In the post-apocalyptic themed movie The Book of Eli, Denzil Washington plays Eli, a nomadic, perhaps divinely appointed prophet and guardian of the last remaining copy of the Bible. His mission is to protect and transport it to a place of safe keeping.
Gary Oldman plays the role of Carnegie, a villainous strongman seeking to dominate and control all the people and resources that have survived nuclear holocaust.
Carnegie is a collector of books and a voracious reader even though few books remain. He is brutal and relentless in his quest to acquire books, and when he learns of the existence of a copy of the Bible, Carnegie becomes obsessed with possessing it.
He says the reason he wants it is because if he tells people that what he says comes out of the Bible, they will believe him, follow him and obey him even if nothing he says actually is biblical. At first Carnegie tries to reason the Bible away from Eli, but that doesn’t work, so Carnegie opts to take it by force.
Ultimately, Carnegie and his henchmen are able to seize this last remaining copy of Scripture from Eli. While holding it, Carnegie shoots Eli in the stomach (not very Christlike). Later, Carnegie unclasps the book only to discover it is written in Braille and he can’t read it. But it doesn’t matter. It’s only a prop, a tool, to convince the masses he has authority.
I can’t forget the picture of Donald Trump holding a Bible as a prop in front of St. John’s Church across the street from the White House after having his henchmen remove those ministering from the steps of the church while believing using the Bible (which he displayed upside down) to shore up his legitimacy and authority is appropriate.
In the final days of this election cycle, Trump has regularly appealed to all the “beautiful Christians” and professes he is a Christian. While I can’t presume to know whether he is or is not Christian, or of any other faith for that matter, his words and deeds are suspiciously uncharacteristic of a Christ follower.
For those of his supporters who believe he is divinely chosen to occupy the Oval Office, for those who believe God spared his life for that purpose and yet allowed another to die, I have lots of questions. For those who believe God would choose a man so bent on demeaning others, I wish they would open a Bible.
And I’m eager for the former president to one day actually open a Bible.
Just sayin’ …
Grady L. Throneberry, Louisville, Ky.
This post was originally published on here
