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 

Only Erika Kirk seems to have paid attention to that verse. Only she seems to agree with me that a 22 year old—indeed, any human being—has "A neck God made for other use / Than strangling in a string" (to quote A.E. Housman). 

Meanwhile, all the time that they want to repay murder with murder—they are themselves murdering still other people at sea without charge or trial—indeed, without any legal basis for their actions whatsoever—whether under the laws of war or the laws of nations. 

17 people, by latest count. 

And they dare to summon God? 

Ye hypocrites! are these your pranks?
To murder men and give God thanks!
Desist, for shame!--proceed no further;
God won't accept your thanks for Murther! (Burns)