Creature of Dust

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I write to you as a fellow believer who loves the Lord Jesus Christ. What follows is not a political commentary. I write out of love; love for Christ, love for this Body, and love for the Truth that we confess together each Sunday in the Creed. I must confess, I also write out of a grief and anger that I believe is not mine alone, but belongs to the Faith itself.

On this very day, Orthodox Easter, the day the Eastern Church celebrates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, President Donald Trump posted to social media an AI-generated image of himself dressed in white robes, his hand laid upon the head of a sick man, a glowing orb of light in the other hand. The image was unmistakable in its visual intent: the white garments, the healing touch, the luminous power, these are the iconographic elements of Christ as Healer, drawn from two thousand years of Christian art and devotion. Unashamedly, this person placed himself inside the frame that belongs only to the Son of God.

The sheer arrogance of this act defies comprehension. A mortal man, a creature of dust, presumed to dress and function as the Holy One. The posture of our Redeemer was borrowed not in humility, but in breathtaking pomposity, as though the mantle of Christ were a costume to be worn for the moment and discarded at will. The timing compounds the offence. This image appeared on the holiest day of the Eastern Christian calendar, and within an hour of this same leader publicly attacking Pope Leo XIV for condemning the war in Iran, dismissing him with one hand, while assuming the posture of Christ with the other. When later challenged, the President claimed the image depicted him as a doctor, not as Christ. Seriously? No one can possibly believe such an inane explanation. The image speaks a blatantly obvious theological language of which, I am sure, was the creators intent. There is a further haughtiness in his defence, demonstrating the absurdity of the man who, having clothed himself in the image of our Saviour, expects the world to accept that he meant nothing by it. It is the hubris of one who believes himself above accountability, who treats the sacred with such casual presumption that he cannot even recognise the offence when it is named.

Many of the President's most resolute Christian supporters acknowledged the significance of this action. Voices from within his own movement called it "outrageous blasphemy," declared that "faith is not a prop," warned that "God shall not be mocked," and identified in it "an Antichrist spirit." When those who have championed a leader's cause are moved to invoke the language of blasphemy and Antichrist, we do well to listen. The conscience of the Church is speaking, and it is speaking across every political division. Let us be plain about what is at stake. This is not a question of left or right, of liberal or conservative. It is a question of whether we have the courage to say that a line has been crossed and will not be accepted.

Here is, for me, the mystery that shatters the illusion. The very shape of Christ's glory is humility. Jesus did not grasp or seize after it, nor did He put on the garments of power and demand recognition. No, He emptied himself and took the form of a servant. A political leader who grasps at the image of Christ does the precise opposite of what Christ did, and in doing so reveals, more clearly than any theological argument could, that he DOES NOT KNOW the one he mimics.

How then shall we respond? Not with hatred or the shrill fury of the culture war. Nor by demonising those who have been taken in, for the whole point of deception is that it deceives, and we are called to compassion even toward those whose sight has been clouded. We respond as Anglicans have always responded to idolatry: with grief, with theological clarity, and with prayer.

We grieve because something holy has been cheapened. The image of our Lord, the one who hung upon the cross for the life of the world, has been appropriated for purposes that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. That should hurt. If it does not, we should ask ourselves whether we have already lost something we cannot afford to lose.

We speak clearly because silence in the face of sacrilege is not peace. The Anglican tradition has never confused quietness with faithfulness. From Thomas Cranmer to Desmond Tutu, our tradition has insisted that there are moments when the Church must say plainly what is true and what is false, what is holy and what is profane. This is such a moment.

We pray because only God can cleanse what has been defiled, and only the Holy Spirit can sharpen our sight to distinguish the true Christ from every deception. We are not sufficient for these things. Our discernment is a gift, not an achievement, and we must ask for it daily.

And so, dear friends, I call upon us, this small, faithful community, to guard our hearts. Let us not be impressed by spectacle, nor be swayed by images that place a mortal creature in the position of the Immortal. Let us return, again and again, to Christ: the one who washed feet, who touched lepers, who wept at the tomb of his friend, who bled and died on a Roman cross, and then rose again not in triumph over his enemies but in forgiveness of them.

Let us be people whose worship is directed not toward what is loud, boastful, and arrogant, but toward what is true, humble, and holy. Let us be people who can say, with the simplicity of the baptized, "Jesus is Lord.”

And let us pray for President Trump. May he know that every creature, every ruler, every authority, every power, stands under the judgment of our God. Let us pray that he may come to know the Christ whose image he presumed to wear, and that in knowing Him, he may learn what every disciple must learn: that the way of Christ is not the way of spectacle but the way of the cross.

Almighty God, who alone art worthy of worship and before whom every creature must bow, preserve thy Church from the sin of idolatry. Keep our eyes fixed upon the true Christ, the Word made flesh, the Lamb who was slain, the King who reigns from the cross. Grant us wisdom to discern the true from the false, courage to speak when the holy is profaned, and charity to pray even for those who trespass against thy Name. Let not the image of thy Son be cheapened in our sight, nor his cross be made a tool of earthly power. Renew in us a holy fear, a right worship, and a love that will not be deceived. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.