‘When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.’
1 Corinthians 13:11-12
The Sunday Times’ choice of their ‘Newman’s View’ cartoon on page 23 of the Easter Sunday edition spoke volumes about the concern over Trump's erratic behaviour. ‘Throwing toys out of the pram’ is understandable among small children but, by the time someone is aged nearly 80 (Donald Trump's birthday is on 14th June) — or indeed a quarter of that age — you really do expect to see more measured decision-taking.
What really matters is the immense power he controls — not just his dictatorial style, but the hardware that is at his disposal. We debate earnestly over whether young people under the age of 16 should be allowed to have access to social media in order to reduce the risks to which they are exposed, but the existential risks to which we are all of us exposed by this man's epic fury is in a totally different league.
Of course, it's difficult dealing with autocratic regimes such as Russia and Iran; but we have to find other ways of taking things forward than simply resorting to their own tactics in response.
It's good to see Pope Leo calling for peace and for finding solutions other than waging war in his Easter address. There will be huge numbers of Americans, both in the United States and across the world, who are horrified at the chaos and destruction brought about by Donald Trump and his team in Washington at present.
Meanwhile the Nobel Prize committee must be so relieved that they were not beguiled into giving this man their Peace Prize, which he had coveted so much — but has now completely contradicted.
The only hope on the horizon is that the outcome of the mid-term elections in the United States will be so devastating for Trump as to remove his executive-ordering capability — but there are still over six months before we reach that stage.
Will King Charles be able to calm the epic fury of this erratic and child-like President? It's a tall order, but we must hope and pray for some progress there.
In the meantime, even those Iranians who desperately want to see regime change in their country will be wondering whether there will be anything left to return to by the time Trump has returned their country ‘to the Stone Age’.
It's worth repeating the call we made in June last year for a Global Assembly for Faith, in order to help us find solutions to the quagmire of religiously-inspired wars: including both the Middle East and Ukraine. It specifically stated that representatives would not reflect political allegiances, and would not have any role within their different national governance structures.
However, it is rare to find interpretations of faith which have not been boxed in with political dogma: arguably the only example is Roman Catholicism, due to the independence of the Vatican. The relatively new concept of ‘Christian nationalism’ is an overt example of this toxic twinning, notwithstanding Jesus’s clear guidance to the contrary (‘Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s, and unto God that which is God's’).
Henry VIII lost no time in forcing the convergence, however, and Trump and Hegseth are walking firmly in his footsteps by ignoring the secular foundations — and its welcome to all faiths and none — of the United States. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill have formed a very unholy alliance in waging war on their neighbours, and it is the interweaving of autocracy and Islam which has driven Iran to the extremism which has provoked the current Middle Eastern conflict.
Faith and national governance are a toxic mix which is more often than not used as an excuse for hate and violence. If we could find a more reliable basis for global, as opposed to national, leadership, we might be able to enable co-existence of different interpretations of faith without forced national twinning.
However as we commented on 5th January, global leadership requires participation for all, not domination; and we are a long way from achieving that. It is, none the less, a very worthwhile pursuit and you'll hear more about how it could be achieved on Share Radio in the months and years ahead.
Meanwhile, who will be able to restrain Trump from his toddler temper tantrums? Will it be stock markets, the oil price, King Charles — or do we have to wait until the mid-term elections?
It might be worth drawing attention to another pair of verses from that same chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians in which he says, ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs’.
If Donald Trump can be persuaded to put the way of childhood behind him, perhaps he should consider carefully this definition of love which, as we know, is the nature of our Conscious Creator.
Gavin Oldham OBE
Share Radio