Renaming Hormuz Strait

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Easter Sunday is the holiest day of the year for Christians; marking the resurrection of Jesus from his tomb in Golgotha, outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem, according to the scriptures. A mass held on that day by American-born Pope Leo XIV called for an end to wars, and for those who have weapons to lay them down. Every Pope always sends a very similar message from the Vatican every Easter Sunday.

President Trump’s MAGA Movement has a very large Christian base, made up of Evangelical Protestants, Baptists, Charismatics, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Conservative Catholics and other denominations such as Christian Nationalists, sometimes called MAGA-vangelicals, etc. The President has always seemed to be someone who worships power and money, rather than being a strict adherent to any particular faith. Somewhat miraculously, he has been able to rally “Religious Right” Republicans in a way not dissimilar to how Elmer Gantry was able to persuade multitudes of fundamentalist Christian followers in that enlightening eponymous novel by Sinclair Lewis, written 99 years ago.

Elmer Gantry was a charming but crooked hypocritical charlatan who preyed on the extremely gullible faithful congregation of an evangelical travelling tent tabernacle. He was eventually exposed as a complete fraud, but survived to become an ordained Methodist minister, still with a wandering eye for pretty ladies. So many of Elmer Gantry’s dubious personality traits are displayed by the present occupant of the Oval Office.

On Easter Sunday the White House relayed a social media message to the leadership of Iran which said, in part : “Open the F**kin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell. Just Watch. Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump”. That extremely direct missive was from a man not renowned for being a skilled diplomat, but with a penchant for renaming waterways.

Last year he suddenly made the Gulf Of Mexico into the Gulf Of America, so now wonder if the strategic choke-point in the Persian Gulf called the Strait of Hormuz will henceforth be known to all mariners as The F**kin’ Strait.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada