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| Donald Trump was asked about his favorite Bible verse in a Thursday radio interview, and he responded by citing an Old Testament law that Jesus specifically repudiated. In the interview on news radio WHAM-1180 in Rochester, New York, host Bob Lonsberry asked Mr. Trump whether there was "a favorite Bible verse or Bible story that has informed your thinking or your character through life, sir?" Mr. Trump responded with a Mosaic law rule an "eye for an eye," mentioned in several books, most prominently Exodus 21 . . . Unfortunately, an "eye for an eye" is one of the few Mosaic Law verses that Jesus singled out in the Sermon on the Mount as overcome, by the New Covenant that His death and resurrection would seal. "You have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other," Jesus says in the famous sermon Matthew 5. —RawStory, April 14, 2016. PHOTO: A billboard cartoon of Donald Trump being promoted by The Community of Saint Luke church in Auckland, New Zealand. CREDIT: The Community of Saint Luke via The Christian Post. |
“What am I bidden, good folks,” he cried.
“Who’ll start bidding for me?”
That’s the pitch
perfect (if we believe perceptions of perfection’s
promiscuous promise)
prophetic
perhaps
poetic.
“Do I have a deal for you!”
Rhetoric reiterated until routinized
galvanized
disguised
“sharpened to a single atom” to slice,
dice,
overprice
what’s selling today
stolen tomorrow
sold again the next day.
“An eye for an eye.”
“Who’ll make it two?”
The feverish double-edged sword flashes
blinding glint
binds unsuspecting hearts and minds on
the auction block. Never
mind the cost. “Sold to the highest bidder.”
Jill Crainshaw is a professor at Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Her poems have appeared in *82 Review and Five Magazine and in an anthology by Wicwas Press.