Recall that Trump’s only limit on his actions is his own morality
Head for an Eye Is US Official Policy
MARCO RUBIO: Iran’s policy is an eye for an eye. The president’s policy is a head for an eye. Honestly. That’s what it’s going to be. They’re going to pay a very heavy price. They are going to suffer more.
An Eye for an Eye
Exodus 21:23–25
23 And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,
24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.Leviticus 24:19–20
19 And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him;
20 Breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.Deuteronomy 19:21
And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
Law of Retaliation
“Eye for an eye” (lex talionis, or the law of retaliation) was primarily about proportional, limited justice administered by courts—not personal vengeance or literal maiming.
The principle of “eye for an eye, tooth for tooth” (found in Exodus 21:23–25, Leviticus 24:19–20, and Deuteronomy 19:21) established that:
- Punishment or compensation must match the severity of the harm.
- It set a ceiling on retaliation: you could not take more than what was taken (no “life for an eye,” no wiping out a whole family for one injury).
- It was a judicial guideline for judges and authorities, not a license for individuals to exact revenge. The texts place it in the context of court cases and legal proceedings.
It shifted justice from private, emotional vengeance toward regulated, measured outcomes under communal or state authority.
MAGA Super-Christians
I am not a bible-thumping religious person to say the least.
But Trump, Rubio, and Hegseth have all set themselves up as super-Christians.
Yet, we now have an official policy of revenge that says a head for an eye.
With that, let’s look at the New Testament.
Matthew 5:38–39
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Trump Feuds with The Pope
The Man Who Replaced Jesus
At some point in the last week, Donald Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ. On Easter. On his own social media platform. And then, when people quite reasonably lost their minds about it, he deleted it and claimed it was actually meant to show him as a doctor. With a Red Cross connection. Which he supports.
Right? Of course he doesn’t.
The President of the United States cannot, apparently, tell the difference between himself dressed as the Son of God and himself dressed as a GP.
The backlash was not, as Trump’s people might hope, confined to the usual liberal hand-wringers. His own base turned on him. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has spent years defending behaviour that would get anyone else sectioned, posted that she “completely condemns” the image and is “praying against it.”
When you’ve lost Marjorie Taylor Greene on a religious symbolism question, you have genuinely achieved something remarkable.
What makes this more than just another Friday in American politics is the context. The image went up in the same period Trump was publicly attacking Pope Leo, calling him illegitimate and going after the Catholic Church with the kind of fury normally reserved for trade partners and federal judges.
Republicans privately warned this would cost him Catholic votes. He posted the Jesus image anyway.
Last year, when Pope Francis died, Trump posted an AI image of himself as the Pope. Now he’s Jesus. One wonders, with some genuine curiosity, what comes next.
On April 13, 2026 CNN reported Trump Is Feuding with a Pope — Again.
Late Sunday, Trump lashed out at Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Iran war in a lengthy social media post, which:
- Called the pope “WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy.”
- Claimed Leo was only elected pope “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
- Said Leo should “get his act together as Pope, use Common Sense, stop catering to the Radical Left, and focus on being a Great Pope, not a Politician.”
- Said Leo was hurting the Catholic Church.
A member of Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission, Bishop Robert Barron, called the post “entirely inappropriate and disrespectful” and said “the President owes the Pope an apology.”
Trump then took things to a whole new level by posting an apparently AI-generated fake image depicting himself as a Christ-like figure healing a sick person.
It’s an image that many critics, including some who supported Trump, like the Knights Templar International, labeled blasphemous. Trump later deleted the post and on Monday claimed he thought it depicted him as a doctor, which it did not. (“I don’t know too many doctors that have glowing hands,” Father James Martin, a Jesuit priest, quipped to CNN.”)
Pentagon Holds Good Friday Service Just for Protestants
On April 3, I noted Pentagon Holds Good Friday Service Just for Protestants, Catholics Excluded
Protestants Only Good Friday Service
The Huffington Post has details on a Good Friday Service Just for Protestants
The Pentagon has invited more than 3,500 employees to attend a Good Friday service at its in-house chapel. Except it’s only for Protestants, not Catholics.
“Just a friendly reminder: There will be a Protestant Service (No Catholic Mass) for Good Friday today at the Pentagon Chapel,” reads a Friday email sent by Air Force leadership, a copy of which was shared by an employee.
“I guess so the Catholics know their kind ain’t welcome,” said this employee, who requested anonymity to speak about internal communications. “It’s so ridiculous.”
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed it is not hosting another, separate religious service for Catholic employees.
