When Donald Trump narrowly avoided an assassin’s bullet last year, many Christians, and Trump himself, ascribed the near miss to providential intervention. Trump’s ear did not go unscathed, but he rarely seems to listen to anything but his own voice, so it didn’t get much productive use anyway.
Unlike Naturalists I don’t view the universe as a closed system. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for an intelligent agent exterior to the natural universe to act on it; so I have no problem accepting that miracles have occurred or that they continue to occur.
MAGA (Make Anglicans Great Also as I like to think of it) enthusiasts hailed Trump’s survival as evidence that God really does want to make America great again. The most obvious problem with this is that America was never great in the first place. Obscenely wealthy, admittedly and that, in TrumpWorld, is much the same thing.
I offer a few possible explanations for what happened.
- The whole thing was simple chance, a matter of physics, Trump’s neurons firing randomly – something that happens a lot – leading him to turn his head at just the right moment.
- God did intervene because He wants Trump to survive. That in itself may be for a number of less than obvious reasons. Trump could be an instrument of divine judgement about to be visited on the West. It could be a precursor to Armageddon. MAGA evangelicals might think it is a precursor to revival, although that seems unlikely since Paula White is Trump’s spiritual advisor. If we are to be optimistic, it could be to protect the unborn, to support Israel, to usher in a new golden age where they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid. I’m not much given to optimism.
- Satan intervened and turned Trump’s head at just the right moment. Those suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome might well subscribe to this view. A variation on this would be that God permitted Satan to intervene or goaded him into it for one of the reasons I mentioned above.
- Shelley was a prophet and Ozymandias was a type of Trump.
I have no idea which of these is the true reason, although I am inclined to the last.
One thing I am sure of though is that, as Tolstoy maintained in War and Peace, the more we think we are in control of our own destiny, the less we actually are. And the more worldly power we wield, the more that applies.
America was once dirt, and I mean dirt, poor. Canada benefits immensely from the wealth it created.
Stop! You’re breaking my heart!
Oh, the magnamity!
I’m inclined to a Biblical explanation: Revelation 13:3. Since the United States in its GAE form is a “revived Roman empire” and hence the beast of Revelation, Trump has clearly been given a “mouth speaking great things and blasphemies” and power for at least 42 months (a presidential term is 48), his followers all show their allegiance to him on their foreheads, he is trying to rule the world through economic threats, an AI generated golden idol of himself is featured in his promotion of his vision for Gaza, the entire MAGA cult looks upon him as a messianic figure and at least four books have been written by Trump supporters literally claiming him to be the Christ and he as much as made that claim himself in 2019, the fulfilment of the wounded head prophecy seems the obvious explanation.
As I noted here in a previous thread:
“’An assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.’
– from his inauguration speech on 20 January.
That was when I first thought: oh-oh.”