Blaming God

During the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign in Nevada, Republican candidate Sharron Angle’s pastor, in an interview with the RN&R, compared Angle to Esther, queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus. Esther’s husband did not know she was a Jew until Haman laid plans to kill all the Jews in the empire. She then revealed her own ethnicity and saved her people.

As we reported then (“First Amendment vs. First Commandment,” Oct. 7, 2010), Angle’s Reno pastor, John Reed, argued that Angle and other Christian women candidates that year would save their people.

Esther seems to get quite a workout in politics. Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton are among those who have cited her as inspiration. And now she has been invoked on behalf of Donald Trump.

Trump spiritual advisor Paula White, pastor of a Florida megachurch, was on a panel on the Jim Bakker Show when she said that Trump, like Esther, has been chosen to carry out God’s plan:

“Because God says that he raises up and places all people in places of authority. It is God who raises up a king. It is God that sets one down. When you fight against the plan of God, you are fighting against the hand of God.”

Princeton Theological Seminary old testament (Tanakh) scholar Dennis Olson responded in an interview with the Washington Post, “Esther’s story is one about protecting persecuted ethnic minorities, while the president has won support from white supremacist groups and seeks to crack down on immigration.”