“The Protestant service is the only service scheduled in the Pentagon chapel today,” they said in a statement.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a far-right evangelical Christian, has tried to infuse his religious views into Pentagon activities.
Last May, he brought his Tennessee pastor and controversial spiritual advisor Brooks Potteiger to the Pentagon to lead a prayer service, during which he hailed President Donald Trump as a divinely appointed leader. Hegseth said at the time he wanted to make his prayer service a monthly tradition.
Forget About Separation of Church and State
From the White House Faith Office to a task force to “eradicate anti-Christian bias,” Christian Nationalism isn’t fringe anymore, it’s federal policy. We break down the players, the playbook, and what happens when the government decides whose God counts.
Trump
“They say separation between church and state, they told me. I said, all right, let’s forget about that for one time.”
Please note that freedom of religion also includes freedom from religion.
Trump and Hegseth want to promote state religion, no doubt incorporating the new religious theory of a head for an eye.
Some of Us Want to Mind Our Own Business
Thessalonians 4:11–12
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.Peter 4:15
But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters.Thessalonians 3:11–12
11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.
These passages emphasize living quietly, focusing on one’s own responsibilities, avoiding meddling or busybodiness, and not comparing one’s path to others’.
Modern translations often render the key ideas more directly as “mind your own business”.
A Time for Peace, I Swear It’s Not Too Late
Why Is the Strait Blocked?
Because Trump is too busy minding Israel’s business instead of US business.
The strait was open until Trump closed it.
Trump tore up Obama’s deal that Trump’s own secretary of defense and Chair of the Joint Chief of Staff testified under oath in Congress that Iran was honoring.
Trump worked out a MOU that would open the strait. But Trump decided he did not like that either.
Note that Trump Signs a Nuclear Deal with Saudi, Demands Huge Changes One Day Later
Oops. Trump made a stupid deal. So now he won’t honor it.
Cheese Was a “Key Achievement” of Trump’s USMCA Trade Agreement
Please recall my March 9, 2025 post Cheese Was a “Key Achievement” of Trump’s USMCA Trade Agreement
Trump is complaining about Canada’s cheese tariffs. In 2018, he was bragging about cheese.
Trump tore up his own USMCA deal. He tore up his own deal with Saudi Arabia. He tore up the MOU his team negotiated.
He’s not exactly happy with his own deals is he?
And now to get his way by force, Rubio says “The president’s policy is a head for an eye.”
Trump’s Morality
Please recall Trump says his own morality is the only check on his power.
For discussion, please see We Are Now Bearing the Poisoned Fruit of Trump’s Self-Proclaimed Morality
“I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the president of the United States.”
Here’s what to expect as a result: Trump Is About to Suffer through an Important Lesson in War-Related Tail Risk
Addendum
A friend comments: The Bible says that adulterers should be stoned to death. Hegseth is a serial adulterer and paid off at least one woman he assaulted. Has he offered to stand up against the wall?
Hegseth that he is a Christian but should give no quarter. That violates US Navy policy, the military code , murder statues and, in those cases, the UN Charter and law of the SEA UNCLOS.
Applicable Passages
- Leviticus 20:10: “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
- Deuteronomy 22:22: “If a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die, the man who lay with the woman, and the woman. So you shall purge the evil from Israel.”
- Deuteronomy 22:23–24: “If there is a betrothed virgin, and a man meets her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.”
Christians and West have battled the Islamic political death cult for centuries. They like the Natzies want to conquer the world, The Iranians especially have spent billions to accomplish this goal. Those politicians in the West are ignorant of history and invited the invaders into their countries are only now being forced by their citizens to recognize their mistake and threat they face
Rubio will hang with rest before this is all over
Allow me to Correct Rubio’s Speech for him as I am sure that he got mixed up:
🤘“I am offering MY Head for an Iranian Eye.”
In the context of the anchor baby’s statement a head for an eye. Iran has the right to take revenge for the murder of their people including heads of state their families and school children. Who could blame them for killing thousands or hundreds of thousands of Americans. Is it only by their good graces that we haven’t seen a biological or chemical attack on our population? Who is the antagonist, who is the truly evil party in this engagement?
I think back to that massive swerve in history, when Rome converted to Christianity. All of a sudden a pacifist cult got the whole new job of operating a government, with law enforcement and war. So, inherently involving administration of force, of violence. And that puzzle, of course, bedevils any purportedly Christian-based culture, ever since then. Squaring that circle is a subject that has fascinated me for years. The later Catholic church architects were philosophical geniuses in their maneuverings with that.
Notice also Jesus’s quoted admonition of rendering onto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and onto God what is God’s, the origin of the church/state separation (which so many Americans perhaps honor in the breach, or in Trump’s case, casually tromp across and back).
