There’s an image going round social media comparing a photo of the way Donald Trump held the Bible in his photo stunt the other day to an image of Adolf Hitler holding a book.

This may have been photo-shopped, but the thumb grip does look spookily similar.

I’ve thought over the last few years that comparisons between Trump, however much of a narcissistic egomaniac he is, and the Nazi Fuhrer by the president’s detractors were at best lazy and facile and at worst grotesquely misplaced.

But after watching the dark and disturbing events unfolding in the States this week, including one image of an emotional and tearful young black woman uttering the word “revolution”, I wonder if there are at least some uncomfortable parallels to be considered.

The Nazis of the 1930s burned the Hebrew bible. Then I watched in 2020, Donald Trump holding aloft the good book in a sickeningly disrespectful justification of State violence.

Honestly, as a Christian, my heart sinks at both examples of sacrilege.

In Nazi Germany, there were small sections of Protestant churches who were enamoured by Hitler’s National Socialism and some even called themselves “the storm troopers of Jesus Christ”. They were fooled, no doubt, by the strong leadership which would allow their country to become great again after being on its knees after World War One.

Hard to imagine, isn’t it, that people who follow a faith based on love, forgiveness, justice and mercy could follow the evil of Nazism.

I don’t feel I’m exaggerating when I say that it turned my stomach to see Trump’s stormtroopers beating a path through peaceful protestors to allow him to stroll arrogantly through a path to walk from the White House down to St. John’s Episcopal Church, Washington, not to pray or advocate healing, but to promote himself.

Surely, I thought, everyone including other Christians would see what a monstrous misuse of the Bible this was.

Well, what is even scarier is that, in doing what he did, Trump was playing to an electoral base that includes millions of Christians who lap it up.

“God bless President Trump” tweeted one supporter, “God knew we needed your fight.”

The deep division in America right now isn’t just one of race, but of many inequalities. So the reaction to Trump’s Bible photo op, was markedly and deeply divided and divisive.

Bishop Mariann Budde, who is responsible for the church, said: “The President just used a Bible and a church of my diocese as a backdrop for a message antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything that our church stands for. To do so, he sanctioned the use of tear gas by police officers in riot gear to clear the church yard.”

She was articulating her outrage and it was what I and many others felt, and yet Trump supporters hit back directly.

“God is pleased he (Trump) held His word like a sword and so am I.”

“How disgusting it is to see Democrats, the Fakenews and even some church leaders blasting Donald Trump for showing us the Bible is important to him. God help this nation.”

Surely, the American people won’t vote this man back in? Or will they?

While the image of Trump holding the Bible is a striking one, it is far from the main issue in America right now; but it is symptomatic of how this president has caused such a chasm of division in his country, and indeed taken advantage of it for his own ends. “He’s more interested in power than in principle,” said his election opponent, Joe Biden.

In his column in the Sunday Times this week, Matthew Syed addressed the dangers of the widening cracks in society whereby people are in two ideological camps; the contradiction being that the digital age means that everyone knows far more about the other person’s point of view than ever.

Division in the western world is rife; the scars of Brexit haven’t healed in Britain and people in all sorts of arguments get into a trench and stay there. Sometimes it’s not even ideology, it’s the haves and have nots.

“Socrates argued that when citizens assess arguments on merit rather than through the prism of ideology, democracy flourishes,” wrote Matthew Syed.

Great point, but even Socrates 2,000 years ago wouldn’t have imagined how a Trump would cynically exploit division and create a siege mentality among his support base by identifying “them” as the enemy. “Them” are variously Mexicans who were mostly “drug dealers and rapists”, to the “blacks and Hispanics” whom he blamed for the “overwhelming amount of crime” in U.S. cities.

There’s China, for the Covid crisis, to cover his disastrous handling of the crisis. And internally, his dishonest opponents and weak Democrat Governors.

And, of course, the “fake news” media with their nasty questions became the enemy of the people. Do you think it’s coincidence that tooled up police feel emboldened to arrest media people on no pretext, or even physically attack them. Trump is their enabler.

Most of us who were horrified when Trump got elected did not expect it to end well; but my goodness how quickly the day of reckoning has come and America is facing into a dangerous abyss. Racism is embedded into American history, and has risen to the surface periodically over the years. The anger and frustration of the black community today is, according to one scribe, “a reminder of how little we’ve grown as a country from our original sin of slavery.”

It’s encouraging to see people of different race come together to raise their voices against injustice, and of course to hear many police officers express solidarity with the downtrodden.

Nobody could condone some of the criminality around the edges of protest.

But in the scenario of long-running racism and inequality generally, Trump’s response is to accuse protestors of “domestic terror” and to quell it with military might. He is exactly the wrong president at the wrong time and it is worrying as the world watches almost helplessly. Gestures to say #blacklivesmatter seem forlorn, but are really important.

America is a wonderful country, where many people have gone from this island to make a great life. They include my aunt, who emigrated as a young woman and, now in her 90s, she still loves the States. Anywhere that I’ve been in the U.S. has been full of fabulous people in great places of culture.

They are people of great faith, too, many different faiths and none.

If Trump really wanted to use the Bible properly, he’d be better using the words within it, with its message of loving your neighbour regardless of their skin colour, healing division, and making peace.