by ilex

In response to consecutive nights of protesting, including some rioting, in response to the death of George Floyd, Trump threatened military action. Then, once the police cleared the streets before him with tear gas and rubber bullets, Trump walked some 100 metres from the White House to the “Church of the Presidents.” As he held the Bible aloft, black cover stark against the white-walled church, the reporter asked the question, “Is that your Bible?”

“It is a Bible,” was the President’s answer. A curiously, insightful response. In the change of words — from possessive pronoun (“your”), to indefinite article (“a”) — there is a kind of depersonalisation that takes place. Suddenly, the Bible lacks a human companion. If not “your” Bible, then whose?