Islam didn’t cross that bridge, because Muhammad was the Prophet and the head of state all in one. He was running the cops and the army, while reciting the Quran, live.
What kind of moronic statement is that?
Literally everyone’s actions are limited by their morality. That’s like saying Trump’s ability to breathe is limited by his long capacity.
I’ll take my geopolitical discourse and religious sermons from others who know what they are talking about, thanks.
Next Mish offers his fashion tips, and a really simple recipe for chicken marsala that’ll make you the envy of the neighborhood.
Are you saying that Trump’s and Rubio’s recent public statements about their decisions and war actions, using specific language tied to classic statements of religion and morality, and their own twists thereon, cannot be responded to? By citing the originals these fellows were referring to? Thank you comrade!
“Literally everyone’s actions are limited by their morality.”
Not true at all. It is also limited by the fear of humiliation when breaching societal norms and punishment from breaking laws. Only psychopaths are limited by their own morality.
Israel’s official policy is to hit back harder than they are hit. Trump is just a ventriloquist dummy.
And yet Israel has constantly been attacked since its founding. Maybe they should rethink their policy. Of course the Zionists were never the brightest of the bunch.
These are people who are OK with voting for a rapist and suspected pedophile- you can’t appeal to their ethics or morals, because, well, they don’t have any.
Any God fearing Christian should look at this and the apostates in these comments and feel disgusted. This is where we’ve let the religion go. Slobbering freaks and their sister wives proudly play the face of a religion built on everything they preach against. If this is not reversed soon, there won’t be many Christians left, kids already turn their nose up at it. For good reason too. We have a lot of restitutions to make.
what a defeatist comment. Christ is and will always be king.
Christ is a nonsensical fairytale.
But anyone discussing ethics or logic can agree that professing a set of values, to mislead others, discardable at convenience, while practicing its opposite, is a problem.
Sure, just not for these sick freaks calling him one now thinking they’ll get favors. He owes you nothing, especially not reading comprehension it seems.
You would buy anything….
A King with just idiot subjects.
Killing people bombing public infrastructure is not a winning strategy.
US bombing campaign in Vietnam war was more than the whole WW2 bombing combined and fought with – The peak number of U.S. military personnel stationed in Vietnam at one time was 543,400 in April 1969, while a total of 2,709,918 Americans served in-country throughout the entirety of the conflict – and South Vietnamese army and over 20 years. But lost the war.
Iranian fighting force army is still intact. Are they going to surrender? No way.
Can somebody explain how is US going to win the war except destroying the
infrastructure and killing people.
It just shows the US administration’s cunning ruthless inferior morality.
US leadership role in the world is fading fast.
US strategy to appease Israel only. Not for US’s interest.
Welcome to the multipolar world.
It just shows the US administration’s cunning ruthless inferior morality.
US leadership role in the world is fading fast.
US strategy to appease Israel only. Not for US’s interest.
I think these points are all true. The question becomes, what as Americans citizens are we willing to do about it?
What happened to the idealism, the bravery and the pride that caused fifty six leaders of a movement that they knew or believed would lead to their death and confiscation of their property to sign a Declaration of Independence? Where are those people in 2026?
Amen to that
In the United States, we have a judgement problem not a tolerance problem. Hosea 4:6 in that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and judgement.”
Thanks, Mish, for bringing up this topic and I totally agree with you that the United States is not the Kingdom of God. On the overhand, the United States is the best representative of Christian beliefs in the world.
I believe this is why we are the best and most successful country in the world. We best emulate these Godly principles. The US is the fruition of the blessings of Abraham (Gen 12:1-3) through Manasseh; a great nation along with Ephraim; a company of great nations. Gen (48:)
We, as Christians, have a problem recognizing that the same God who taught the principles of turning the check is also the God of the Old Testament (No one had seen the Father), the man on the cross and is now the King of Kings. The next time the world sees him he will be coming on a white horse with a robe dipped in blood. Throwing people alive into a fiery pit and killing hundreds of thousands with a “sword”. (Rev 19) Does that sound like turning the other cheek?
Until Christ returns, we must exercise judgement to what is good and evil. The early church had issues with this in I Cor:5 with allowing a clear sin to persist and misinterpreting tolerance. The whole topic is best summed up in Isa 5:20 about when we pervert the teaching of God. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”
The United States represents the best and freest place to allow you to “Choose Life” of your own free will. Duet 30:19. The Iranians are choosing death by their actions – they have already killed 50,000 of their own people.
