Those of you who read this blog know that I am a Trump supporter.  I am aware of his many warts, but I believe he truly wishes what is best for this nation and I approve of most of his actions in pursuit of American “greatness.”  Contrariwise, I am appalled by the anti-Christian bias and globalist views of his opponents.  I fear they would destroy the nation I love.

Even as he has my support, I must admit that Trump disappoints me terribly at times.  One of those disappointments occurred at this week’s National Prayer Breakfast.  I listened for the first quarter hour or so, but I could bear it no longer.  As I heard him speak, Trump did not pray.  Instead, he engaged in a litany of praise to himself and the accomplishments of his administration. It sounded more like Belshazzar’s Feast than a National Prayer Breakfast.

Despite his high regard for evangelical Christian friends, I fear that Trump doesn’t truly understand what Christianity is about. Contrast his words with the Rudyard Kipling poem Recessional, published during the diamond anniversary celebration of the reign of Queen Victoria.  At that time Great Britain ruled over a vast empire encompassing vast lands in southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Australia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.  

Kipling wrote:    

God of our fathers, known of old, Lord of our far-flung batttleline

Beneath whose awful hand we hold dominion over palm and pine:

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.

The tumult and the shouting dies; the captains and the king depart;

Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice, an humble and a contrite heart:

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.

Far-called our navies melt away, on dune and headland sinks the fire;

Lo all the pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tyre.

Judge of the nations, spare us yet, lest we forget, lest we forget.

Perhaps they did forget.  The British Empire is no more.

I wish that Donald Trump had read this poem at the prayer breakfast.  I didn’t stay around till the end of the breakfast coverage.   Perhaps he or another speaker expressed similar thoughts.  But I doubt it.