This Lent, there's plenty to repent

Amid Iran war, Christians who voted for Trump have reflecting to do

- GUSTAVO ARELLANO

PATRICK SEMANSKY Associated Press PRESIDENT Trump, who has long wrapped himself in the Christian mantle, brandishes a Bible in 2020.

We're in the early weeks of Lent, the 40 days when Christians are called to rededicate themselves to and the Trump good administration seems to be having a good time making its war with Iran seem like a bunch of tweens playing a game of "Call of Duty." Where Jesus called on believers to go through life as meekly as possible, the White House keeps pumping out social media posts mixing footage of American forces blowing up the Iranian regime with everything from SpongeBob SquarePants to Iron Man to "Grand Theft Auto." While Proverbs warned "every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord," Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth-who loves to flash his bad tattoos that reference the Crusades gives superlative-drenched speeches on the supposed glories of this war that make him sound more bloodthirsty than Count Dracula.

Even though Christ mandated that people not loudly pray in public "like the hypocrites," President Trump gladly let a gaggle of pastors lay hands over him in the Oval Office last week as one intoned, "Continue to give our president the strength that he needs to lead our nation as we come back to one nation under God." Which God: Yahweh or Trump? During last month's National Prayer Breakfast, the president bragged that because of him, “religion's back now hotter than ever before." Perhaps the most un-Christian man to ever serve as commander in chief has continually wrapped himself in the mantle of Jesus and too many Christians have ignored the Good Book's repeated warnings against false prophets and cheered him on.