P.S. Mish, please be careful with the stoning thing because as you judge so you be judged. Mt 7:1
And here we have a man quoting the bible up and down without a single piece of context. Boy, it must feel good being able to write the bible however you feel! The tolerance of Christianity overextended at letting dogs like you past the door. Suddenly, it became cool to invent your own Jesus and worship him as you please. Now savages feel fit to try to browbeat God fearing Christians with their own book because we let splinter groups genuinely profess slavery as a God given right (“Southern” Baptists).
People like you will not see heaven. Your place is not to judge, but you will be judged. I hope you’ll be pleased with that when you get to explain shit like this to the big man. You were told to make peace, you beg for war. You were told to love others, yet you only spew hatred. No one will miss you, and at the end of the day that is on you and your choices.
I quote the bible for context so that those who are interested may look for themselves. The bible interpets itself and truth can be found by looking here a little and there a little. The relationship of a christian is only between God and themselves and no one measures up. Our humanity can only be pure through his sacrafice. I encourage you to read your bible and stop letting other people tell you what the bible says. How can Catholics, Lutherns, Southern Baptists and other protestants be right? Bonus Lesson: God allowed slavery because of the (evil) hardness men not because he created it. Christians and God abhors slavery because it is not free choice.
Read your bible and find out that Christians are not going to heaven but God is coming back to rule on earth (Rev 20:4)
I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They[a] had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
If good men do nothing then evil persists. With great power of the United States (given by God) comes great responsibility. The commission is not only to love others but also to protect others that can not help themselves. Are you trying to tell me that God is displeased with keeping evil at bay? Try being a christian or jew in Iran.
There are Christians and Jews in Iran. Q: When God is ruling on Earth, will He give a guy a break on a parking ticket? I thought Jesus said “My kingdom is not of this world.”
Jesus saves, but he couldn’t do it on my wages.
Oh even better! All real doctrine is wrong because all of it tells you you’re retarded! A hallmark stance of babbling nutjob Jesus whacks.
Fun fact: Revalation is a gnostic text written decades after Jesus died that wasn’t in the bible for hundreds of years after. That’s the only source you can cite because it’s a book by a schizo for schizos that doesn’t line up with anything else in the Bible.
More fun fact: You are trying to interpret said book literally, which was not a thing prior to the 1800s. I bet you think the Earth is 6000 years old too. Why? Because you don’t know shit about theology, you just like to hear the sound of your own farts.
The indoctrination is strong with this one, Skywalker.
“they have already killed 50,000 of their own people.”
Ah, so the US, Israel, and Perfidious Albion start a color revolution, it doesn’t work, then they blame the Iranian government for deaths that resulted from stopping the Western-engineered coup.
And then you spread their misinformation.
Got proof that 50000 people were killed *by the Iranian government*?? According to Grok, the highest verified numbers are roughly 6,500–7,000+ deaths (mostly protesters, plus some children, civilians, and government forces) as of reports in February 2026, with thousands more cases under investigation. And that is from HRANA (Human Rights Activists News Agency).
Anything above those numbers are estimates from the same people who initiated the coup. And the “estimates” are all over the place.
The 50,000 killed claim is also being pushed by exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi (citing activist reports).
Hmmmmmm…..where have we seen this playbook before?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah_testimony
Please stop spreading misinformation.
Meanwhile, the US did not attack Iran today. Hard to know why.
Is it because we are running low on munitions?
Or we are running low on fuel?
Or is Trump realizing these new attacks are not achieving anything?
Or are the US allies in the region telling the US to stop, since Iran keeps striking back at them.
Or is it merely a pause, while we plan a major escalation?
Yes
All of the above
wow, Mr Shedlock, this is great. I like a fellow that can quote ancient source. I’ve been reading about how revolutionary movements actually operate. Christianity might be the primus canoncical revolutionary movement in all of human history. I suddenly realized, Iran is going to win this insane war – same as the Jews defeated Hitler. You win by not being expunged. Trump – insane meglomaniac as he is – will have to erase and kill all Iranians. He might kill half of them, perhaps even 70% – but to effect a viable genocide – you have to erase all breeding pairs. And that will prove to be impossible. The Iranian war is pure, absolute classical madness. It is textbook insanity. We studied Putin, and we know why he hates Ukraine. Trump seeks to destroy Iran, because he thought it would be easy, and give him an easy military win. But all it will offer, is a big body count. And that fact will destroy him, maybe. This current path is madness. And now, we are seeing more kayfabeh from this fellow, where he tries to pretend to be Jesus. This is perfect. I need to channel M. Breton, and spool up the New Surealism. It’s here, it’s now, and we will see the cities burn very soon… Ich bin ein Cockroach. 🙂 😀
We studied Putin, and we know why he hates Ukraine.
? Please illustrate any sources or citations that support your studied conclusion
His sources are western propaganda. Russia offered Ukraine peace with a semi-autonomous Lugansk and Donetsk within Ukraine in exchange for recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and legal status for the Russian language (the primary one within Ukraine). That’s not hate. Ukraine was about to take that deal in Istanbul until the US sent Boris Johnson to tell Zelenskyy to reject it. The US preferred a million dead Ukrainians while “weakening Russia”. That’s hatred.
Excellent. Eye for eye is not a call to retribution.
It was a maxim customary throughout the ANE (Ancient Near East).
It occurs not only in the Bible, but also the Quran.
The Codex Hammurabi (1750 BC), the first more or less complete law code we know, includes the maxim about the eye and the tooth. Focus is on recompense of damages suffered, not punishment.
In modern terms, it is known as proportionality, and is important to criminal justice, self-defense, and the law of war. The Codex also asserts the principle of presumption of innocence. Only fools quarrel with such first principles hallowed by millennia.
Why an eye and a tooth? These were graduated examples of grievous bodily harm. An eye is serious; a tooth less so. Cases were not adjudicated by actual maiming, but were normally settled with money. Exodus 21:26-27 uses the same pronoun. The sense of for (under/back) implies replace or return. In this instance, bonded laborers were to be set free instead of compensation for the loss of an eye/tooth.
Before lex talionis, it was like, if you take my eye out, I’ll kill your whole family.
“A head for an eye”
I call this the Genghis Khan (and family) approach.
I like it!
If we are going to fight a war, then we need to be serious about doing so.
No worries about civilians and whether they have adequate food and water and child care.
Trample the weak and hurdle the dead!
Sometimes I think this account is real….just horrendous.
Then there is a comment like this that makes you realise it is just posted to bate people.
What on earth are you….got to be Russian state sponsored.
Interestingly, Genghis Khan was the last military leader to defeat the Persians in battle. He did so because he invaded from the northeast, the one direction not encumbered with mountains and desert. The death of his grandson in one battle enraged him to the degree that he decided to just kill everybody in every city he encountered. Persia was a world center of education and the arts before Genghis. A devastated region of poverty, death and ignorance afterward. It would take Persia centuries to recover.
when does the USA officially change its name to JUSA?
Sky Wizard followers are insane, period. Trying to make sense of them is a waste of time/
Insane or maybe just gullible, today’s fearful, stupid people that think people two thousand years ago that didn’t know anything about science actually knew how the earth, sun and the moon were created and why their life expectancy was only 35 years. Yep, those folks who were ignorant and wrong about almost everything should be followed. Good luck with that.
People gain their beliefs based upon trust. As children we trust our parents and believe whatever they teach us. Then they hand us over to teachers and preachers, whom we assume only tell us the truth. By adulthood we tend to trust successful people and, ironically, people who believe what we already believe.
We have religion only because our parents had religion. Very few people ever change from their religion of birth to a different religion. It is also why Europeans are primarily Christian, and people of the Middle East are primarily Muslim: their parents were the same.
So he wants to promote disproportionate punishments for crimes. Yes. He’s certainly demonstrating that. I thought that was one of the cornerstones of civilization.
As the leader of a wannabe theocracy, he’s completely amoral. All religions have morals, even Satanism. Trump’s church does not.
Christians? Hahahahaha! Every member of this administration is going to hell for eternity.
Christians do in fact go to hell since Christians can be good or evil.
If the spirit of God resides in a person, they will not be going to hell. Many who claim to be Christian have never truely repented and been saved.
“.. in fact …” ROFLMAO
There is no hell or heaven for that matter. If a murder killed a family after raping the women, and torturing the men stating “the devil made me do it” we would call him evil and punishment him if we could. When doing the same thing to Job god’s only excuse was “the devil made me do it”.
Were they Christians, they’d turn the other cheek (Mt. 5:38) and love their enemies (Mt. 5:43). But what does Jesus, the creator of life and of the whole universe. know about running a country?
Religion is the Opium of the masses.
When Trump leverages religion early we’re all screwed.
Whose files are Epstein’s?
It the US was truly a Christian nation, it would not have king herod as its president as well as characters who surround him.
The US is no longer a Christian nation since allowing the rise of Sodom and Gomorrah. It’s debatable which city is on which coast.
“After you take out someone’s eye, cut off his head, too.”
Book of Armaments, 6:66
Then steal his shoes and walk around in them telling everyone how he victimized you.
That’s why God bestowed the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch unto Eric Idle.
Thank you for the memory.